Nintendo Authority

They TRIed. Did they succeed?

Back when this game was announced at E3 2016, I was actually pretty excited for this game. I thought Four Swords was a great idea, but had poor execution, and Triforce Heroes seemed to fix all of the problems I had with the game. Now that the game is out though, did it live up to the hype?

Upon booting up the game, you’re greeted with an opening cutscene detailing the game’s story. The princess of Hytopia, Styla, was cursed by a witch to wear only a black one-piece outfit forever. Due to Hytopia being very fashion-forward, this is a huge tragedy for the king, Styla, and all of the residents of Hytopia. The king decides to put out a call for heroes to enter the Drablands, find the witch, and end the curse on his daughter. Link (the same one from “A Link Between Worlds”) hears the call and begins his quest. While the story may be simple and basically untouched after that opening cutscene, it sets the tone for a lighthearted spin-off, and without a huge story, the development team was able to give more thought to the gameplay.

So how does it play? Well, that depends on how you choose to play the game. You can either play the game with two other people through online, local play, or download play (forgot that existed, huh?) When online you have the option of playing with friends or strangers. Playing with random people online has the risk of poor connection, trolls, or people who are just downright terrible at the game. For those without friends or a connection, there is another option. Singleplayer.

Singleplayer involves one person taking control of all three characters. You switch the character you control using the touchscreen. Switching between the three “Doppels” can make some segments tedious, or incredibly difficult. Thankfully, the singleplayer allows you to use one of your three lives to skip a segment of the level if you find it too frustrating.

Completing time trials alone is INSANELY challenging

Really your best bet is the online or local play with friends. I spent around 50% of my 10 hours playtime in singleplayer, 30% with friends online and locally, and the rest with strangers. Using an external client where you can rage at each other adds to the experience, and the “Communication Panels” in the game don’t provide that same experience. Sure, they let you tell people when to use an item or carry you so you can reach higher places, but they don’t let you tell the other person that they should go burn in a fire because they didn’t get the bonus timer when you only had 15 seconds left in the time trial challenge.

Speaking of challenges (and ignoring my rage), there are a lot. Each level has three bonus challenges, which range from avoiding an instant-kill enemy, to beating the level in a certain amount of time. Some of these challenges are actually pretty difficult, and with over 100 of them, there’s definitely a lot of time to be spent here. For those of you looking to be rewarded for your time, don’t worry. After completing every challenge in an area, you’ll be rewarded with a rare material, which can be used to make costumes.

Costumes are EVERYTHING in Triforce Heroes. They change your look and give you a bonus effect depending on the outfit. For example, using the Kokiri Clothes allows your bow to shot three arrows instead of one, and the Goron Garb allows you to swim in lava and be immune to fire. Using the right costume for the job is essential to succeeding, however, you have to create them yourself. At the end of each level, there will be three chests. Two contain a common material, one contains an uncommon/rare material depending on the level. The location of each changes each time, so what you get is random, but it’s never too difficult to get the material you need. If you really can’t find the material, each day the merchant in the hub world will sell different materials. They cost a lot of rupees, but at least it’s an option.

Only one rare material at the end, gotta be lucky

There’s also a coliseum mode, where you can fight two other people for rupees and materials, but it’s nothing special and kind of feels a little shoehorned in. It could have been fleshed out a lot more, but it’s nothing of note. You pick your costume and a roulette wheel chooses the arena based on a vote. Once in, items spawn in random positions around the arena. Usually two people get overpowered items while the other person gets stuck with something useless. The costumes aren’t balanced either, with some being CLEARLY overpowered. If you want to win in the arena, stick to my advice and just be a camping jerk.

Just skip the coliseum

So overall, how is Triforce Heroes? Well, it depends. If it interests you, you’ll probably enjoy it. If you looked at it and thought it looked like a dumb spin-off, you’ll probably hate it. There’s another demo session this weekend if you want to give the game a try. The game has issues, like the online with strangers and the singleplayer being tedious and slow, but there were times where I would play and I couldn’t stop smiling. It may not be perfect, but it’s fun, and that’s what matters.

Overall, I really liked Triforce Heroes.

Is it worth the price?: Yes. There’s a lot to do here for completionists.

I would recommend it to: Zelda fans who are looking for a fun multiplayer 3DS game