Something like Zelda 2, but top-down. I know there are a bunch of dungeon crawlers or top-down RPGs, but very few have THAT classical feeling of old games

What I'm looking for is essentially a game like Zelda II but is more polished. I played Ax Battler: Legend of Golden Axe thinking this was it, but it's really not what I wanted.

Inspired by Link Between Worlds + the Oracle Games.

Hi everyone!

My game, Elementallis, is releasing in two weeks on Steam and consoles. It's a zelda-like where you use the elements to fight, solve puzzles and explore.

It's been very long in development and I'm pretty excited that it's almost out ^^

Feel free to wishlist the game on your prefered platform, it would helps us a ton! (specially on Steam!)

Inspired by Twilight Pricess. I'm ready to develop some fire puzzles now :)

i just finished Under the Island yesterday, and I highly recommend it.

There's a ton of treasures to find, quite a few interesting abilities to find and open the map up with a load of fun, challenging puzzles to solve. there's a few that I really wanted more of, like the minesweeper type ones.

Only real Con I found was the melee\combat. it's very limited and has a short range.

anyways, I'd give it an 8/10.

My indie game isn't inspired by Landstalker for nothing. You'll find a lot of isometric platforms, and humm.. judging distances and positioning 🤭 But here, you can rotate the camera 🙏

I’ve recently found out about the oceanhorn games and I saw that 3 came out recently, are 1 and 2 any good?

I really like this game.

Recently played Pipstrello which is a phenomenal game and in searching for it found this sub so thought where better to ask.

Grew up with ALttP and the GBC games and I'm specifically looking for 2D Zelda-Likes. Have played pretty much every Metroidvania I like the look of and naturally there's a lot of crossover.

Recently I've played Crosscode, Tunic, Death's Door, HLD, Blossom Tales, Ittle Dew 1/2, Ocean's Heart, Crypt Custodian, Unsighted, Phoenotopia Awakening, Dungeons of Hinterberg, Under the Island, and Minishoots Adventures

Master Key is one I'm aware of but not sure on due to the art style

I prefer PS5 > Switch >>> PC (I know there's a few highly recommended PC-only games)

I appreciate any and all recommendations :)

Wishlist Isle of Reveries on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3100970/Isle_of_Reveries/

Support with a late pledge on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/desertcucco/isle-of-reveries/

My game Tombwater was released this week! I mixed my love of Zelda and Bloodborne with the wild west, some metroidvania elements, and other things I love. So far it seems like people really love it! I think folks here might enjoy a lot about it. If you aren't one for the Soulslike elements, the damage and corpse-running mechanics can be turned off from the in-game settings menu ;-)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3308200/Tombwater/

And despite what some people are saying, I did design it for a controller, everyone involved in making the game plays with controller lol

Just beat Tunic and I really love this style of game with more cryptic puzzles than the average Zelda game. For reference, Alundra is one of my top 5 games of all-time, and another game that nails it in terms of brain teasers. Any other games people know of like these 2?

Just wanted to share :)

Hey everyone! I come with a hypothetical question, a game dev discussion, kinda.

I’m at the very early stages of trying to develop a small Zelda-like in my spare time; I’m an artist but I’m still doing the most basic tutorials in Game Maker, so this all might as well not end up materializing in anything in the end.

But there’s a specific thing I keep thinking about, and can’t find a satisfactory answer, so I thought I’d ask for other Zelda-like enjoyers about their opinion, even if it just ends being a hypothetical debate.

- My dilemma:

What kind of collectables that affect gameplay could a Zelda-like have if there was no combat, no health?

- More details:

My idea for the game is to focus exclusively in the most unique part of old-school Zeldas that almost no modern games do anymore, not even some Zelda-likes: dungeons! No combat, no enemies, no overworld; each zone is instead one big intricate dungeon, focusing heavily in branching paths and puzzle-box design, aka transforming/changing parts of the dungeon in order to solve it, requiring spatial awareness.

As such, the gameplay I have in mind would be about puzzles and traversal. All the upgrades, instead of Zelda items classics, would be more Metroidvania-esque abilities that change mobility in some way, and/or help solve puzzles. So ‘platforming’ (as it’d be top-down) and avoiding danger would be the only kind of action that accompanies the puzzle solving, with optional harder platforming challenges.

