Setting sail for new horizons?

Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas is an iOS adventure title which has recently crossed over to PCs, and is clearly influenced by Nintendo's Legend of Zelda - more specifically, the Wind Waker instalment which came to GameCube and - much later - Wii U.

With the game branching out to other formats, it makes sense to ask if a console release is on the horizon - which is exactly what Silconera did when it interviewed Cornfox & Bros. creative director Heikki Repo recently.

While Repo couldn't go into specifics, he did say that a console release is something that has been on the cards for a while:

We have always loved the idea of bringing Oceanhorn to consoles! We are looking into our options on console release at the moment, but there is nothing to announce on this matter.

Speaking about the game's obvious debt to Zelda, Repo said:

When we founded our own company, we had an opportunity to reflect on what kind of games we want to make. I am huge fan of console adventure games and JRPGs, and my lifelong dream has been to create a game like Seiken Densetsu, Final Fantasy, or Zelda. I had this idea of an adventure game, set in a world that blends fantasy and technology, and that would circle around an ancient sea monster that would tirelessly hunt down the player. That's when the idea of Oceanhorn was born.

The reason we chose a Zelda-like genre is because there just are not enough games in this genre, even though people would love to play more of them! Also, we were not completely satisfied where the genre was heading, so we wanted to give it a go and see what kind of game we would make. We wanted to create a game that would take the console-style adventure genre back to its roots! No more handholding or two hour glorified tutorials. No compass pointer that takes you through the maps. Jump to the game and play it however you want: explore the world at your own pace, enjoy a story that never tries to be anything it isn't, and when the time comes, prepare to take on the epic bosses.

Repo also took the time to point out that while Oceanhorn has clearly been inspired by Zelda it's much more than just a simple clone, and in fact has a connection with another famous RPG which is often overlooked - the Mega Drive / Genesis classic Landstalker:

From a single screenshot people might miss judge Oceanhorn as a direct clone, but when you start playing Oceanhorn you will immediately feel its own spirit, and start to learn what makes it unique. It plays like one of the classics, but the gameplay happens in a real 3D world. The game is played from isometric camera angle, which is nothing like Zelda, but more like Landstalker, another ancestor of the genre.

It's also interesting to note that famed composer Nobuo Uematsu created some of the music for this title - another indication that Cornfox & Bros. really know their stuff when it comes to Japanese RPGs. The following video contains an interview with the great man:

If Oceanhorn did come to consoles, it would be safe to assume that the Wii U would be an obvious candidate. Would you want to play this title on your Nintendo system? The comments section is waiting for your input.

[source gonintendo.com, via siliconera.com]