Written by Bernard Julius Paje
Title: Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King
Developer: Castle Pixel
Publisher: FDG Entertainment
Price: $14.99
Genre: Action, Adventure
Also Available On: Steam
Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King is an action/adventure game that is inspired by classic 2D The Legend of Zelda games. To say that it is inspired by Zelda games is actually an understatement, because at times you will most likely swear that what you are playing IS a Zelda game. There are a myriad of references to the classic Zelda games of old in Blossom Tales, and these become very apparent the longer you play the game. Thankfully, Blossom Tales is a well-made Zelda-like, so if you loved most of the 2D classic Zelda games then you will surely enjoy this game. Blossom Tales also applies a unique twist to the classic Zelda formula via its storytelling.
The game begins one night with a happily sleeping old man in a fireplace-lit living room when two kids—his grandchildren Lily and Chrys—suddenly barge noisily into the scene. The little ones wake up their grandpa, of course, forcing him to tell them a bedtime story. At this point, the game cheekily pokes fun at the Zelda series when grandpa offers to tell them a story about an ‘elf boy’—a story the kids claim that he has told them a million times over. So grandpa then tells them a different story: One about the kingdom of Blossom, where the heroine of the story—a young girl who was also named Lily—was about to be officially knighted (damed?) by King Orchid and anointed as an honorary Knight of the Rose. Being a young girl, newly-knighted Lily is tasked with something easy and not so dangerous: to rid the castle basement of its rat infestation. Little does she realize though that trouble is brewing in the Blossom Kingdom, because King Orchid’s brother—the wizard Crocus—is plotting to take over the kingdom. As soon as Lily clears her maiden task, Crocus has successfully cast a sleeping spell on the king, sending the whole kingdom into turmoil. To wake King Orchid up, Lily needs to collect three ingredients that will be used to concoct a potion that will lift the king's curse.
The rat-infested castle basement serves as the game’s tutorial dungeon, where Blossom Tales’ basic mechanics are introduced and explained to the player. At regular intervals during the adventure, grandpa can be heard narrating the events of the story to the girls. The way this narrative is executed in-game feels very natural—it really is like you are the hero in a story that is being told in realtime. The trio of commentators will shrewdly quip at various parts of Lily’s adventure; like before an important story event is about to take place or when Lily gets an item for the first time. You will also have limited control as to what happens in the story—at some points, Lily and Chrys will argue about what enemy they want Blossom Knight Lily to fight, and it will be up to you to choose what the story will spawn out. These moments happen just a handful of times in the game and have no major impact to the story, but the way these events play out are rather enjoyable.
I mentioned earlier that Blossom Tales plays very much like a classic 2D Zelda game. This will be apparently clear as soon as you enter the tutorial dungeon. Hold the attack button to do a spin attack? Check. Get gold and heart pickups by breaking pots and cutting grass: Check. Destroy conspicuous, cracked walls with a bomb to reveal a secret room: Check. Collect 4 heart pieces to get an extra heart container? Check. Bow and Arrow, Shovel, Boomerang? Check, check, check! Everything here just screams The Legend of Zelda, but Blossom Tales does exude an identity all its own despite copying the most basic elements from its inspiration. In addition to the game’s unique storytelling method, it also sports a gender-bending twist because the game puts you in control of a young girl who is determined to save the king (which is normally the other way around gender-wise for most games).
In addition to playing like a classic Zelda game, Blossom Tales also looks and sounds like a Zelda game. Graphically, Blossom Tales’ art style will remind you a lot of the GameBoy Zelda entries (Link’s Awakening and the duo of Oracle games) but its presentation is more similar to the SNES' A Link To The Past. Blossom Tales’ music will also remind you of some Zelda tunes—again, the GameBoy entries of the franchise will come to mind in this aspect—but considering a majority of the audio is played via chiptune makes that observation of mine debatable. Also, using a controller with a good D-Pad to play the game is highly recommended because some areas require the precision of digital controls to easily beat—the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller or an SF30/SF30 Pro controller from 8Bitdo are highly recommended, but the 4-button, pseudo D-Pad of the left Joy-Con should suffice as well.
Each of the three ingredients Lily needs to find to wake up the titular sleeping king is housed in a separate dungeon. In true The Legend of Zelda fashion, each of these dungeons has a specific theme—there's a Forest Dungeon, a Fire Dungeon and an Ice Dungeon. Each of these three dungeons are huge, and will take you at least an hour to fully tackle. Of course, each dungeon houses an important item that Lily needs to utilize to beat it. After getting all three ingredients, you are then thrust into the final dungeon, where you will have your penultimate battle with Crocus. Again, dungeons are heavily inspired by classic Zelda games—there are rooms that require you to defeat all enemies to move on, and the puzzles you need to solve involve either block pushing, switch hitting or sequence memorizing. While the dungeons are sprawling, one of my complaints regarding them is that they feel too linear. Oftentimes, most dungeons will just have you trekking in a straight path from the start to the end. The last dungeon is the exception here though—it is a tough, labyrinthine gauntlet of challenges filled with some of the game's hardest battles and puzzles. It is also important to note that the game's huge overworld also technically counts as one big dungeon, as there are also a lot of things to do and secrets to discover in Blossom Tales' huge kingdom.
The game took me around 8 hours to beat the main story, and I see myself easily spending almost twice that time to find all the secret heart pieces, magic upgrades and hidden treasures scattered throughout Blossom Kingdom. When I finished the game though, I honestly wanted more. Directly comparing Blossom Tales to any of the classic Zeldas, I feel that this game is several dungeons short from greatness. The game's $14.99 asking price is just right though, so hopefully we get DLC for the game (or better yet, a sequel with a bigger scope) in the future. Overall, developer Castle Pixel did a great job in adapting The Legend of Zelda's best elements into their own game. Blossom Tales is a game I would highly recommend to both classic Zelda veterans and newcomers to the action/adventure genre alike.
YAY!
- A rather enjoyable game that masterfully adapts the best elements of classic The Legend of Zelda games to itself.
- Applies a unique and entertaining approach to storytelling.
- Blossom Tales' dungeons are huge, sprawling and challenging.
NAY!
- Most dungeons feel very linear, often requiring you to only move from point A to point B.
- Main quest if over far too quickly, and could have used a few more dungeons.
- Do not attempt to play this game with analog controls. D-Pad or bust!
REVIEW SCORE: 8.5/10
P.S. Also try Ittle Dew 2+, another awesome Zelda-inspired game that I recently had the chance to review. You can read my full review of that game here.
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