A tremendous top-down Zelda-like for individuals who like getting misplaced.
Grasp Key belongs to the indie class of minimalist Zelda-likes, within the vein of video games like Minit and Tunic. Followers of the unique Legend of Zelda and Hyperlink’s Awakening will really feel proper at house with the puzzle fixing and lack of handholding current in Grasp Key. It’s crammed with these light-bulb conjuring “eureka!” moments that make journey video games so memorable, ones that always come on the again of minutes of aimless wandering and confusion. There’s a allure to the easy presentation that works nicely for what Grasp Secret’s making an attempt to realize, even when it gained’t strike everybody’s fancy. I’ve but to uncover all of its secrets and techniques, however I’ve had a blast spending time on this miniature world.
With out preamble, your fox-like character is dropped right into a darkish cave, with solely a small circle of sunshine to see you thru the pitch black inside. Torches across the cave present some steerage, and ultimately you scamper by way of and open a chest containing a single, noteworthy key, which serves as your first weapon. Your journey takes you to 4 dungeons at totally different corners of the map the place you will need to retrieve different comparable keys, however this bigger purpose takes a backseat to only exploring the world at your personal tempo and experiencing the enjoyment of discovery.
Utilizing your trusty key/sword, you’ll reduce by way of bushes and a smattering of various enemies as you make your approach round. Cash that drop function each financial foreign money but in addition restore your well being, and the central city’s retailers provide quite a few upgrades and objects that vary from useful to essential, so that you’ll possible return right here usually. The primary of those is an object that allows you to cost up your sword in an effort to break fractured boulders impeding your progress, however you’ll have to decipher Grasp Key’s pictograph language to determine this preliminary puzzle. You see, this can be a sport world with out phrases, which implies you’ll have to depend on your different online game senses to navigate the varied obstacles and puzzles this world throws at you.
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The place Grasp Key genuinely shines is in the way in which a lot of its world beckons you to re-examine it. Once you first arrive at a brand new display, you’re more likely to see a treasure chest or ledge you could’t but attain, so that you make a psychological word to return there later. This design isn’t one unfamiliar to Zelda lovers, however it permeates so most of the areas in Grasp Key. One other feather in its cap is the way in which that cash really feel like a significant and invaluable useful resource; from upgrading your pockets or sword, to including on to your well being meter, there’s virtually by no means a degree the place you aren’t wanting to place cash in your pocket. Enemies can hit fairly laborious, too, so that you’ll need to choose up each coin you possibly can simply to remain alive.
Whereas the endgame ramps up the problem a good bit, there’s a gradual problem curve for many of Grasp Keys’s 5 to 10-hour runtime. Every of the primary dungeons presents a novel theme and set of obstacles, and you will have to maintain your pondering hat and detective package shut at hand to unravel the quite a few puzzles situated inside. Except for the acquainted ones that contain hitting switches, you’ll additionally must be artistic together with your rising arsenal of instruments to navigate the trickier conditions. I commonly discovered myself doubling again and pausing the sport simply to assessment and replicate on what I could have missed or not tried but. The heavy emphasis on psychological duties is paying homage to the Oracle of Ages on Recreation Boy, and it is refreshing given how different Zelda-likes can lean extra into fight.
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The minimalist visuals gained’t enchantment to all people however they work nicely in a sport with pretty easy gameplay mechanics. Pushing blocks, swinging your sword, and launching your hookshot are among the many actions you’ll have at your disposal, however there’s a little bit of jank to how fight truly works. Whereas enemies don’t get knocked again by your assaults, you’re by theirs, and so the few boss encounters you do have are made all of the more difficult by this imbalance. Luckily, the dungeons housing these bosses are memorable and distinction properly with the world outdoors.
Completionists may also have their fingers full with the various secrets and techniques and collectibles scattered all through the world of Grasp Key. One such object is a music file, of which there are a number of dozen to search out that unlock the sport’s music tracks in your listening pleasure (the city’s theme that opened the video being a favourite of mine). Even these not aiming for one hundred pc will need to be thorough in order to be nicely ready for the trials of the sport’s last hours.
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General, Grasp Key finds strong floor to share with different notable indie Zelda-like video games, feeling very very like a minimalist model of Tunic. The numerous secrets and techniques of its world and the way in which by which it encourages you to go looking and replicate on each display give it a outstanding sense of vitality. I do know I haven’t seen all that its dense map has to supply, however I’ve nonetheless totally loved my time with Grasp Key and stay up for ultimately diving again in to search out what I missed.