Trial of the Sword - A Zelda Roguelike/lite!

Trial of the Sword!

I’m not going to lie, this trial was a PAIN!!! But I loved every minute of it… (well, except those times I wasted a good start to a run and screwed up in one of the later floors, but whatever!). It was a refreshing change of pace - a microcosm of Breath of the Wild itself - especially after the uber-linear Skyward Sword!

My first ever Roguelike was the Baroque remake on the Wii. I did not like the game at all. It was an impulse buy. I took a chance a chance on it because I absolutely LOVED Masaharu Iwata’s score in the original Saturn (and later PSX) release of the game.

Fantastic score - based Iwata

Man, was I disappointed with this game. I purchased it for the soundtrack and Sting completely scrapped Iwata’s score for one that was, frankly, not memorable to me at all. Granted, I don’t think I gave it a fair shake, and I remember there being some tracks I enjoyed, but it wasn’t Iwata’s score - which is what I wanted; and was disappointed not to get. One day, I’ll listen through Shigeki Hayashi’s score for the remake and give it a fair shake. I’m still salty though, 10 whole years later! 😂

But anyways, yes, this game was my first ever Roguelike. I wasn’t very impressed with the genre then. It was very challenging. When I died, I lost everything. I felt like I was making no progress! But eventually I got better and better, and my runs became deeper and longer.

My first and only Roguelite was Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon, also on Wii, and I absolutely LOVED IT! It was such a charming game! And I loved all the arrangements of selections from Uematsu’s Final Fantasy catalogue.

Trial of the Sword is not a new concept for an optional dungeon in the series. We’ve had multiple floor trial dungeons like the Savage Labyrinth in Wind Waker and the Cave of Ordeals in Twilight Princess - and those had the same Roguelite elements. However, BoTW’s survivalist elements in the base game make it even more apt for this type of gameplay style. A straight up Zelda Roguelike/lite. In fact, which is it exactly? Is it a Roguelike or a Roguelite?

Well, Roguelikes feature permadeath, no meta character progression within the trial, and you start from scratch anytime you die (i.e. back to level 1 with none of the equipment you amassed during the run). These elements are consistent with Trial of the Sword. However, these floors are not procedural generated (a roguelike staple), the entire trial is divided into “bite-sized” chunks, and you can enter the trail with active buffs (I prefer to go in with maxed bonus hearts and level 3 attack up buff). So I’m leaning a little more toward Roguelite than Roguelike. But regardless, it’s such a nice change of pace from the base game.

Imagine if you had to complete all 45 rooms in ONE SITTING! That would’ve been… stressful! But definitely an interesting challenge.

But if you completed that in Master Mode, you’d better get something significant - not just some shiny poop!