Isle of Reveries

really well made if you like old zelda or games you need to try it.

I was a Kickstarter backer who played the full pre-release version of the game, and I have to say this game captures the feeling of Link’s Awakening meets Majora’s Mask. If you’re looking for a game that nails the experience of a new 2D Zelda, and the core spirit of the Zelda franchise, this is it as far as I’m concerned. The basic gameplay is based on Link’s Awakening and the Game Boy era of Zelda, except it features a handy dedicated jump button. The varied and engaging overworld initially feels like a giant outdoor dungeon, similar to the Capcom Zelda games such as Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, and The Minish Cap. Later, it opens up and asks you to piece together several quests that span the entire map. The world itself is populated by a large cast of memorable characters that you help and catalog like Majora’s Mask. Sometimes that means saving them from enemies or their own bad decisions, sometimes that means building things or trading things with them in a small village like a mini version of Animal Crossing. There are some characters that I wish got a little more time to shine, but the cast as a whole will make you think and often even laugh. The game has a modern version of Link’s Awakening’s sense of humor, but at the same time, it has a somber and thoughtful story about human nature like Majora’s Mask. The writing is really good in that respect, and the mysteries of that story draw you in and keep you playing. What struck me the most about this game is that it’s not a simple Zelda-like or Zelda clone. Despite the influences in visuals and mechanics, it really stands on its own. It has a copy mechanic that can be used for puzzles and combat, but what’s impressive is this mechanic does not dominate the game. There is a full set of tools you must mix and match with this copy ability to navigate the world and progress. It has complex, memorable dungeons with unique themes that take advantage of your wide range of abilities. Because of this, it can be genuinely challenging. There are a few puzzles that can be frustrating with how much they ask you to keep track of spatially, even when you know what to do. By and large, though, they're a delight, and they are ultimately rewarding, which is what matters most. This game consistently rewards you for exploring and puzzle-solving, which is rarer these days in adventure games. The side quests feel valuable and at times very dynamic with the tasks they give you, and the main quest is meaty. The game's mechanics and world mesh together organically, making it feel alive. It’s refreshing to have a game like this that’s not holding your hand and trusts you to overcome what it throws at you. Now, the game does intentionally lean toward its retro roots in some aspects of its quest tracking and limited use of the buttons available on modern controllers, which can sometimes slow down the gameplay in menus or make you feel a little overwhelmed or intimidated with the larger side quests, especially when you’re still getting your bearings. There are also moments where the sprite tile sets might trick the eye in unintentional ways as you’re learning the map. Finally, the light-dark-light transition screens between biome regions on the overworld map were not as pleasant to my eyes as the transitions in and out of indoor areas. However, none of these issues broke my immersion or significantly diminished the experience. This was a 20+ hour experience for me. The art direction, puzzles, and music gave a real sense of joy within the poignant melancholy of the game’s world, and I feel like I’ll want to play through it again because it felt like a special experience. In almost every way, this turned out to be the kind of Zelda game I’ve been missing for a long time.

This nails the adventurous spirit I was hoping for out of Mina the Hollower that never quite manifested.

i'm still early on (just beat the 2nd dungeon) but i can tell this game's going to be an all timer. credentials: im one of those freaks who love the oracle games and when the claw launcher shot out and it played that sound effect i knew the dev was a real one. i hope this game sells a million copies

我想说本作是2026第一类塞，谁同意谁反对？

Incredibly dense and clever Zelda clone. Dungeons are phenomenal puzzleboxes, the overworld is fun to explore, and there's several rewards for diligence. There's some glitchiness, you can jump across two-tile gaps with perfect abuse of coyote time or sometimes hookshot things from the wrong side to activate bridges backwards, but they feel like the sort of nonsense I'd get up to in ALttP Randomizers so it's far from unwelcome. I'm only about halfway in so I'm not sure if it's going to quite hit the highs of Master Key or Pipistrello, but I'm very much enjoying my time.

Good Zeldalike. Puzzles and dungeons were actually challenging and fun. Bosses were tad too easy besides damage. The damage in late-game was bit too much, not sure if there was an upgrade that reduce damage as I never found it and finished the game.

This game feels like it has some potential, but my play experience shot itself in the foot enough times that I really wasn't enjoying myself. The controls don't feel very good, the jump mechanic is very clunky, and I found myself failing a lot of basic jumps due to very awkward hitboxes, in particular you have to jump kinda early when you jump upwards and it does not feel great. Enemies being able to target fire you through walls does not help that fact. The maps also just didn't feel very good to navigate, I found myself getting lost or walking in circles sometimes because the map flow wasn't very good. What really broke the experience for me was when I thought I had opened a shortcut back to a previous area by throwing a rock that was blocking a 1 tile jump, only to come back and find out the rock had respawned and I had to go all the way around again. It turns out if I had turned a different direction, I would have unlocked a REAL backtrack route, but the one I thought I had unlocked was just there to frustrate me. Getting teleported to wherever you entered the room every time you messed up the controls and fell in some water was also not great, especially since the character sprite took a minute to load in. It felt disorienting every single time. There's an issue with lack of direction and a lack of clarity in some of the pixel art as well. Sometimes I found it difficult to discern paths because the traversable and non traversable terrain was hard to distinguish. I ran into one character I thought was a friendly npc but was actually an enemy, had other characters I thought were enemies but were actually npcs. Saw one puzzle that looked to be a mirror puzzle, but the item I cloned that I thought was a mirror did absolutely nothing and could not be rotated. I didn't get too deep with the story, but the writing didn't really appeal to me, I'm not sure if there's a translation gap or something, but the dialogue wasn't really that pleasant to read, and the characters didn't really appeal to me at all. I could maybe see some of the characters going somewhere, but with how the story flowed, I'm really not sure if I would grow to love them. It's really frustrating, because a part of me wants to explore this world more, but the gameplay frustrated me enough on a basic level that I don't feel like it's really worth it.