The indie game landscape has no shortage of spiritual successors and throwbacks to classics. With Echo Isle, that has happened once again, with a game that is so easily compared to The Legend of Zelda games that you could find on the Game Boy Color. After playing its short demo on Steam, I can’t help but find myself curious to see what the rest of this small adventure will look like.
Shades of the Past in this GBC Inspiration
The Echo Isle demo starts with a look at an island with an overarching lighthouse. It’s explained that this lighthouse keeps the island safe, until its shining light goes out, leading to the place becoming covered in monsters. Thankfully for the denizens of this island, a star warrior descends onto the place and is ready to go.
Immediately upon gaining control of this star warrior, I was washed in the nostalgia of the Oracle of Seasons and Ages games on Game Boy Color. The developer, Josh Koenig Games, is a solo developer who says he is “obsessed with 90s adventure games,” and just from a looks standpoint alone, that is on display here.
A Little Short on the Gameplay
Gameplay-wise, it’s all very standard for its inspirations. You swing a sword as your main attack against enemies, and when in dungeons, you work to find keys to open locked door and grab an item that lets you access more parts of the dungeon.
If there is one big criticism I had for my time with Echo Isle, it’s that there appears to be no puzzles here. Everything was very straightforward with the biggest challenge being just finding the right room filled with enemies for you to defeat next. With this being a game developed to be beat in one sitting with a total of four short dungeons, that’s not likely to change in the full product.
That all being said, the Echo Isle demo was a fun little jaunt to play for 15 minutes. The Zelda inspiration is obviously there, and while it doesn’t reach those sky-high heights, it does sit well in its spot.
