Shalnor Legends: Sacred Lands Arrives This Week Channelling The Legend of Zelda

This looks like hot garbage

It doesn't look too bad but I'm not that interested in it.

Looks bland and a poor effort. Will skip this one and await Hazelnut Bastille- looks brilliant.

If anyone wants a great game then try Blossom Tales- very enjoyanle Zelda esque game!

Compare to Kamiko and Blossom Tales, it just looks too bland. Might check it out someday though.

It is something

I'll see your 'Shalnor pass!' and I'll raise you 'Try (harder) you fools'

gets coat, leaves

"Chanelling" is generous. Honestly it must be possible to make a top down game without it having to be a Zelda-alike. I mean not all side-scrolling games are Mario rip-offs but it seems like every top down 16 bit game is just a Zelda clone. Even the trees and chests always look the same.

Why not try making something different but in the same style?

@Ooccoo_Jr
Genesis was great about that Beyond Oasis, Landstalker and Crusader of Centy were based off Zelda but all had their own unique look and gameplay quirks.

I thought Blossom Tales was boring and this looks even more drab. Ah well.

Not quite bad, but not looking too good. Life’s too short to play every game that wants to be Zelda, especially with Candace From Hyrule, Hazelnut Bastille, and Link Awakening on the horizon.

Btw where is Candace From Hyrule? They said spring but it’s already almost May. Is June or July still spring?

@SalvorHardin Exactly, it can be done. There were loads of great top down RPGs too of course but it's just frustrating that nowadays all games in this style are exactly the same.

That being said I did Kickstart Hazelnut Bastille so I guess I'm part of the problem.

What do you mean, "Who needs a Link's Awakening remaster?"

(Internal Screaming)

Just kidding. Zelda-like indies are cool, but they'll probably never get me as excited as an official Zelda game does.

It looks slow and boring.
I am really not found of "zelda clones" because I always have high expectations when it comes to the genre. I still believe the only one that deserves this title is Blossom tales, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

@Patendo you took the words out of my mouth. Game looks bland. And I love zelda and zelda likes. Blossom tales is the one of the best zelda likes out there

You don't like It, don't buy it. For myself I'm interested. Opinions and negativity... Godness...

@MrDisappointed tbh after all the quality higher definition 2d stuff that's been cropping up on the Metroidvania fronts I'd almost kill for a Zelda-like to finally ditch the trend of pixelated graphics when so much better is increasingly possible even in 2D or quality 3D as Nintendo's own revival of Link's Awakening is showing.

I'd really like a Zelda like with that quality of graphics or at least 2D stuff on par with either the most recent Shantae or Indivisible' 2D animated character art/"sprites" that trades pixels for the smooth clean line of what feels like animated handdrawn drawn art now in comparison.

The soundtrack is booty flakes

@Ludovsky I could definitely get behind this. I mean, I like well-done sprite work (like what they showed for Cadence of Hyrule, for example), but variety in visual styles is always appreciated. That's honestly one of the things that makes each Zelda game feel unique and fresh.

@MrDisappointed pretty much. I feel too many of these Zelda-like efforts seem to be hampered by perhaps a bit too much of a reverence to the pixel style of old when so much more could be done... even with pixels.

Like Octopath Traveler might make use of pixelated sprites but in it's case I feel we can truly talk of it as an elevation of pixel art to art form because they didn't use it as a pretext to constrain themselves to 2D and instead blended it into a modernization of itself with 3d graphics and light effects that created something unique.

In the same ways, games that stick to 2D tech could still make better use of the advance in display resolution and graphics to move 2D further with more high detail sprites and animation capabilities embracing the possibilities of truly hand drawn graphics.

@Ludovsky Yes! Octopath Traveler is absolutely gorgeous, and I'd love to see more games use an experimental style like that.

@MrDisappointed that's why I felt like bringing it up.
It's not that there's no room for pixel art anymore but I feel that if one is to suck with it, then at least that they could try to do more than just trying to reproduce the pixelated aesthetic. Octopath did this by modernizing it with advanced light and shaders effects combined with 3D graphics using such as it's texture in an art style that feels half pixels and half 3D papercraft at times with it's environment and structure next to very well rendered water effects.

