Pop Culture Analysis of Sega's "Beyond Oasis"

Combat

Where Beyond Oasis shines the most, is in it's core gameplay mechanics. My goodness there is so much to talk about that it may take me a while to describe it all, you'll just have to bear with me.

YES! Just yes! The combat in Beyond Oasis is amazing! It manages to perfectly mix the typical top down Zelda combat, with the technical prowess of a beat em up game, the mix of the two is so brilliant that I have to ask myself "Why hasn't Zelda done this before?!"

There is immediately so much more you can do in Beyond Oasis's combat compared to the average Zelda game. It's immediately noticeable! You can run, jump, and duck!

Pressing the attack button does a stab, it's a weak attack but it has a lot of reach. Holding down the attack button for a few seconds then releasing does a slash, which has less reach, but is stronger and extends to a much greater radius. The slash is reminiscent of the slashing a player does in a top down perspective Zelda game, but it has a much smaller reach. This is very important.

In top down Zelda games? Your sword only has one attack, a slash. Usually the strategy for playing these kinds of games is to stand in a particular tile, wait for an enemy to approach, and slash them. Knockback occurs and then the enemy rushes at you again, and then you slash him. You usually can't walk up to an enemy and attack, because Link's attacks carry no momentum to them. Whenever you attack, Link stops dead in his tracks and swings. Walking up to an enemy and attacking requires a lot of timing and precision, and it's usually much safer to just stand, swing and play it safe. This is, needless to say, boring. Combat in Zelda games, even in 3D Zelda games, is usually something akin to this, and it usually leads to the player relying off of an arsenal of items to spice it up. But these items are used in such a way that carries less momentum than the sword! Zelda's combat is safe and tactical.

Beyond Oasis's combat is much more aggressive. The ability to run allows the player to do running attacks that feel absolutely amazing. It's so fun to run at an enemy and just slam into them. Furthermore, there's a jump attack that feels super satisfying to hit. Secret attacks like swings and flips that require secret button combinations: seriously Beyond Oasis's combat has the depth of a Street Fighter game.

Heck if you attack an enemy multiple times while close to him, you'll end up doing these really satisfying combos where you just kick the ever loving heck out of them! This is so much more satisfying than just swinging a sword! The addition of sound effects recycled from the Streets of Rage games makes the combat not only feel good, but sound good as well.

And OH! I'm just getting started!

One of the biggest complaints people have about "Breath Of The Wild's" combat is the use of weapon degradation. But what if I told you that over two decades before Breath Of The Wild, Beyond Oasis used item degradation in a way that is far superior?

NO KIDDING! You can pick up weapons in this game! These weapons include swords, bows, crossbows, bombs, heck I'm pretty sure I may have used an axe or a spear at some point. Each of these weapons have limited use, similar to Breath Of The Wild. BUT! Not every weapon in the game degrades!

In addition to these weapons, the player has his trusty knife, which is the weapon that I used most often throughout the game. The knife never breaks, and is completely reliable for dispatching the game's weaker enemies. This encourages the player to save the more powerful weapons for dangerous situations. This rewards the player for being patient, and that's awesome.

In addition to the knife, there are several unbreaking weapons that are hidden in very specific locations throughout the game. These weapons are so well hidden that most walkthroughs you'll find online have no information on their locations. I didn't find any of these weapons in my playthrough of the game, but I can only imagine how cool it would have been to find them.

It's amazing that Beyond Oasis's combat system manages to outperform the most modern Zelda installment in every conceivable way. It's less static, it's more aggressive, it uses item degradation in a way that's actually clever. There is no doubt in my mind that Beyond Oasis has the best combat I've ever seen in a Zelda-Like, or Zelda game for that matter!