Isle of Reveries

我想说本作是2026第一类塞，谁同意谁反对？

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.

Tremendously enjoyable. Some of the dungeon puzzles require quite a bit of thought, but this is fun and evocative of the GB Zeldas while maintaining it's own thoughts, ideas, and updated quality of life things. Good stuff. Also, perhaps controversially, I think this tackles what Echoes of Wisdom was trying to do much better.

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

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.

Old-School Zelda fans! It's dangerous to go alone, take this! I'm only a few dungeons in so far, but this has been such a fun experience, particularly if you liked the OG Link's Awakening or Oracle games. Difficulty-wise, it's a step up from typical Zelda games. Don't get me wrong, I'm a lifelong LoZ fan, but I can typically turn my brain off during those games. I have had numerous times in Isle of Reveries where I had to actively remember "man, where did I last see that...", or scratch my head on a few puzzles, or have to pay close attention because my progress forward was just a one square path I didn't notice. In that sense, this game is a bit more Metroidvania than you might expect. A lot of trying to find the next item/power to get to the next area type stuff. I happen to love that genre too, so this has been an awesome combo. YMMV. The music has been great. The story is intriguing. And most impressive of all - the dev/pub desertcucco is actively fixing the game as problems come up. I found a soft-lock spot, posted about it in the forums, and the next morning it was patched. And my example is just one of many. They very much care about the game and want it to be the best it can be, and you can tell they have a love of the Zeldalike genre. I'd go so far as to say this is currently one of the best Zeldalikes on Steam. If you enjoyed other games like "Ocean's Heart", "The Girl from Arkanya", "Lenna's Inception", or "Master Key", you'll likely have an even better time with this one.

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