Master Key

This game is definitely not a joy to play on a big screen. In this case smaller is better, and would probably give a much better experience on a steamdeck or similar. I get the 2 color artstyle, but I really didn't like it no matter what colorpalette I tried. There were too little detail for it to be enjoyable. I also had a huge issue with the fact that you get stunned for a long while when getting hit. Will not give this game a negative review as it's good for what it tries to be, although it wasn't for me at all

I really wanted to like this game but there were so many small issues that, piled up just don't make it enjoyable. Two-colour graphics are cool at first but get old as everything just starts to blend together. Your swing has barely any range even if you get the sword upgrade. Enemies aren't knocked back (which I can normally excuse but in the context of everything else here I can't ignore). There's practically no story. Money feels completely irrelevant. I'm almost at 500 and there's not much to buy or let alone do anything with aside from just getting a bigger wallet. Graphics aren't that interesting to keep with the palette, feels like I'm playing a Playdate game. There's barely any save points so exploring is a complete slog and I've spent most of the run so far backtracking because I died in a far spot and have to go all the way back. Music is the only thing I can't criticize. It's pretty good. I stopped right after getting a ham, not knowing what it does and then being forced to use it in the forest Orc fight (essentially wasting it) and then having to backtrack ALL the way back to the forest from the town because there's no save points. At this point, with no story to be invested in, graphics not standing out and it being a pain to get anywhere I don't see a point to keep playing. There's nothing to keep me interested.

I want to like this game with it's cute aesthetic but the level design is severely lacking. I just finished the first dungeon and there are a looooot of annoying quirks in there, the biggest "wtf were they thinking" moment was while entering a room from the south and you need to hookshot (spoilers) your way through the room, from post to post. There is a timing puzzle in there as well, where spikes are slowly rotating around the room so you need to wait for a cycle to do the puzzle... And then finally, there's just one water-bound zora in the room that pops up and shoots pellets at you. Here's the problem: You have literally nowhere to move or hide, and the room cycles while off screen so you may enter the room and need to wait 3-7 seconds for the spikes to rotate away from you... and if the zora just happens to be in line of sight of you well guess what? You're getting shot, and then THAT shot is probably sending you back to the last screen because it knocked you back a bit. This is one of many "for the love of god, dev, WHY?" moments for me just leading up to the first dungeon boss... extremely annoying. While on the depressing topic of dogwater level design, I enter the boss room and it's a mole, the game gives a mini cutscene where you stand directly in front of the boss without moving, and then the boss throws two shots in a spread pattern - missing you entirely. Me, thinking, okay chief I got the memo, and when the mole pops up next I stand still so the mole can miss me with it's spread shot... except the bastard mole does the exact same attack animation... before throwing one single shot directly in to me. The feeling of betrayal is immense, and my faith in the dev has plummeted, don't do this kind of blatantly obvious demonstration of a boss pattern when it doesn't even matter. My time played is very misleading btw, due to a lot of afk time, it'll say something like 7 hours at time of review but this is more like 2 hours of play, and that play was very meandering because I had fun exploring the first town and smacking all the walls I could think to smack. tl;dr - charming game that baited my love for a sense of discovery and squashed my fun with many, back to back, consistly bad level design choices. I'll say more if I decide to come and play some more, which is likely. If you want games with a sense of discovery then play Ooo or Tunic or La-Mulana 2 or Outer Wilds, you're welcome.

I really enjoyed it. It is a zelda like game, with a very fun visual style and a lot of secrets to find!

Very good zelda like. Reminds me of the original links awakening or the oracles. 100% recomend

Exploration and discovery in this game is very good. The dev did a lot with the art with only 2 colors. The game can be a bit plodding when you don't know where you're going, but overall it is very fun. The performance in the snowfall area could be improved.

If you enjoy old-school Zelda dungeoneering, this is definitely worth checking out. I enjoyed this one. I got stuck behind a few tricky fights at times because I was stubborn and refused to turn down the difficulty, but I have no regrets.