Cadence of Hyrule

Cadence of Hyrule
Developer	Brace Yourself Games
Publisher	Nintendo (outside Japan), Spike Chunsoft (Japan)
System	Nintendo Switch
Release Date	Digital Release June 13, 2019 Physical Release October 23, 2020
Genre	Adventure
Rating	ESRB: E

Cadence of Hyrule (fully titled Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer featuring The Legend of Zelda) is a rhythm-based roguelike adventure game that was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2019. It is a follow-up to the original indie title Crypt of the Necrodancer and also acts as a crossover with the Legend of Zelda series which blends the gameplay of the two series.

Story

Cadence's own adventuring has been interupted by falling through a mysterious portal. This drops her into the land of Hyrule in a time of trouble. A mysterious musician named Octavo has used his Golden Lute to take control of the kingdom of Hyrule. While seeking out a way back home, Cadence ends up enlisting the aid of Link and Princess Zelda to help stop Octavo.

Gameplay

The basic gameplay is that of roguelike games such as the Mystery Dungeon series, in which every movement counts as a turn for a character, and thus all enemies make a movement at the same time as a player. This game combines that with rhythm-based gameplay, as the player is rewarded for moving and attacking in tune with the music. This game also does have an optional auto-beat feature which allows players to play without having to try to match beats. There is also a more challenging permadeath mode in which the player has to complete the game without dying once.

The game is designed to resemble a Zelda game for the most part. There is an overworld and dungeons to explore, as well as various items and Pieces of Heart to find. There are also four dungeons to complete before proceeding to the endgame area at Hyrule Castle. The exact layouts of each dungeon are randomized each time, and other elements such as item locations are also randomized. The player can obtain a variety of different weapons and items from the Zelda series, which can be used to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. Some items (such as the different types of shovels, rings and footwear) have durability meters and break after being used for long enough. There is also a stamina meter that is depleted with the uses of certain items and abilities. Whenever the player loses, they will lose all Rupees, items with durability meters and keys. However, players can also collect diamonds that are retained even after losing and can be used to buy some supplies at a special shop that appears before returning to the game.

The game's playable characters include Link, Zelda and Cadence, as well as one hidden character. The player starts out controlling Cadence for a short portion of the game's beginning and then must choose between playing as Link or Zelda, with the other two characters becoming available later. The game can also be played with two-player co-op and has online leaderboards for the quickest finishing time.

DLC

More content has been added to the game following its original release. In December 2019, a Dungeon mode was added and a new story scenario in which the the player controlled Octavo, the game's antagonist. Three DLC packs were later released in 2020. The first pack, released in July 2020, was a character pack that contained five new playable characters: Impa, Shadow Link and Shadow Zelda from The Legend of Zelda, as well as Fredrick and Aria from Crypt of the Necrodancer. This also came with an All-Character Mode which allowed players to play Dungeon Mode with all characters consecutively. The second pack, which came in Aiugust 2020, was a melody pack which added 39 new songs to the game, while the final pack came the following month and contained a new story campaign called "Symphony of the Night" which starred the Skull Kid.

A Season Pass was made available for the three DLC packs, and a physical edition of the game was also made available in October, which came with the Season Pass.