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The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (3DS) Hands-on Preview

by Daan Koopman - September 28, 2015, 7:00 am EDT
Total comments: 1

A beautifully weird game that excels in its multiplayer elements.

Let me be real for a second and state that I am not the biggest The Legend of Zelda fan. I like playing the games, but that is mostly it. There's nothing hateful there, I can see the perfection in the games that I have played. Now, having played With The Wind Waker HD, A Link Between Worlds and Majora's Mask 3D, the series is riding on quite a high for me as of late. I finished and adored all of those games, though they all have a single thing in common: they are all single-player experiences. When it was time to explore Tri Force Heroes, was I ready for such a twist in what I've come to know? The answer is, surprisingly, very much yes.

As a lover of the weird and abstract, Tri Force Heroes immediately felt like a breath of fresh air to me. Its camp story tells the tale about a kingdom that is obsessed with fashion. Hytopia, as the kingdom is called, is mostly known for their princess Styla. She loves outfits and stylish looks from all manner of places, and she was adored by many. I say ''was'', mostly because a cursed gift from an evil witch made her wear a leotard, which she can't remove by hand. The king of the land, King Tuft, is desperate and sents out a call for heroes to come to aid.

This is where you come in. You become one of the new legendary Totem Heroes, who must stop the witch and free the princess from her magic. This isn't some highly intelligent plot, but I found myself enjoying the writing that the game had. There aren't extremely high stakes involved and the characters do their part to make the sillyness shine. There aren't many cutscenes, outside of a cute opening cinematic, but that is fine in this case. The plot serves a simple purpose and that is to give the game some meaning.

That being said, there isn't really a reason given why three people that look like Link are walking about. There is some personalisation in giving your character an own name, as you (and your friends) are the thriving part of the adventure as a whole. This venture sees you traveling to various worlds with names like Woodlands, Riverside, Volcano, Ice Cavern and Fortress. Each of the lands has four missions for you to tackle with various items and puzzles playing an essential part.

From the early moments, it is clear how inventive the game can be. At the start of a level, all three players are given an item. This ranges from a bow to bombs, from a Gust Jar to a Magic Hammer. As long as the object hasn't been picked up yet, every player can choose the role they want to fulfill. With the bow, you are tasked to hit enemies from afar and hit switches that are in the distance. Another example is how you use the Fire Gloves to melt pillars of ice, so that you can finally move on in a level. The solutions to the puzzles are never out of reach and they simply require you to look around the areas.

Exploration can't solely be done with items or fighting enemies with your standard sword. As a group of players, you have to rely on each other to finish the game. Forming a totem is needed to beat certain enemies or reaching obstacles that seem too high to get to. This is the most clear at the end of Woodlands, where you fight Margoma. This spinning wheel of doom will hide its eye on top, hidden from the players. By throwing bombs up there, his eye will be revealed, which has to be slashed by your sword. In the second phase, his eye will hop about and here the player with the bow will have to hunt it down. By striking him, he is stunned and open for more direct attacks.

What makes the tasks easier are the special costumes. These wonderful suits each grant you special powers that can aid you in quests. Some enhance the powers of certain items, like the Kokiri Clothes that allow you to shoot three arrows at once. This is super handy when it comes to harder switch puzzles. The Torrent Robe gives you the ability to create water towers, so that you can access more areas in the Riverside area. Other costumes will boost stats or give you more of a specific item like the Legendary Dress (Zelda's attire), which grants more hearts all across the stage. The final category are simply just cool extras, like the Timeless Tunic, which changes all of the music into 8-bit tunes and sound effects. It gives no special stat boosts, but it is fun nonetheless.

Don't expect getting all of the costumes will be simple though. To create outfits you will need materials, and there are a few ways of getting them. The simplest way is to finish the levels, where each character selects a material box for you to keep. One in three boxes will usually net you a rare material, but you never know what you will get and it can lead to some disappointment when your friends bag the best stuff for themselves.

There is a store in the hub town that sells new items on a daily basis. You can earn Rupees through clearing stages or selling unwanted items in the shop. There's also a daily chance game, which can give you quick access to an item. In this game, there are four boxes, with one of them containing an item, the rest contain “Freebies”, low-value dud prizes that can be sold back. If you don't get the item that try, you can open another chest on the next day, once per day until you get the item. Once you've collected the main prize, the puzzle resets on the next day. Don't be sad if you collect a ton of Freebies though, as they eventually grant access to a Dapper Spinner Kit. This handy attire lets you do Spin Attacks incredibly fast.

