YMMV / Cadence of Hyrule

• Award Snub: The game was nominated for Best Score/Music at The Game Awards 2019, but lost to Death Stranding.
• Awesome Music: The end result of remixing The Legend of Zelda tunes in a NecroDancer style is something truly catchy. The base game's soundtrack contains 25 songs in total, with the Melody Pack DLC bringing the total to 64. Most tracks have a peaceful variant and an intense variant, which include the following:
  • The Overworld Theme (both Peaceful and Combat versions) is an excellent medley of various overworld themes from across the Zelda franchise. Good thing it's catchy, as you'll be hearing it a lot.
  • The tutorial theme, a remix of NecroDancer's "Disco Descent with elements of the main Zelda'' theme, lets you know you're in a real treat with the music.
  • The theme for The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, Future Hyrule (known in the soundtrack as ???/Dark World) is an intense yet jazzy remix of the Dark World theme from A Link to the Past that is a fitting accompaniment for the longest and hardest dungeon in the game.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Because the beat for most of the game's songs are generally more forgiving than that of Crypt of the Necrodancer's, Obsidian weapons are even better than they were in that game, especially since Obsidian infusions can always be bought at one of the Fairy Fountains, and for cheaper than Titanium at that. The Obsidian Spear in particular is a good, versatile weapon that can be acquired fairly easily early in a run and shreds bosses if players can avoid getting hit, and the Obsidian Flail can smash through mobs due to its ability to attack while moving.
  • Zelda is generally considered the best character for a few reasons. She always starts within Hyrule Castle, which is always in the center of the map, letting her activate key Sheikah Stones faster, unlike everyone else (sans Octavo) who spawns at Link's house in the second row of the map from the bottom. Her signature weapons are Rapiers, which are considered the best weapon type in the game, and (if the player found the Hookshot) she has easy access to the Royal Rapier before the final dungeons, unlike Link and Cadence who have to wait for their ultimate weapons. Nayru's Love is also far more versatile than Link and Cadence's shields, being able to reflect damage back at her attackers on all sides as well as protect her for an extra beat afterwards.
• I Knew It!:
  • Many assumed that Jules Conroy (FamilyJules) and Adriana Figueroa (Adrisaurus) would be returning to help compose the game. After the game was released, both would confirm that this was the case.
  • After unlocking all of the original four characters, many fans noticed that there seemed to be an empty gap amongst the crowd of heroes on their save file screens since they stood in an incomplete V-formation, suggesting that there was still a fifth to unlock. This prompted a search for this "missing" character via datamining, leading to the discovery of text files that alluded to a playable Octavo, along with dialogue of him talking to an antagonist that seemed to be his future self. This led to some correctly guessing that this was content meant for a future update, which later became Octavo's Ode. As for the actual fifth Story Mode character, it ended up being Skull Kid, who was added to the game over a year after release.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: The game initially received a bit of this at launch due to Story Mode and Single-Character Mode being the only modes, with both of them comprising only six main dungeons. A few months later, the free additions of Octavo and Dungeon Mode bolstered the basegame content, while DLC in the following year added six characters, several modes, a handful of items, and three remixes of the soundtrack, giving it a healthy level of fresh content and allowing it to escape this.
• Jerkass Woobie: While the Gerudo Prince aka young Ganondorf is certainly a royal brat obsessed with power and quarrels with his caretaker Barriara, it's easy to feel bad for him when you reach the Bad Future and learn how he became Ganon. Unlike his main counterpart, this Ganondorf was unwittingly corrupted into Ganon when he repaired the Golden Lute and it's stated that he became a slave to its melodies rather than the other way around. Even worse is when you realize that the only reason he became Ganon in the first place is because Octavo wanted to stop Ganon from defeating him in the future, meaning that if Octavo didn't go after him in the past, Ganondorf might have turned okay for once.
• Low-Tier Letdown: Cadence doesn't get much respect in this game, especially in the speedrun community, since nearly every character has better tools to work with than her. Her L-Button move, Shovel Strike, deals only 1 damage in a 3-by-2 area in front of her, its damage is not affected by weapon enchantments (since it's not a direct weapon attack), and though it can stun enemies it fails to kill, it also has a full beat of startup; for comparison, the Links' Spin Attack takes a beat to start, but they can move with it and hold it indefinitely and it hits all around them for the normal damage of their weapon, while the Zeldas have Din's Fire, a ranged explosive that causes Burning with a 3-by-3 area of effect, and Nayru's Love, which comes out on the first beat, does damage all around them (1 damage for Shadow Zelda, and 2 after nerfs for Zelda), and reflects projectiles. The Greatshovel, Cadence's unique weapon type, is the muscle memory-attacking combination of a Broadsword and a shovel, as she'll swing it if there's any dirt in the 3-by-1 space of what's in front of her, significantly hindering her movement; meanwhile, the Links get the Long Sword, which strikes two tiles in front of them, and the Zeldas (as well as Freddie) get the Game-Breaker Rapiers. Cadence also can't get her unique weapon's final variant, Eli's Greatshovel, until right before the Final Boss, and its ability (+1 attack for a beat after digging with it) is not only a less useful Battle Shovel (+2 attack for a beat after digging without the Greatshovel dig range, allowing better movement and utilization of diggable terrain), but it's also completely useless for the final boss, which has no diggable walls. Compare that to the Links' Caladbolg (a Long Sword with a base damage of 3) and the Zeldas' Royal Rapier (which knocks back enemies near the target on lunge), which they can get right before beginning Hyrule Castle. Cadence's sole advantage, her shovels having infinite durability, is insignificant as enemies will drop a shovel anyway if you end up without one, and failing that you can usually buy one from a store, loot one from a miniboss or the various chests in the overworld and dungeons, or use items like the Magic Boomerang as a substitute.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Cadence of Hyrule makes a few changes from NecroDancer to be more accessible.
  • While you still lose all your rupees upon death, diamonds are now a permanent currency.
  • Fixed-Beat Mode is now a general gameplay option, rather than specific to a single character.
  • Area-of-effect attacks show which tiles they'll hit, letting you better plan how to dodge them.
  • Red Potions are more easily acquired and up to four can be held at a time, assuming you have the bottles.
  • Characters now have shields that can block or reflect projectiles.
  • You can have an inventory of multiple weapons, as opposed to being limited to one at a time, allowing players to use the powerful yet fragile glass weapons without the risk of being defenseless if they get hit.
  • Weapon enchantments can be purchased for diamonds at Great Fairy Fountains, saving the trouble of hunting down a more powerful weapon.
  • Songs loop, so you're no longer under a time limit for clearing a dungeon floor.
  • Moving into a wall no longer drops your multiplier.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: Symphony of the Mask racks up the difficulty compared to the main story campaign and Octavo's Ode; due to taking place in Future Hyrule, enemies begin with darker palettes and more health. Many enemies also wear masks, which essentially act as an extra heart. Skull Kid also has access to far fewer heart pieces and bottles than the characters in the main game, can't increase his stamina gauge, and (since he fights through his masks) is unable to enchant his weapons. Hunting down the various masks will eventually give you a widespread arsenal of moves, but until then, you're stuck in a fierce Early Game Hell.
• Unexpected Character: Out of all the characters from Crypt of the NecroDancer, did anyone expect Freddie Merchantry to be one of the playable DLC characters?

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