Okay, we're not sure how this one slipped through the net, but we've just caught wind of a rather interesting new eShop game called Master Key.
Released on 30th May 2024, it's a monochrome take on classic top-down Zelda gameplay in which you take on the role of a fox who discovers a mysterious key hidden in a cave. To find out what the key is for, you must embark on a quest that will take you across dangerous lands filled with enemies, items, shops, and more.
Clocking in at anywhere between five to ten hours, the game boasts strong approachability with no reading required and the freedom to explore the world as much or as little as you desire. We're also quite fond of the visuals here; it's almost like a cross between Gato Roboto and Zelda: Link's Awakening. We dig it!
Here's a look at the key features:
- Item based exploration
- Dozens of enemies
- Shops, weapons, and powerups
- Dungeons
- Between 5 and 10 hours of content
- Lots of secrets
- No language support!
- The game doesn't hold you by the hand, it's a love letter to hiking and exploration. You have to find your own path and nothing is story-gated.
Master Key is available now for £10.79 / $12.50.
What do you make of this one? Will you be adding it to your Switch library? Let us know your thoughts with a comment.
Comments 21
The demo is great, I will definitely pick this up as soon as its on sale.
I loved gato roboto and I love Zelda games so I'll definitely be picking this up! Thanks for the heads up!
@Olliemar28
"We're also quite fond of the visuals here; it's almost like a cross between Gato Roboto and Zelda: Link's Awakening."
Don't forget the lovely little game called Minit (2018)
Gato Roboto (2019) is a fun and pretty little catroid.
Links awakening (1993) is one of my favorite games ever!
Master key is doing good on metacritic so far:
https://www.metacritic.com/game/master-key/
I will wait for some more reviews.
I hadn't heard of it until seeing this article — will give the demo a go on Steam/PC, but it looks very up my street, and its £9.99 price there is within my 'impulse buy' sweetspot.
Thanks for highlighting it, @Olliemar28 😁
I definitely first thought of Minit seeing this, one of the best indie titles in the Switch's early years. Its design was really built around the 60sec time limit, which likely took some inspiration from Majora's Mask but taken to a logical extreme. You almost don't have to be anxious about the time limit because it goes by and respawns you so quickly.
This game looks like it's a more classic Link's Awakening / Oracle approach. There's of course room for multiple monochrome top-down Zeldalikes!
Not a fan of the 2-tone graphics but the gameplay seems up my alley. Eager for more secret hunting after finishing Animal Well.
HOLY MOLY! This is like a Tunic demake, in a way, sort of kind of. It's like a Zelda game, pretending to be a Tunic demake, pretending to be Zelda.
I'm buying this right now! It would've flown right under my radar otherwise.
Do the review please. I'd like to get NLs take on it before I buy and try.
Playdate port PLEASE. Lets get Minit and Gato Roboto on there as well while we're at it.
I wish I wasn't so slow on the uptake for Zelda-likes. It seems decent enough from what I see.
I had a lot of fun with this one, one of the best Zelda-likes on the Switch imo
Looks great both aesthetically and gameplaywise, if it's just as good as it looks (would be great if Nintendo Life reviewed it) I'll eventually get it for sure!
Also, lol at the Picross inclusion!
@mazz Someone is working on a de-make for Play.date:
https://devforum.play.date/t/master-key-pocket-a-text-less-adventure/12800
@BoFiS That's incredible. Looks like they have the original dev's support and everything as well.
"Clocking in at anywhere between five to ten hours, the game boasts strong approachability with no reading required and the freedom to explore the world as much or as little as you desire."
That's just great because I loved Gato Roboto and Link's Awakening is one of my favorite games ever!
How is this game 600mb?!
I miss when devs took into account smaller file sizes and optimizations for graphics. Now they just figure "our consumer cattle can go buy a new hard drive or graphics card if they want to play".
I'm not entirely sold on the monochrome graphics. Would have preferred a Game Boy Color look, but who it does look like a fun little game!
The advantage of being rubbish is that "Clocking in at anywhere between five to ten hours" will most likely be 40 hours of play time for me.
Although incredibly short, I wish there was a sequel to Gato Roboto
Just beat it! If you love games like Tunic or Animal Well you need to play this, it's great!
Wow! I saw this.
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