Triforce Heroes Impressions

Triforce Heroes is the newest Legend of Zelda game on 3DS.  It came out two weeks ago but I still haven't see much coverage of it.  Maybe it's because Triforce heroes isn't structured like a typical Legend of Zelda game, it's basically a follow-up to The Legend of Zelda Four Swords.

If you don't know what that means... it's essentially multiplayer Zelda.

The main conceit in making Zelda multiplayer is that the open world exploration is completely gone.  Instead, the game is structured into zones which contain levels which contain stages.

You connect online and choose the zone you want to play in.  This will match you with other people who also want to play levels in that zone.  Once you have a party of three you enter the zone and cast your vote for the level you want to play.  It does a little roulette spin and choose the one of your three votes randomly.  Then you actually enter the level and play through the four stages within it as a team.

It's not a bad system but it doesn't feel like traditional Zelda.  Without the open world to explore the game takes on a different tone.

Not to say that the game isn't fun.  Figuring out puzzles with three people who have different types of special items can be a joy.  At least it can when your connection to the server remains stable.  And when your teammates actually understand what needs to happen.  And when the emotes which are your only means of communication are up to the task of conveying what you need to say.

Once you get past all that, the levels can be very fun.  Overall, I'm more frustrated with this game than anything else.  I have constant server issues which I'm sure aren't on my end (I do online gaming on all my other platforms daily) and I keep running into random people online who can't quite grasp what our team needs to do to accomplish an objective.

I honestly think the best way to play this game is to have three friends with three 3DS systems sitting in one room together.  That would be amazing!  Unfortunately, that's an extremely rare setup to encounter in the US.  I'm sure it's going over better in Japan, but it's a hard sell here.  I mean, you can't even do two player, otherwise I would love to try this game with my brother.  But no, Nintendo has decided that only three player co-op will do.

I haven't even talked about some of the cool mechanics, and I feel bad about ranting so long without getting to them.  There are costumes that you can craft out of dropped materials from levels.  These give you special powers or make your items behave differently.  Items themselves are pre-set for each level.  Each player can only hold one special item, so on the first stage of a level there are three special items to pick up.  Sometimes they're all the same but typically they're complimentary items that must work together to solve puzzles.  Oh, and you can totem on top of each other to reach new heights.

I've been finding enough fun in this game to not feel bad about the purchase, but I love Zelda.  If you're not a huge Zelda fan then the only reason you should pick up this game is if you have a local three player co-op setup for 3DS.  If you do have that I'm jealous, because this game would be so fun to play in that setting.