A link to the past

I am so delighted that Animal well has caught the attention of the gaming press, and even gamers. It’s a wonderful game that deserves to be a huge success. It’s also exactly the kind of game that is often overlooked entirely. And if you don’t believe me, you should definitely buy and play immediately Master key.

Let’s be clear: these are very different games. Animal well is a Metroid-like a platform game, while Master key is a 2D Zelda-like the RPG, but both are surprisingly good games, made by an individual, that perfectly execute their mission in an accessible and deeply engaging way. One is lucky, the other is not. Let’s start by changing that.

Buried treasure

Buried treasure is a site that looks for great, unknown games that aren’t getting noticed elsewhere. You can support the project via his Patreon.

Master key it’s 2D Zelda distilled format in its purest form. It’s a monochrome RPG in which you play as an adorable fox, exploring an ever-expanding territory while gaining new abilities that allow access to new areas. The map begins shrouded in clouds, with each section revealed as you reach it, until you’ve discovered multiple biomes, temples, dungeons, and boss fights. And although it’s “monochrome” (it defaults to black and white, with options in the settings to choose your own color palette), it’s beautifully detailed, with a large number of distinct enemy types, beautifully animated, and everyone fights differently with your increasingly interesting range of attacks.

So yeah, that pretty much clinically explains that it provides all the right ingredients. What is much more important is the quality of the production. Master key is simply wonderfully designed, a constant stream of new abilities opening up new areas, allowing you to always feel like you’re progressing. Reach a point where you’re stuck, and the world map (which I’m pretty sure is just a live game running on a smaller scale) will show a region you should explore further. You will inevitably find the passage you missed, or the secret entrance it suggests you go to, or the NPC with an item you need. And then there’s that dopamine feeling of realizing that you now have a whole other part of the game to explore.

There is no conversation in the game, other characters instead communicate in the simplest pictogram bubbles. And yet, everyone has character. Where the game doesn’t let me down is that I find that I’m filling in the narrative for myself, imagining the motivations of this little fox. Everything is adorable.

It is also full of secrets, puzzles and surprises. It contains some pretty in-depth puzzles, dungeons offering tailor-made challenges that require quite a bit of puzzles. In some places you will see rocks with particular patterns and you will start to note them in case they become useful later. (Spoiler: They will.) Each area feels like it’s hiding something extra, which is always worth revisiting areas you haven’t seen in a while in case your new skill set would now allow you to reach a previously irrelevant platform, or reveal an entirely new dungeon.

The abilities are those that any sane person desires. So yes, there’s a splendid hook shot to get through gaps so satisfyingly, and of course a boomerang to take down distant enemies, plus a bunch of others that aren’t discovered until much later. Further exploration is always rewarded with more bonus items that will unlock more health, non-vital but charming bonus abilities, and piles of cash. A new capacity is therefore also a new opportunity to gather much more.

Now I’ve gotten stuck several times and I’m not alone. But there’s already a small but lovely community on Steam trading tips, as well as a thread dedicated to those sharing discoveries of the game’s deepest endgame secrets. I’ve certainly been there, at looking for nudges, and at one point I was downright begging for a clue. (Unfortunately, the game hasn’t received any YouTube guides or walkthroughs yet, but hopefully if we all talk about it loud enough, people will get more involved.)

This deserves to be a smash hit for developer Achromi, and it’s the eternal story of frustration with terrible curation on Steam that it isn’t. (I have to admit I get a little discouraged when I see successful indies desperately complaining about this on Twitter, rather than directing their many followers towards supporting projects like Buried treasure and many more.)

It’s ridiculously cheap for a game of this size and complexity, and it will keep you engrossed for many, many hours. If, like me, you wish Nintendo would make another A link to the past, then it is a must-buy. He understands the mission perfectly and then delivers, delivers and delivers.

Master Key is now available for Steam And To change.

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