Shalnor Legends: Sacred Lands

I am having fun with this game! And I can't wait to play the next game!

I am someone who has played every Shalnor Game. I want to leave this review here because the creator hasn't had a lot of people giving good back on his games and I wanted to contribute something. To start off these games have heart. I am big fan of these style adventure games and love the legend of Zelda and playing these games I can feel the love for them here too. However it isn't very good. A lot is improved on in many ways in later games. Here there is mandatory grinding for required skills to progress, repetitive music and mobs and huge hp bars on boss which create a very mundane experience. For the most part this is removed from the latest game the Silverwing Saga and I can legitimately say every game after this shows improvement however I would like to point out some problems I have as a player and potential improvements. There are too many large mob encounters. Most fights are about managing a large group and this becomes really repetitive with time. Making interesting enemies that have dynamic solutions would be really beneficial to the experience here. The same goes for bosses having something large health bars make battles ones of attrition rather than skill and again, …

Honestly I would only recommend it in a bundle deal on sale. I feel like this game has a lot of love but all puzzle/trap rooms feel the same (due to looks and reused timings even though layout is different), combat isn't exciting (bosses feel same except ghost boss), heroic mode should be available from the start and story isn't well build as a game story. And don't get me started at the grind... Like on paper this game should be good, bosses have different attacks, puzzles and traps have different layout, exploration with a day/night cycle, good story concept etc.

If "The Legend of Zelda" was horribly tedious and boring it would be this game.

The game is easy to understand, gives a goal to push forward to and a reason why you need to do it.. yet it still allows for exploration and freedom of discovery. The puzzles are fun and challenging enough that it pushes to think and take a minute. The graphics remind of many games I grew up playing with a slight darkside feeling to them.. Overall I highly recommend it to others who would like to take on a challenge similar to ALLTP or the Original zelda while having merits of its own that makes it fun and unique.

Shalnor Legends is a simple labour of love with classic Zelda-esque gameplay. It's got its ups, it's got its downs; it FEELS like an indie game. It took me years to finish it because I put it down and picked it up again much, much later. I like simplicity. When you pick up the game after not playing it for eight months, you don't have to redo everything just to remember what's going on. The game doesn't hold much surprise in terms of story, but it did well within its own limitations. Simplicity also suggests that a lot of excess weight was cut from the game, which may or may not be true. Upgrading everything (if everything is your goal) is an awful grind, but otherwise it can be a challenge. The hit detection is a bit janky. The game is a bit dated (and was retro when it launched, so still dated). Heroic Mode is for the crazies; base game grind for 100% was bad enough; I'm not going there. But I had fun. For ~$10, I think it's worth it. Part of that is indie support, but part of it is "$10 isn't unreasonable". While I won't be 100%ing the game, having fun was the goal and I definitely did that.