Around the time when Crypt of the NecroDancer released, I was fortunate enough to have the game gifted to me through a friend. Except, I ended up not liking the game much at all. My patience wore pretty thin with it and I didn’t know how to properly learn or progress. The furthest I’d ever made it was the second stage, and I eventually just shelved the game, accepting that it just wasn’t for me.
Cadence of Hyrule was announced with a good amount of shock and awe, rightfully so as Nintendo is very protective of their franchises. Everyone was looking forward to it, but at its announcement I looked at it, just gave it a “meh” and forgot about it.
Of course, I write for Zelda Universe, so I had to know at least some stuff about it. Whether it was hearing other staff discuss it or seeing it in videos, I just kept thinking about Crypt of the NecroDancer and how I didn’t enjoy it at all. There was a tinge of sadness with this; it was a new Zelda game and I had no interest in it.
Finally, my curiosity caved and I asked some of the staff here what the consensus was. It was all quite positive, which I suppose shouldn’t surprise me since the original game was so well received. But there was one particular person who was much more excited for it than the others: fellow columns writer and great friend, Liz Burton.
Around the time I started writing for this site, Liz was the first person I’d become friends with. Even though I’ve only spoken to her via text chat, she has a very bright and upbeat personality, and she’s always a joy to converse with. She’s also the site’s biggest Korok fan, which was established quite quickly since we’d both joined around the time Breath of the Wild released. We’ve had many chats, from life stuff to absolutely gushing about Majora’s Mask — a shared personal favorite between us.
It turns out she was a huge fan of Crypt of the NecroDancer, so this game was right up her alley in multiple ways. In fact, she got so excited about it, we ended up taking over the chat entirely. She got me so excited about the game that I finally caved in and bought it. I was pretty hesitant, but Liz was talking to me as I played through the beginning. I relayed my progress to her as I played and she cheered me on.
I felt that rough difficulty of the game pretty quickly. I was dying left and right to basic enemies, running into the same problem I had with the original. I’d tell her, but rather than mock me or anything for failing at basic stuff, she cheered me on, and I felt ready to try again. Frankly, it turned into me just being stubborn and determined at one point to defeat the axe-wielding foe, who continued to cut me down multiple times, as I constantly failed to learn his pattern and beats for when he attacks.
Finally, I triumphed! I was so ecstatic I celebrated in the chat — in fact, we both did. Even though it was just through text chat, I still felt that connection that you feel when you’re playing a game with a friend and you finally triumph over a difficult section and you both cheer. In truth, this particular day was extremely rough, and my depression was at an all-time high. So having this experience made me, if just for a while, smile a little bit.
The game finally clicked, and I started having so much fun with it. I wanted to scour every single map, find every hidden secret, and collect every Heart Piece I could find. I fought my way through all of the dungeons, feeling pretty proud of myself for having finally figured the game out. In fact I enjoyed the game so much I ended up playing through the entire thing on a single sitting. I couldn’t put it down!
Had it not been for my friend Liz, I probably wouldn’t have picked up the game at all, nor would I have enjoyed it to the level that I did. It’s true that I was happy to play a very enjoyable game, but more importantly, it’s thanks to Cadence of Hyrule that I was able to become a closer friend to Liz and to have more pleasant memories to look back on. I already plan on playing through the game again. But I know next time, I’ll be playing it with a big smile on my face, and pleasant memories of Liz, who I’ll associate the game with on each playthrough from now on.
