Posted on: September 16, 2022

groze
Verified ownerGames: 1456 Reviews: 39
It's no Guacamelee, but it's awesome
Sadly, customers tend to both complain AND kind of demand studios/directors/authors to become one-trick ponies, and I guess I'm guilty of that, as well. Guacamelee (all its iterations) and Guacamelee 2 are some of my favourite game ever, and I kind of hold Drinkbox in high regard for having developed those games, so when I heard they were developing a "roguelite-ish action-adventure RPG" of sorts, I was less than ecstatic about it. The game has been on other storefronts for a while, now, and since it wasn't high priority, I basically avoided getting it until I saw it was coming to GOG. Since I like to support my store of choice, letting publishers know it is viable to release games here, and I do like Drinkbox, I decided to get the game anyway. I was far from disappointed. NStW puts a spin on the Zelda formula by letting you switch forms at will, you begin the game as an amnesiac androgynous naked homo sapiens-kind-of-thing that soon finds a shapeshifting wand and discovers they are able to transform into all sorts of other creatures (not at first, as transformations start out kind of limited, but soon enough). The game is deep enough if you want it to be, with all the mix-and-matching of skills (both active and passive) from different forms while you level each one up. You get all sorts of quests, some more memorable than others, but pretty much all of them are extremely fun and don't overstay their welcome. In terms of gameplay, it's your standard Zelda-like, it won't wow you in this regard, but it plays smooth and fluid, everything working as it should (which is more than could be said about most AAA titles coming out, these days). The art is gorgeous, if it's your cup of tea (it's definitely mine), and Drinkbox's brand of humour still permeates the game, so, if you enjoyed it in Guacamelee 1 & 2, it's still here -- if you didn't, well, it didn't change much, and it probably still won't cut it for you. All in all, an extremely nice surprise, HIGHLY recommended.
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