Meanwhile pure 2D games could instead embrace the way higher definitions allow art styles to further shine through.

Like I've been experimenting with my own art style lately by going back to the roots of my childhood with works done by artist Moebius, and recently at stumbling on the cel-shaded 3D game "Sable" I realized that this style may be made to look beautiful in 2D as well if rendered at high definition and more advanced camera zoom and pan techniques to play on the style's ability to portray expansive environments.

I mean for example of Moebius' own work:
https://www.iamag.co/the-art-of-moebius/the-art-of-moebius7/

Love Zelda, especially ALTTP, but this one here is a clear skip. I also didn't like blossom tales that much, mainly because the story was garbage.

If the combat looked more fluid this would be day 1! Even so it doesn’t look bad and I read a review where it got 4.5/5 for xbone so will eventually pick this up. 8.99 how can it go wrong?

@Patendo

Hazelnut bastille looks like a zelda beater, and that is a huge feat. Can’t wait for that game but it’s not gonna come out anytime soon...

@Patendo I never heard of Blossom Tales nor have i seen it on the eshop while searching for games.

It has been out for over a year and it reviewed well. Eshop visibility sucks sometimes.

@Sidon_ZoraPrince finding games on eshop is a nightmare, horrible really. I often hear about them online and then go eshop rather than searching on there.

I literally check this sit 3/4 times a day and I've never heard of it. I somehow must have overlooked it. The eshop visibility sucks. Searching for good titles also sucks as you cannot search for something you have never heard of and not all good games will make the charts.

ignoring the negativity here, i am looking forward to this, wanted to get that "dew 2 " game but it simply hasn't gone on sale cheap enough that this price is providing

@Ludovsky That almost looks like concept art for an indie game, actually. Thanks for sharing! I would love to see a game in this style,

think I prefer zeldas awakening

The game looks like 5% of a final product.
How is it possible to publish a prototype as if it was a game ?

Looks fun. Not getting all the negativity. A passion project from someone who loves Zelda games at a buget price. Nintendo Life comments used to be more positive but now getting dragged down the drain to the rest of the web.

@DarkLloyd Got it for $11.99 a number of months ago. Its alright. I liked the original better.

@MrDisappointed If it means anything, the man is one of the more influential science-fiction and fantasy comic book artists of the franco-belgian industry

An amusing anecdote involving him was when one of his nephew brought him a then pirated copy of Miyazaki's Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind... which inspired him greatly and led him to eventually try to discover the artist behind the movie.

I say the anecdote is amusing because, in part, Nausicaa was in parts the results of Miyazaki himself previously falling upon Moebius' wordless illustrated comic, "Arzach" and trying to draw inspiration from this work even if Miyazaki's own style had already taken form at the time: http://www.openculture.com/2016/11/watch-moebius-and-miyazaki-two-of-the-most-imaginative-artists-in-conversation-2004.html

I played through the entire thing a few months ago on Steam. Its... not very good. It definitely takes inspiration from Zelda, but it lacks that spark that makes Zelda special. Really, it doesn't have a spark to make it feel unique. Combat's ok (heavy emphasis on bow; does expect any Zelda-like items like a hookshot, boomerang, or anything special) but the game was a bit on the hard side. Music is blah; inoffensive, but so basic and using so few sound channels that it sounds cheap. Its hard to overstate just how important music ends up being for a game like this IMHO; its only when the music is bland that I realized how much it adds to the experience.

Really looking forward to the Crypt of the Necrodancer/Zelda crossover. Both have great music, I'm digging the aesthetic, and a Zelda roguelike sounds like something I never knew I wanted.

For a game made by one guy in his underpants (probably), I think it looks alright.

0:20-0:30 dodging to the beat lol may be worth a try

@Ludovsky That's a pretty interesting story. Thanks for sharing!

A very ugly Zelda-clone. The upcoming Hazelnut bastille looks much better!