SAGE 2023 - Demo Horn of Balance (SAGE '23 Demo)

So the game is (mostly) great! There were a few technical hiccups, like my Xbox One controller not being able to use the up arrow for some reason, so I had to resort with analog sticks (of which this game's controls do not jive with, at all). The game is in development though, so this is easy to overlook. My review will end up being a little more artistic/personal I suppose.

I'm someone who enjoys old Zelda games, and has always wanted a Zelda-like that goes way harder in dungeon crawling, so this should technically be right up my alley, but I did have some overall issues with it. I'm pretty sure I completed the whole demo, and found everything (it took me about 1h40 btw)

- It's honestly a little TOO much like ALTTP. Down to the slow movement speed, the SNES-like controls, and the fiddly doors that you won't always go through unless you're properly aligned (along with a few other things that were a lot easier to forgive for an old game, but here it kinda sticks out). Not only that, but so much of it comes directly from Zelda that its offputing. Jars, fairies, enemy behaviours, the combat is pretty much 1 to 1, exploration is based on keys and buttons and buttons under jars, and killing all enemies in some screens to sometimes open a door, or spawn a key, or push blocks, or, the worst, pixel hunt. I'm pretty sure both the mid-boss and the end boss are 1 to 1 with Zelda bosses as well. The powerup is a Zelda powerup, the whole map system is nearly the same. Anyway, I made my point, sorry for dragging.

I like 2D Zelda just as much as the next guy, but if you're going all in on dungeon crawling, maybe it would be cool to try and improve on it, put more sauce into it, y'know? This just feels like a long Zelda dungeon, which makes it tedious, takes too long to open up, and when it does, the dungeon barely has anything left.

- Not sure I should say this considering I know how some of the old fans don't really like the newer titles, but maybe look at having multiple solutions to some obstacles, make things interact a little more organically. The room with the weak floor and two skeletons had me making BOTH skeletons jumping into the weak floor, me throwing jars at it, and it still wouldn't budge. It clearly wasn't looking for weight, it was looking for my character holding a Jar, and it felt super artificial. The key at the end, on top of the fire stick was not only really hard to spot, but I made a bunch of stuff to try and make it fall. Threw boomerangs and arrows, used my charged up attack, tried lining my character's jump during the charge attack to make the sprites align, and nothing. Again, it wasn't looking for impact, it was looking for the dash bump.

- Keys always felt weird, because I'm pretty sure I never ran in the scenario of having two possible doors to open and just one key. In fact, I'm pretty sure I never had two keys either. It was always one key to one door.

- Exploration was fun, but it really could be better. You were either with an obscene amount of dead ends to keep in the back of your mind, or almost none at all. There is a feeling of a tangled wire that you slowly untangle when you start finding the correct paths, but it almost felt too much too fast. Maybe the dungeon should have been divided into two halves? Pre-wind upgrade and Post-wind upgrade? After you get the item there's a couple of stuff to clean up, but it doesn't feel like exploring at that point, no more untangling to be had, just mopping it up. idk, just an idea.

Anyway, it may seem like this is a 2/10 trash game by the way I'm talking about here, but it's really not. The game is incredibly polished, the dungeon is very fun (which is probably the most important aspect tbh), and so much of it is enjoyable. I like how statues aren't just set dressing/pushable items, but also lore. The ALTTP aesthetic is cute as heck and more games should have tried it, and you're doing it very well here. By all means this game is great, and if the community is ok with it being so closely based on Zelda, then just keep it that way. It may not be for me, but again, that's just personal preference. The score I gave is very much representative of my enjoyment (and also the fact that I just spent another 30 minutes writing this, on top of the 1h40 I spent playing the game), I ljust typed all that to give you some perspective from a random person browsing Sage games.

All the best to everyone involved

Horn of Balance is a breathtakingly beautiful 16/32 bit era styled Action RPG. The graphics are really a treat to anyone playing this lovely gem. Both the characters and the world are masterfully created. The character dialogue and from what I've seen of the story are well written. I look forward to coming back and giving this demo a more thorough playthrough once SAGE is over with.