[h1][b]Recommended [u]as long as[/u] you know what you're getting.[/b][/h1]
[h1]1. This is [u]not[/u] [i]Zelda[/i], nor is it especially [i]Zelda[/i]-Like[/h1]
Graphically, [i]TMF[/i] is obviously a throwback to [i]The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening[/i] for the original Game Boy. The Soundtrack hits the same chip-tune-ish nostalgia buttons, and is pretty nice.
But that's just the skin -- the graphics are from a [url=https://sodacoma.itch.io/awakening-complete-tileset]third-party sprite pack[/url], so that's just an aesthetic choice, not baked-in design. And in terms of gameplay, [i]TMF[/i] is [u]very[/u] different from TLoZ. The differences are worth noting so that you don't feel like this is a bait-and-switch. One hit [u]always[/u] kills you in [i]TMF[/i]. You [u]never[/u] gain any defenses or buffs that make you any less fragile. And you [u]never[/u] gain any permanent weapons -- you can only chuck around some rocks and pots if they're available on-screen (you can't take them with you to other screens).
[list][b]Remember the helpful old man in the original Zelda for NES:
"It's dangerous to go alone, take this [sword]" ?
Well, [i]TMF[/i]'s tagline would be:
"It's dangerous to go alone. Off you go, alone. Be careful, I guess."[/b][/list]
Locking Tim's fragility has 2 important results for gameplay. First, there's not any RPG-like, stat-based mechanics of progression (not even gaining "hearts"). Second, there's very little opportunity for the kind of "adventuring" that's so characteristic of the older [i]Zelda[/i] games. You can't spend a carefree hour just wandering the overworld to see what you can find, or go backtracking easily on a hunch that maybe you can now do something new on an old screen -- because you are certainly going to die, and probably soon. As a result, you'll likely have a tendency to only pursue task-driven travel; exploration becomes limited by trial-and-error as you learn how best to evade or fight enemies on new screens; and you're very often going to be restarting from your last save. (You can save at "crystals" scattered around the map -- these are prevalent enough that you should be able avoid rage-quitting upon death, as long as you save often.) Even if you're familiar with the terrain and reasonably skilled at movement/combat, the enemies' paths are a little random, so that death remains a recurring feature, and there's an undeniably grindy aspect to gameplay.
This isn't a problem with the design, it [b][u]*is*[/u][/b] the design, but you probably wouldn't expect it from a glance at the game's aesthetic, and it is not properly highlighted by the quick comparisons to [I]Zelda[/I] that some reviewers thus far have made. (Hat's off to [url=https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970815344/recommended/1096980/]Meatweasel for pointing it out in their review[/url]) So, take note. Depending on what you liked about [I]Zelda[/I], you may very well not like this, and you might like this even if you don't like [I]Zelda[/I]. The rest of this review assumes that you're still interested.
[h1]2. What you do in [i]TMF[/i].[/h1]
Ultimately, you're trying to get a magic mushroom to heal your sick grandfather. The gameplay arc is: (1) a series of fetch/trade quests to get the (mostly passive) items you need to progress through new areas, and (2) a couple boss-"battles" (whose challenge mostly comes from trying to strategically work around Tim's fragility while figuring out how to hurt the boss). There's some puzzley-dungeony stuff along the way, too.
For the quests, your next step is sometimes clear (along the lines of: "Hey kid, I'll give you X if you give me Y") and sometimes cryptic (along the lines of: "Nay traveller, none shall pass ye olde demon gate 'til they bespeak the magic words of days gone by, long hidden in the secret place where only the bravest souls..." -- you get the idea). Despite some translation issues, the hints were generally sensible (in retrospect). What you'll likely wind up doing is having a hunch, hitting a dead end, and then trying something different. That's where the grind comes in, as described above: you'll be dying along the way. But, in general, if you keep trying stuff out, you'll get somewhere.
I rather enjoyed that the game doesn't always hold your hand and lets you feel a little lost about where to go at times -- that's why it's a [I] mysterious[/I] forest, y'see?
[h1]3. One complaint, and a fix.[/h1]
One odd design choice here is that the game doesn't offer a map to help you keep track of things -- the game's sparse aesthetic on many screens can make it difficult to distinguish them, leading to disorientation. This is compounded by the fact that the map is not always an orderly grid, so that it's sometimes difficult to intuitively keep track of where you're at. I don't mind a little mystery about where to go next, but didn't much enjoy not knowing where I was. [u][url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1877785849]I've tried to correct that[/url][/u].
[h1]4. How long is it?[/h1]
A pleasant surprise was that the game is quite a bit longer than it might at first seem: when you are able to reach the first ending (there seem to be 4 endings), you've in fact seen <50% of the game. Somewhere I think I read that the devs are pitching ~5h of gameplay, though that might be a bit modest if you're going for 100%. I got the last ending at ~12h (though I was pausing a lot to try to build the map), and it still took another couple hours of poking around to get all of the achievements. While a couple achievements were a pain, they're all unlockable, and most were quite fun to get -- I really felt like I was discovering something to unlock most of them, not just ticking a box.
[h1]5. Technical Stuff.[/h1]
Technically, [i]TMS[/i] seems well-built -- Though the [u][url=https://steamcommunity.com/app/1096980/discussions/0/1631916406858650020/]Dev is working on a known but currently unsolved problem that prevents some folks from launching the game[/url][/u]. I didn't encounter that problem, or any other serious bugs. I played on an XBOX 360 controller and it felt pretty good. There are sliders for music/FX. You can't play fullscreen (though I don't know why you would need to) and there are no graphics settings (though I don't know why you would need them).
You can have up to 20 save slots, *BUT* when you die, you can either press one button to go back to the title screen, or press another button to go back to your most recent save. Note: *not* go back to the last save you [u]loaded[/u], but instead to whatever the last save file was that you [u]created[/u]. That can get a little annoying if you're being neurotic like I was and loading up old saves, but may not affect you depending on how you play.
[h1]Overall, I recommend [i]TMF[/i] [/h1]
though it wasn't quite what I expected when I first loaded it up. The challenging gameplay is the main draw here (the story is alright, but a little thin, just as it is in many of the classic [I]Zeldas[/I]). I'm glad I played it, I'm interested to see that there's already [u][url=https://kibou-entertainment.itch.io/timothy-and-the-tower-of-mu]a sequel[/url][/u] in the works, and I hope the dev sees success. I just hope the game doesn't get hit by grumpy reviews from people who thought it would be [i]Zelda[/I]. I've seen Gamera Interactive repeatedly refer to [i]TMF[/i] as a "Zelda-like," and I think that's really poor marketing.
High difficulty level is the base: Timothy is basically defenceless and dies with a single touch from enemies or traps.