Pyroclastica

This was the first game I beat on my Analogue Pocket. I should probably also write a review of the Pocket before I forget, but that isn’t what this is about.
It was surprising how much of this game I remembered from having it 20 years ago when it originally released. I do not, however, remember ever trying the ‘secrets’ system at all. I do intend to use this one to play through Oracle of Ages though.
I probably couldn’t have ever fully appreciated this fact without having played so many other, earlier Zelda games (especially the original on NES) but the combat of this game is absolutely brutal. There are some bosses, and some rooms in some dungeons which are every bit as awful as the original. It’s of course possible to again hang this on old man, boomer reflexes, but I absolutely died on several occasions and had to walk all the way back through a dungeon to retry some horrible room.
But, in spite of all that, the final dungeon and final boss aren’t hard at all. Granted, I carried in a L-2 upgraded sword AND the Ring given as a prize for killing all golden beasts AND a potion. But I still got it 1st try and this still surprised me.
Not really sure how much of this game was Capcom’s responsibility vs Nintendo, but the soundtrack is incredible.
From a technical standpoint, this game seems really advanced and must have been fairly late in the GBC’s life span. There are even rooms where enemies move so fast and are so numerous, that the frame rate starts slowing down. Hard to believe that was even possible back in the day.
It’s hard to write much else about the sounds and technical stuff because I’m past the point on the curve where any of it feels like a ‘new observation’ — I’ve played through Link’s Awakening DX several times, and OoS runs on the exact same engine. It feels like walking around doing a different set of jobs in an extremely familiar world. There isn’t anything wrong with this, but it’s hard to put into words.

Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons