When Crypt of the NecroDancer first released on PC years ago, I was a bit interested in it. A game where you can only move on the musical beats was very unique concept (It's similar but different to what I consider a rhythm game.) One reason behind my interest was because it's developed by DanganRonpa's developer: Spike Chunsoft. It wasn't a priority so I forgot about it shortly after.
When I was looking for Nintendo Switch games few months ago, I discovered Cadence of Hyrule which is a Zelda spin-off of that musical game, and put it on my Wishlist. It wasn't until few days ago that I tried the demo of the game. This first impression is based on that Demo.
Cadence of Hyrule is a cross over game between Crypt of the NecroDancer and The Legend of Zelda, using the gameplay system of the former, with characters, themes and music from the latter franchise. The game is reminiscent of older Legend of Zelda titles and it gives me A Link to the Past vibes.
The premise is that while you can move freely when not in a fight. When there are enemies around, you can only move/attack at the beat of the music. Failing to match the beat will cause the player character to not make the action, and might cause you to get attacked by the enemy.
There's a mode of the game called Fixed Beat Mode which allows you to not follow the beat of the music and enemies will only move when you do. I think it's a unique mode though I'm too prideful to fall back to it!
The demo/game starts with you playing as Cadence, the heroine of the the original game, before giving you the chance to play as Link from the legend of Zelda. The first section were you play as Link is very similar to Zelda's SNES game: A Link to the Past's first area. Even the music is a remix of that level's.
I also like the fact that they acknowledge that Cadence is from a different world than Link. I wonder if this will be an important plot point in the actual story though.
Playing the demo for about half an hour I realized how I suck at this. I missed the beat enough times for the game to ask me if I would like to play in Fixed Beat Mode which I politely refused. I decided to learn matching the beats instead, and I can see I improved a bit since then.
I like how the need to match the beat adds a feel of urgency to everything you do. Especially if there are enemies close-by. If it was a normal game, you'll have to move as fast as you can. In Cadence of Hyrule, you must time your movement so it matches the beat for it to happen, if not, you'll get attacked instead, and I like that~
There's a Lot of Fun to be Had
So I enjoyed the demo of Cadence of Hyrule. I won't buy the full game even though I can see it's something I would enjoy. (I already have a massive backlog on top of the games I have yet to buy for Switch.)
By the way, while writing this, I read Wikipedia's page of this game, and it was amazing to see how this game was developed from an idea of a mere DLC into a full fledged crossover title!