Call of Elmore

Call of Elmore brilliantly exemplifies a sense of adventure through its combination of atmosphere and discovery. The game forgoes common tutorialization and quest mechanics; in their stead, the player is permitted to search the overworld and speak to NPCs to uncover the next dusk-soaked action area on their own terms. The abilities that the player acquires each have multiple functions for how they interact with the world and this meshes with the level design to frequently allow different options for how to tackle the various combat and platforming challenges. Can't wait to see more from this dev in the future.

A short little thing with some replayability and challenge mode options, clearly a testing ground for a larger project (that I believe already has an entry on Steam). It's clear the dev was going for a NES Zelda 2 look and feel but I feel like they hit the Famicom Getsu Fuuma Den more. Personally I think that's a good thing, both games are great and Elmore hits in the same ball park. I have disagreements about how clunky turning around feels, but it's rarely a problem. I also had a bit of a tribulation figuring out how to block, and one encounter requires you do it and do it well, but I don't mind dying a few times having to learn a mechanic. The game is also pretty short; you can knock it out in a couple hours, but there's some difficulty mutators and some decent speedrun and no-hit challenge achievements to go for. If the other thing the dev is working on is this but more, and a more coherent expansive world? I'm all for it.