The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (3DS)
Across the Legend of Zelda series, a hero named Link is called to stop dark forces that often threaten entire kingdoms. Fearsome beasts that command forces of pure evil stand in his path, but every now and then these worlds will introduce something strange. With characters like a man in green tights called Tingle who believes he’s a fairy and a grumpy looking toddler named Malo who ends up running an extremely successful store in the castle town, the Zelda series likes to include little goofy elements, but none embrace it as strongly as The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes. Not only is this the game where you can dress Link up like a cheerleader to gain actual bonuses in battle, but the hero’s main goal for their quest is to find a way to remove a set of cursed tights from the kingdom’s princess.
The realm of Hytopia is utterly obsessed with fashion, and initially, Princess Styla is considered the fairest in the land for her exceptional fashion choices. This irritates a magical fashionista known as The Lady, who gifts a pair of ugly brown tights that cling to the princess and can’t be removed. While many heroes seem willing to try and help, King Tuft believes only a hero with certain features could possibly help his darling daughter, all of which our hero Link has. However, Link can’t set out into the dangerous Drablands alone, this action adventure game actually designed primarily around three player cooperation first and foremost. Playable either online or in person with others who own the game, The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes is certainly meant to be played with a full group of actual players, although there is a system in place so it can be played on your lonesome. While everyone normally plays as a color-coded version of Link, on your own the two extra Links will be replaced with moving statues called Doppels who you can swap between as needed. They will otherwise mostly stand in place, but for moments where the group must work together, they can at least perform their duties well enough.
And cooperation is definitely what The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes wants to focus on most. When you enter an area in the Drablands you start with nothing but a sword, but most areas also have three items you can grab and use for that area before they’re taken away. A bow and arrow can hit distant targets and fire gloves can throw balls of fire to light torches, but many items also have uses involving your fellow players. Sometimes you may need to use something like the gust jar to launch a player across a gap with a burst of air, after which they can then pull you over with their boomerang. The water rod makes a large pillar of water great for crossing rivers without swimming, but it can also elevate a player below so they can get onto the same ledge as you. Plenty of puzzles stand in your path that involve figuring out the right use of the items the trio of heroes carries and factoring in that there are three potential people who can interact with it. This is further expanded upon with a feature called Totem Time, where a player can grab another Link and hold them overhead, the group even able to walk around as a stack of three. You can reach higher ledges this way or attack floating enemies, and over time the level of cooperation and coordination required can make for some battles or puzzles that really test your ability to work as a team.
The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes does give you a few little icons you can tap to try and communicate with other players, although it definitely feels much smoother just to actually talk with your allies as the game begins to push you to be quicker and more capable in your teamwork. Places like the Woodlands and Riverside feel fairly manageable even with Doppels, but later stages like the Ruins do ask for more actions to be performed at once and The Dunes and Ice Cavern can easily wear a sloppy group down with the quicksand and slippery ice. The team actually shares their life, meaning any damaged suffered is felt by all players, this at least discouraging intentional sabotage but also potentially leading to group frustration with someone who isn’t carrying their weight but repeatedly getting injured. Totem Time requires frequently putting your safety in each other’s hands and there are definitely some difficult moments like the final boss fight and the optional Den of Trials that require an adept group, but if you perish in most locations you are also granted a few fairies that will cause you to respawn in the current location with full health. Each area not only has four levels but those levels are in turn split into four segments, making it easier to manage losses or play for short periods.
The fashion focus of the story doesn’t just extend to some names and ideas though. Madame Couture back in town will happily make you new outfits should you acquire enough materials, each level providing a material after completion. These outfits all have unique effects, and these can definitely shift how you approach a dungeon. The Goron Garb provides immunity from fire, meaning much of the volcano’s hazards become trivial to someone wearing it. In turn though, much of the materials for it are earned in the volcano, but there are still later levels where it can prove incredibly helpful should you choose to wear it. Some outfits might serve as a nice cushion, the Legendary Dress making it more likely you’ll find healing hearts for example and the Tingle Tights will let you fall down pits without taking damage three times. Others can instead help the group as a whole, the Cheer Outfit for example meaning player’s items can be used more quickly since items run on a gradually replenishing energy system so you can’t do something like just hurl bombs everywhere to defeat enemies. Beyond a small store and potentially engaging with the game’s multiplayer battle mode which is a small and chaotic bit of competitive fun, most materials are acquired through beating levels and only one participating player will get the rarer material on completion, so you may have to make choices on which outfits to pursue. At the same time, your eccentric wardrobe options can also greatly change how an area is approached, especially with outfits that enhance items so something like the boomerang can be turned into a strong damaging tool rather than something mostly used for puzzles or briefly stunning enemies.