It will still take a long time to earn every costume. Every level in the game has three Bonus Challenges to uncover and complete, which will allow you to see fresh perspectives on stages and test your skills in harsher ways. You and the squad will have to complete stages with fewer time or hearts, without a sword or in complete darkness. There are even challenges where you have to stay close to an orb or move swiftly out a Wallmaster's way. If you want to see everything this game has on offer, you owe it yourself to finish the challenges as well.

Naturally to finish levels, bosses or challenges, you will need a squad that you can guide you into battle. The amount of options to do actually do this is staggering, and this is the biggest highlight of the adventure. The most interesting and curious thing is that you can actually use the Download Play functionality and send data to Nintendo 3DS users without a copy of Tri Force Heroes. By doing so, there will be Extra Data added to their SD card. With this, any materials that they collect will be saved for later sessions or if they decide the purchase their own copy of the game. Within the limits of the Download Play session, you can already earn two new costumes, which gives them a broad taste of what to expect. It is amazing that the developers found a way to include this and give players an equal taste of what the game is like. It feels close to the Local Play experience, which naturally another option in the title.

Good news for players wanting an online experience! You can randomly search for people, search or start a friend lobby or use a combo of both to get an online session going. To communicate with players, you will be using buttons on the touchscreen to emit a simple emoticon. While they are cute, the selection is lacking. You can't ask a player for his/her attention and to kindly ask to stop with what he/she was doing. This became a major annoyance when I was playing with random people as they clearly had no idea what was going on. I decided to throw a player off a cliff to get some understanding, but without any luck it seemed. Seemed, because you don't know what the players are thinking. There's a blind sense of faith involved in the communication progress, leaving some mixed feelings.

With friends (while hanging on Skype), sessions went great and we quickly worked on a strategy plan to get through the level. Organizing groups in that regard proved a tricky deal, because you had to really plan out playing sessions. If you only have one friend online, you can't play with that single person and that is honestly too weird to believe. I am saying that because you can play the levels solo, in which they have to deal with handling all three characters. Believe me when I say following: it wasn't exactly a fun way to play Tri Force Heroes. Sadly, I had to do that some cases and bosses become incredibly difficult when multiple items are involved. Fairies, which are your lives, can be used up to skip parts of levels. But what fun is that? Who gets a kick out of skipping on what the title has on offer? A two-player option where someone can switch places with a doppel would have gone a long way.

One thing I can say about The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes is that it is truly a great looking game. While it might seem the same as A Link Between Worlds at first glance, they play a lot more with perspectives. You could see this clearly with the boss Blizzagia, an evil reptile that you have to beat down with Fire Gloves and Magic Hammers. The camera is placed behind the player, which makes for an unique view of the battlefield. It loses nothing of the sharpness that made the previous title so great and Tri Force Heroes still looks colorful above all. The 3D effects really help to get a good view on how you need to land hits on enemies. The soundtrack is great as well with a lot of tunes giving the environments their flair and intrigue. The boss battle themes are my favorites!

Where The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes excels is playing with your friends. It doesn't matter how you get these together, but understanding one another is a key to success. It's not overly bad or unplayable when dealing with online strangers, but the quality of the game does diminish noticeably. If you're looking for some multiplayer Zelda fun, there is no doubt that Tri Force Heroes could be a great purchase for you. One thing is for sure: I am determined to finish this one for the full 100%!

Talkback

TheXenocideSeptember 28, 2015

The plot sounds like a Mario & Luigi game.

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3DS

Game Profile

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes Box Art

Genre Adventure / Action
Developer Nintendo
Players1 - 3

Worldwide Releases

na: The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
Release Oct 23, 2015
PublisherNintendo
RatingEveryone
jpn: Zelda no Densetsu: Triforce 3 Jūshi
Release Oct 22, 2015
PublisherNintendo
RatingAll Ages
eu: The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
Release Oct 23, 2015
PublisherNintendo
Rating7+
aus: The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
Release Oct 24, 2015
PublisherNintendo
RatingGeneral
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