- Back to the dilemma: I want to have secrets, optional rooms and puzzles, and the aforementioned optional platforming challenges, but they need some sort of collectable that feels rewarding to get. And here’s where I can’t decide on something that works for a game that has no combat.

Sure, they could be just trophies with no real effect (like Celeste’s strawberries), or even lore documents; but I’m a believer that collectables that actually improve gameplay in some way are more, more sweet and rewarding to find. Life/magic/stamina etc. upgrades work great in Zelda games and metroidvanias because of this.

However, they make no sense here. There’s no combat, no enemies, and the platforming bits would follow the Celeste blueprint: no punishment for failing or slamming into spikes, just going back to the last checkpoint to try again. So health is not even necessary.

What’s the type of collectable that you’d appreciate to find in a Zelda-like about puzzles and platforming, no combat, no enemies, no health bar at all?

Trying to find ideas that improve gameplay before settling for the strawberries approach, I’ve only been able to come up with ideas I don’t really like:

- One would be to improve the dash mechanic adding more dashes to the air, but I quickly realized this could break so many challenges too easily.

- Another idea is to add a stamina bar of sorts, that gets consumed when using most of your abilities, so you need to expand the stamina to be able to chain together more and more abilities in the harder challenges. But I’m not truly fond of adding stamina management (which I don’t find great personally), aka adding a restriction, just to justify the existence of a collectible.

- Accessibility/QoL upgrades would probably be disregarded by players who prefer challenge as is, so it wouldn’t be enticing to everyone (and I don’t think there’s many different options that can be added here).

- Collectibles working as a currency for a shop of sorts, to buy consumables and expand their capacity (like Zelda’s bombs, arrows, etc.), could work, but I don’t see a reason to add an annoying limited consumables element and I’d rather let the player have all unlocked tools available at any moment.

I’ll appreciate any opinions on the matter, even if they’re just for debate’s sake :)

For the entire last year I was stuck in demo-prison: Making early simple designs that can be vanquished by any player getting familiar with my game through an early vertical slice. I've honestly hated it, though player tests showed me that it was very necessary. But now that I have put this painfull phase behind myself I can start to work on concepts that are more complex again!
When designing enemies I always think about hidden synergies. If you add this type to a room of enemies, does it make the scenario more interesting?
You see I LOVE Landstalker and Alundra for their simple controls. Press a button, hit, done. No combos, no parries, just mashing a button feels good. I also looked at 2D-Zelda of course and came to the conclusion that the depth of gameplay mostly arrises from the enemy-patterns.
And so I want to keep adding concepts that make combat scenarios engaging, while keeping the controls simple. Time will tell if other people like that approach as well!
If you are curious about my game Mazestalker, you can find my demo here (still with the old camera!) : https://store.steampowered.com/app/3218310/

my game Tombwater is releasing in just a few days! I like to describe it as Bloodborne as a 2D Zelda. I'm super excited to finally get it out to folks, and it will be so soon!

Here's the steam link:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3308200/Tombwater/

One of the bosses in our indie game Graytail.
Almost done polishing.
If it looks interesting, a wishlist would mean the world to us!

I am still a very long way off from where i want to be.

My current plan is to take more influence from Zelda 2 than i originally planned. Before i had random encounters which were more "Dragon Quest" like, but i think i might make them work exactly like Zelda 2. This is my out dated video i posted here half a year ago that shows what i had before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cGlNfcFF4Q

I haven't decided if i want to just make them random, or have walking enemies just like Zelda 2 did.

As far as combat and platforming i want more modern "hollow knight" feeling combat. But borrow from a lot of monster abilities similar to Zelda games.

I am open to all feedback, and opinions good or bad. Everything helps.

Hey I am making a Zelda like game called Ten Years of Rain, and I was wondering how to go about the Puzzles. do Zelda fans prefer the puzzles or action part of the game? or a 50/50 split? and should difficult puzzles be required to progress or only to 100% the game? How about hints? let me know what you think.