The Swords of Ditto Mormo’s Curse has come to Switch after being released previously for PC and PS4. It includes the expansion which adds new enemies, toys, locations and removes permadeath.
Essentially, The Swords of Ditto is a riff on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. You play as The Sword, who is reborn over and over to fight the witch Mormo.
Mormo has cursed the lands and each time the Sword is reborn, they have a set amount of time to fight and defeat Mormo. If they succeed, she is banished for 100-years. If they fail, Mormo will rule the land for 100-years and make life miserable for the inhabitants of the Isle of Ditto.
The Swords of Ditto Switch Review
The first thing you’ll notice when you kick off The Swords of Ditto are the visuals. It looks like a hand-drawn cartoon and almost reminds me of The Busy World of Richard Scarry. Even though you’re battling demons and baddies, everything has a cute look to it and would look right at home on a Saturday morning cartoon show.
It’s a shame that the world is procedurally generated as it takes away from the overall quality of the visuals. While each tile of the map has been designed to work with the rest, it would have been better if the world had been designed.
Instead, some iterations of the game feel like a mish-mash of different bits and doesn’t feel like a cohesive whole.
Just Call me Lunk
Each time you awaken, you’ll need to level up by chopping down hordes and hordes of baddies. As you do you’ll get more health and deal more damage.
In addition, the higher you level up the more stickers and sticker slots you earn. By equipping these stickers you can give yourself some buffs that help you dispatch those baddies more easily.
Combat in The Swords of Ditto boils down to smacking one button over and over until everything on the screen is dead. There’s no real strategy to it. You can roll out of harm’s way and use a variety of items to get the upper hand but I found mashing attack was the easiest way to get along.
Do It Again
In each iteration, the Sword needs to find the magical “Toys” that aid the quest. There’s a dungeon for each toy and a dungeon to practise using each. After that you should be ready to tackle Mormo.
You can, of course, take the fight straight to her after waking up, though it’ll be significantly more difficult.
Sadly, while each iteration is a bit different, they’re not different enough. The dungeons are all a bit too easy and everything becomes a bit of a repetitive grind. I found that playing in short bursts was the best way to avoid feeling too repetitive.
It helps that playing on Switch in handheld mode gives you the ability to put it away whenever you like and the smaller screen helps mask the smallness of the overworld and dungeons.
Overall, The Swords of Ditto Mormo’s Curse on Switch is decent but doesn’t quite stick the landing. It’s good in short bursts and may tide you over until Link’s Awakening, but it certainly won’t replace it.
The Swords of Ditto Mormo’s Curse was reviewed on Switch using a digital code provided by the publisher.
PowerUp! Reviews
Game Title: The Swords of Ditto Mormo's Curse
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Great visual presentation - 9.3/109.3/10
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Roguelike elements don't quite work - 5/105/10
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A bit too simple - 6/106/10
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A decent facsimile of a Zelda game - 6.5/106.5/10
