Oceanhorn 3

Oceanhorn 3 Review: Zelda-Shaped Islands on Apple Arcade, Bugs on the Mountain

A Thousand Years After Oceanhorn 2, With a Technopirate and Her Crew

The series has always been Finland's answer to Zelda, and the third game says so in its structure: a chain of islands you sail to from Red Town, each with quests, chests and bloodstones to find, rather than the linear dungeons of the first game or a single open world. The story picks up a millennium after Oceanhorn 2 — the last floating island of the Sky Realm has fallen into the Shadow Sea, and you travel with Em, a technopirate, and her ship Warlock's Revenge, meeting Blackhat from the Uncharted Seas and hunting a Lost God beneath the waves. A May 4, 2026 App Store reviewer places it between Wind Waker and Breath of the Wild; a March 26 fan since the first game praises the movement and exploration and asks for quality-of-life changes; a March 18 four-star cannot sort skills and sticks to the six shortcut slots. Cornfox & Brothers released it on March 5, 2026, in 15 languages, rated 9+.

Runs Well on an iPhone 16; Stuck on Komona Island, Save Files Gone

Performance is the good news. A March 22 five-star on an iPhone 16 runs it on the Quality preset at 30 fps, hardly notices the frame rate after a few minutes, and used about a quarter of the battery in two and a half hours without heat. The bad news is stability across the year: a March 15 review crashes when switching apps and gets stuck on the Komona Island Mountaintop; a March 14 review's quests simply end at 90 per cent on the same mountain; a March 28 iPad owner finds the graphics too heavy even on basic settings. The summer expansion did not end it — an August 31 two-star cannot pass the Goblin Graveyard gate in the Lightbringer content even after a patch, and with a gamepad the teleport pod only moves up and down; a September 5 one-star found every save reset to New Game. The August 27 Lightbringer Update, version 2.1, added the Harbinger, a titan-scale boss, two dungeons and the enemy Blackmore.

Apple Arcade Only: No Price, No Ads, No Android

There is nothing to buy and nothing to skip: Oceanhorn 3 is an Apple Arcade title, included with the subscription and unavailable outside it, with no in-app purchases, no advertising and no tracking listed — a March 10 reviewer calls it the kind of game the service needs. The flip side is the walls: no Android version, no Steam version, no way to own it, and a 4 GB download that needs iOS 15 or newer, with iPad, Mac and Apple Vision builds under the same subscription and controller support built in. The two-part summer quest Hand of the Savior — the Sea Titan Beross in Part 1, the Sorcerer's Gate and Devil's Cradle in Part 2 — came free, the Arcade model working as intended. The App Store rating stands at 4.7 from 1,877; a September 16 reviewer recommends playing the first two games first for the plot. Subscription prices are regional.