Zelda: Seeds of Darkness

It's like zelda... without the zelda gameplay

Reviewed by Shawn from afro-ninja.com

Zelda: SoD is a custom-made Zelda game that uses the sprites from Minish Cap to create its characters and areas. While at first glance it may look just like the classic Zelda gameplay you’ve come to enjoy you’ll soon see that this game could have easily swapped its sprites with another series and ended up the same.

Of course it’s not fair to compare SoD to a Zelda console game. In fact, it’s usually not fair to compare regular console games to Zelda console games. However I think if you’re going to borrow the Zelda theme and imagery, you should attempt to provide some Zelda-like gameplay. In this game your goal is to search the forest for the seeds of darkness, and destroy them with your bomb. Forest areas have always been my least favorite areas of Zelda games, but I put that aside to be fair. As long as there isn’t a forest maze I could handle it. While it’s not a maze it’s the same idea- the whole game is a big collection of forest screens, with some being dead-ends. You just proceed through the screens until you find the end. No puzzles to be found, no items to collect. You can swing your sword and use your shield, but your shield is pretty useless. All the shield does is block projectiles but you have to press a button to use it, and even then it wont bounce the projectiles back in their face. By the time you wait for this to occur you could just run up to an enemy and slash it.

The game offers two kinds of enemies, each in two different colors. You’ll also find little bugs in the bushes you cut down, but for some reason these bugs do just as much damage as any other enemy in the game. To counteract this the author has included a large supply of starting hearts (8 to be exact) and heart refills are fairly common under the bushes. Due to this the game is pretty easy once you find your way around. Until the final boss, which was executed terribly in my opinion. As I mentioned earlier, you have to destroy the seeds with a bomb. Only thing is, this bomb actually follows you around from screen to screen. Sometimes the bomb will get stuck behind objects and you have to go back and get it, so that you can proceed. Enemies can attack your bomb and blow it up prematurely, which is a nice twist on the game. However when you reach the last boss(es) they can instantly trap you in a corner and blow the bomb up. I wish I could say I used some kind of strategy on the final boss, but all I really had to do was stand in one place and swing my sword over and over.

The engine and hit detection in this game are actually pretty good, it’s really just the game design itself that holds it back. I understand not wanting to make a full Zelda adventure but c’mon, at least give us something to do besides run through the forest and slash stuff. Graphics and sound are nice of course but that’s something the real Zelda games have prided themselves on anyway- and when you rip them, that doesn’t exactly change. All in all SoD will appeal to Zelda fans regardless, but it wont take long to be disappointed at the lack of variety in the game.

Click here to play Zelda: Seeds of Darkness

Graphics	Sound	Gameplay /Control	Presentation	Overall
7	7	7.5	7.5	7
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