If you happen to be like us and spent a ton of time hunched over playing Zelda games on the Game Boy and Game Boy Color back in the 90s and early 2000s, then you might want to keep an eye on the promising new adventure game Isle of Reveries, from the indie developer desertcucco.
This is a new title that is currently in development for Steam, which wears its appreciation of the Zelda series firmly on its sleeve and is looking extremely impressive from the little we've been able to see of it so far.
According to the Steam page, the game tells an original story about an anthropomorphic owl named Lief who embarks on a trip to a mystical island where any wish can be granted. It is set to feature a "large world that doesn’t hold the player’s hand", eight themed dungeons to work through, various collectible items that remain useful even after the area they're found in, and a dedicated jump button to allow for space "to equip the most relevant items".
It features a presentation that will no doubt be extremely familiar to anyone who has experienced Link's Awakening and the Oracle games, and also includes a magical fairy resembling Navi who can copy objects in the environment and use them to overcome obstacles, similar to Tri in Echoes of Wisdom.
The game recently crossed our radar as it is set to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter on March 1st, and is the latest in a long line of independent titles that seem to borrow quite extensively from the Nintendo series, while trying to iterate and expand on what has come before.
If this sounds like something interesting to you, there's a demo of the game currently available to check out on PC, which the developer claims is the "best way to get an idea of what to expect from Isle of Reveries". It covers the game's opening, as well as the first dungeon and boss.
You can sign up to be alerted when the Kickstarter project goes live at this link.