The main adventure definitely offers a range of good headscratcher puzzles and bosses that require some interesting coordination to overcome, but if you desire some greater longevity after an already robust main adventure, there are also Drablands Challenges awaiting you. Each of the game’s 32 main levels contains 4 additional challenges that change how you approach that dungeon. Some are pretty simple concepts, like clearing the level with less health or having your sword taken away so you have to fight using only your items. Others can be a bit more pressing like being chased by a floating hand called the Wallmaster that will instantly kill you if it catches you, and some can involving needing to safely transport an object to level’s end. Some of these challenges do truly change how you approach the level while others are expecting greater skill from the players in avoiding the existing dangers, and since the rewards are mostly just different materials, these don’t feel too necessary and thus easier to stomach some of the more absurd demands. Some levels may have a challenge like clearing it in a certain amount of time that can be almost impossible with Doppels or really demand the right outfits to clear, but there are some more effective ideas here and others that can be better ways to grab rarer materials than simply repeating levels and hoping you win out at the end.
THE VERDICT: The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes cooks up a range of cooperative challenges that make for interesting and enjoyable tests of your group’s teamwork. Figuring out how the three of you can overcome a trial or foe by stacking up or mixing your item and outfit use adds a consistently strong puzzle element but the game still moves forward quickly thanks to its smaller sized areas. While certainly lacking as a solo experience, the multiplayer experience makes each player important but doesn’t get so advanced that a player might hold the group back save for in some optional tasks like the tougher Drablands Challenges and the Den of Trials. Overall though the game is lighthearted and quick while still offering a good deal of content, this three-player adventure approachable due to its structure and varied in how it concocts way to test your teamwork.
And so, I give The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes for Nintendo 3DS…
A GOOD rating. The rather silly story of The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes steps out of the way for the most part so you can quickly get into dungeons with your friends and those dungeons in turn aren’t going to be too complex since they want things to be approachable in small chunks for those a bit strapped on time. However, while in-depth puzzles aren’t often present, the game still constructs a good range of obstacles that will lead to moments you need to stop and think or figure out how to best coordinate your group to avoid danger. While colored platforms only the right player can stand on sound like a more typical approach, there are also moments like invisible ground that only the player with the right item can reveal while the others will likely need to play defense. The totem concept is a quick way to bring the group together and most levels don’t include too many alternate paths so the group won’t get distracted from the cooperation angle often, and if you do really need to let off steam there’s the battle mode where you can freely toss each other off cliffs instead of feeling that shared sting of having the group life meter deplete. The outfits sound like they’re a bit outside the cooperative system at first, especially when you’re starting off with simpler ones with weaker effects, but they also help the group determine roles or play to their strengths. While certainly helpful, it can feel like you don’t get to embrace the full breadth of your wardrobe as much as you might like, not just because an outfit great for one location often can only be made afterwards but because you would need to replay levels quite a bit to get a good deal of them. Perhaps greater freedom there would allow for more experimental outfit use so long as the truly great ones were still kept reasonably out of reach for a while.
Group puzzle solving can sometimes get testy when it’s drawn out so The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes likely made the right choice keeping things snappy, often self-contained, and focused on a small range of variables. Still, the game does invent enough trials that require more than just a quick bit of consideration to solve while also peppering in quick action so that things aren’t slowing down too often for the brain-teasers. The single-player play falls short because so much of the experience feels tied to engaging cooperation, but the multiplayer experience in The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes feels finely tuned to keep the group working together and yet the outfits and items ensure each player can feel like a unique contributor.