XEL: a Zelda-like review that couldn’t find its way

Over the years, the indie game market has revived many genres that have partially disappeared or at least lost their centrality. An example (among many) is this: Zelda-like isometric or inspired by Nintendo’s classic adventures. Now a new project on the market is trying to find its way through the passion of the developers: XEL.

But passion isn’t always enough and this little adventure little roar As we will explain in the rest of our article, he is trying to persuade. Building a Zelda likeness means much more than maintaining its core features, and unfortunately XEL can’t do much more, it also introduces a number of pretty serious issues.

That’s when our XEL review in the PC version. The game is also available in a Nintendo Switch version. PlayStation and Xbox versions will only come later.

Amnesia

XEL starts from one of the great classics of video games: a hero with amnesia. Our character no longer has a memory of his past or whereabouts and only knows that he survived the emergency landing with his own spaceship. The young woman then walks through the wreckage and joins the robot Chap (Navi of the situation) and together they discover that there is a rural community living among the ruins of a great structure in the past. a more advanced civilization.

Reid, the name given to the lead character by his new allies, will later join a nice but all-too-classic cast of characters to become his arm-in-arms.

There History XEL is struggling to succeed and from the very beginning it seems like a set of clichés that failed to appeal to the player.

What’s nicer Game Worldperhaps too much, at least on the stylistic level that seems lively and expansive. The settings are actually often too large and the game’s speed drops. Usually, XEL would benefit from a shear, with the elimination of parts that did little to do with the adventure. Yes, there are chests to open in all directions, but sometimes it feels like you have to walk a lot to get so little.

arm and mind

Another issue with XEL, battle system. Reid has a sword, a shield, and some additional tools such as an electric trap that can be used to deal with various types of enemies. However, the banal combo system combined with a somewhat woody dodge still fails to create interesting action sequences due to poorly developed enemy attack strategies. Bosses improve the situation a bit as they offer slightly longer fights, but battles are boring, especially if you manage to accumulate a lot of healing resources and aren’t interested in dodging to attack with your head down.

The game isn’t about fighting anyway. Like any good Zelda analogue, XEL has a variety of puzzle sectionsblends with exploration of the game world. We will have keys to press to activate gates, batteries to collect and position to open gates, as well as various keys to be found inside chests to circumvent blocks. Reid’s tools are also used to tackle certain parts: an easy example is an electric trap that momentarily gives current to certain gates.

But more importantly, a Reid’s special ability, it is also connected with the plot: through a strange stone placed on her forehead, the girl can go to the past. This possibility is limited to certain parts of the game where puzzles are present. Moving in the past affects the present, and you need to understand how it moves safes and opens doors to reach your goal. For example, in the past we could move a chest under a walkway so it doesn’t collapse in the present and let us pass. The puzzles are hidden and the cards on the table are slightly different, but not enough to make XEL an exciting experience.

technical problems

XEL isn’t even superior in this regard technical level: Unfortunately, Tiny Roar’s adventure is full of problems. There are various graphical bugs, animations and incorrect character placements, and some places where getting stuck on the maps is possible. This last problem can be quite annoying, among other things, as XEL does not have an auto-save feature: you have to save manually in front of statues and you risk losing various progress in case of death or block.

It doesn’t end there, there are real problems in addition to the graphics problems. design errors, with visual elements that position themselves in front of the isometric camera and prevent you from seeing the game action well. Let’s add a very short loading distance that causes various graphic elements to pop up suddenly, and we have a visual sector that is often distracting and spoils the pleasant artistic aspect.

All this combined frame rate A dancer who always misses when the situation gets a little hectic.