In my humble opinion, the Oceanhorn series is the BEST Legend of Zelda inspired game series out there. OH1 was an AMAZING 2D isometric Zelda-esque experience, and OH2 is an amazing follow up! Evolves from the 2D iso aesthetic to the 3D realm extremely nicely. I'm only about 6 hours in and I'm having a great time.

Combat is pretty good. Item variety and progression rate is GREAT. Difficulty is a bit more casual, but that could be the settings I applied to start (can't quite remember), but that does NOT take away from the experience. Awesome fast travel mechanic that is starting to unfold. The party combat mechanics (directing to attack/follow/action) are pretty intuitive and applied really well (in the "zoom" screen).

I'm really enjoying the RPG elements of OH2, beyond the strict LoZ inspiration... Application of shards for performance enhancements and evolutions... Also, a pretty "convenient" collection system. Instead of having to hunt down recipes to get anything useful, all pots, bushes, and enemies have pretty much everything you need.

The surprise aspect is the cards of each enemy you can collect to play a simple card game against NPCs to earn more supplies. Typically, these aspects are tiresome, but this aspect is (seemingly - so far) optional and straightforward.

If anything, there seems to be a lack of rewarding exploration. I mean, if you search every nook and cranny, as you would in most Zelda-esque games, you do build up a ton of capital and fill your inventory, but it seems that you're only feasible choice (at least at the 6 hour mark) is to just follow the story line. Not truly a negative, just an observation that I fear will water down the desire to explore and may inevitably open myself up to miss useful optional paths/quests in the future.

All in all, this is a slightly more casual Zelda inspired 3D adventure game who clearly borrows the best of all the 3D Zelda's PRE-BotW. I'm looking forward to finishing this one and GENUINELY hope the team is in the process of making Oceanhorn a TRILOGY! It's absolutely deserving of one!

TLDR; if you enjoy the 3D Zelda games (pre Breath of the Wild), this game will feel right at home and be an absolutely enjoyable experience!