The Minish Cap is one of my favorite games of all time and definitely my favorite Zelda game. Everything from the dungeon puzzling, to the story, to the music is perfection, and the synergy between Capcom and Nintendo was like no other.
Do you guys have any reccomendations for similar games? Specifically in relation to the gameplay e.g. 2d puzzle dungeons, adventure fantasy, creative items, etc.
I’ve played a couple of non Zelda Zelda-likes over the years. Here’s a list of some of them.
- Anodyne
- Blossom Tales
- Hyper Light Drifter
- Tunic
- Ittle Dew
- Lenna’s Inception
- Ocean’s Heart
- Tunic
- Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
- World to the West
I might have forgotten or misremember facets of them by now. Some of them have sequels now, some are more of the same and other more experimental.
Anodyne and Ittle Dew were the most puzzle focused of the bunch from my memory.
Tunic is kinda vague, it tries to capture the feeling of playing a retro game with a missing manual. I remember it having more secrets rather than puzzles. I kinda got the same vague feeling from Hyper Light Drifter too. The vagueness might not be for everyone.
Blossom Tales and Ocean’s Heart felt much like copies of Zelda games. I remember feeling kinda underwhelmed with Ocean’s Heart.
Lenna’s Inception at first glance look a loot like the Gameboy era Zelda, but it does some wired storytelling and also randomly generated worlds.
Hyper Light Drifter was probably the most action focused of them.
Ittle Dew and Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion got a lot of humor. Check their store pages or reviews if it’s your style before going in.
World to the West used a bunch of character switching to solve puzzles around a whole world map. Not so much classical go save to world story and setting, but I remember having a decent time solving some of the puzzles.
Anodyne, Lenna’s Inception and Hyper Light Drifter had kinda bleak stories. Most Zelda games are pretty cozy, at least initially. If you’re not prepared for the tone, that might be off-putting.
Someone named CrossCode, while I don’t really think it’s a Zelda like it’s a great game nonetheless. While definitely not a Zelda like, Toki Tori 2 is a pretty cool mix of metroidvania and puzzles. You only got a few abilities and have to figure out how they interact with the world and it’s critters to progress.
Hyper Light Drifter is one of my favorite games ever. Its nice to see it getting attention.
Tunic
Tunic
Just finished my first playthrough and I’m in love. Play Tunic.
Also check out the Blossom Tales games. I have not played yet, but I got Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King because of how Zelda-like it looks.
I don’t know if you’ve played Oracle of Ages/Seasons, but those are two more great Capcom Zelda games.
I saw someone else say CrossCode, and I can second that. CrossCode is the only game I have ever played to perfectly capture the way games felt on the Nintendo DS. Control, aesthetic, everything. It made me immediately nostalgic the first time I played it.
Pretty much any of the 2d Zeldas fit this bill. Link to the Past/between Worlds… Link’s Awakening…etc. There’s also a game called Oceanhorn from several years ago that tried to be a Zelda clone, but I didn’t get very far in it.
I’d say LoZ: Echoes of Wisdom tried to be like this, unfortunately it’s a bit bland. Might be worth checking if you haven’t yet though.
For something I enjoyed more, CrossCode is a fun top-down action RPG, but it’s more of a sci-fi/fantasy thing and a bit more on the action side. It does have extensive dungeons with lots of puzzles though (often relying on switches, timing, movable blocks and clever ways to use your ball-shooting weapon).
Moonlighter is a roguelike with similar gameplay. The art style also borrowed a lot from Minish Cap.
Obviously, it is not a straight-up Zelda game, but I enjoyed it, and you can tell the developer was a fan of Zelda too.
