4 Heads are better than 1!

There is no doubt in my mind that The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild is seen as one of the finest adventure-puzzle games of all times. Nintendo have set the bar for any follow-ups to the genre on the Nintendo Switch. There have been plenty of times that developers and indie teams have tried to make a successful attempt at the genre, only for it to be swept under the carpet.Rain Games have presented their new title, an adventure-puzzle game titled World to the West, which was actually released back on the Wii U, but has gotten a re-release on the Nintendo Switch. I have to say that I enjoyed it, and I’ll explain why.

World to the West is an adventure-puzzle game which completely has its own identity and charm, which was for me a big thing. I didn’t want the game just to be a carbon-copy of games that have been released in the past, so its a testament to Rain Games that they have delivered something on the Nintendo Switch that is a breath of fresh air.Without spoiling anything (there isn’t that much to spoil to be fair, but still!), the main story sees 4 different characters who have all had something stolen by the main villain who has gone about stealing treasures from each of them. That’s about it really; it’s short and sweet, could of been deeper but this isn’t a 30-40 hour game. You’ll complete this game in around 6 hours, depending on how you get on with the puzzles.

The sound in this game is one of the best things about it in my opinion. I enjoyed the background music as I was traversing the map with my characters. The music doesn’t get boring and that’s great. There is no voice acting to comment on, as all speech comes from on-screen dialogue. Sometimes, that’s the best way to do it as I have played plenty of games where the actual voice acting is nothing short of atrocious!

I will say that I had a few performance issues with World to the West. In handheld mode, it ran smooth but it was when I docked my Switch and played the game in full-screen TV mode. It seemed to stutter at a few places, which wasn’t that noticeable but it definitely was something worthy of me reporting on in my review. I do hope that the developers can release a patch in order to steady things up with performance.

The main core of the game is made up of complete exploration. As I mentioned earlier, this is a mini-adventure and it won’t take you more than 6 – 8 hours to complete it. If you knew the puzzles and wanted to play it through a second time, I think it would take around 3 – 5 hours to complete if it was rushed. Is it a shame it isn’t longer but they’ve managed to pack everything into this little game for me to feel complete when I had finished it.

Each of your characters will have different unique abilities in order for you to progress. These characters do not know each other at all but are brought together in various chapters of the game. The puzzles are straight forward meaning you’ll have to use certain characters for certain bits. For example, one character can get through small tiny holes whilst another can take control of the enemies you face in the game. You’ll need to use all 4 character’s traits smartly in order for you to progress in the game. Progression is in the form of Totem Towers, which you can fast travel from one-to-another as you revisit different parts of the map with different characters.

I think what I was disappointed with was the lack of character-building and combat. There is nothing you can do to build your character. It’s not that you need it either as you’ll only really need your basic hit attacks in order to stun your enemies enough to get away. You do have a special ability but you’ll rarely find yourself using it; only when it presents itself in the form of progressing in a puzzle to progress in the game. I will say too that the final boss is very underwhelming. Bosses as a whole could of been programmed a lot more as they are so easy to figure out. Maybe it’s the audience that Rain Games were aiming for. I wasn’t expecting Dark Souls-hard but I expected a little bit more of a challenge than the one I got.

A Nintendo Switch Review Code was Provided by Rain Games