Hob

Hob is an action adventure game in the vein of the 2D Legend of Zelda titles, with a single interconnected continent or landmass dominating the time you'll spend exploring, along with some dungeons filled with puzzles and sometimes monsters. (though noticeably no bosses, which is disappointing) Hob's got a little bit of hack and slash in it too with a fun if shallow combat system that lets you use one of the tools you acquire during platforming in it, along with some other upgrades you can make incrementally to your health, mana and swords' attack damage etc. There is a bit of voice acting here and there that is nicely done, and the soundtrack is subtle but really superb whenever it kicks in, though the game opts to use its environmental and diegetic sound effects for the most part. It's kinda like Zelda meets Journey, an odd and interesting experience that I think everyone should give a chance.

Lovely art style, puzzles are just challenging enough without being too frustrating.

Superior game! Unique athmosphere! Keyboard gaming control somtimes annoying or I am unskilled.

The details, scenery and art design are delightful. I would highlight Hob as a really fun puzzle-platform game. The puzzle elements and mechanics of the game become more complex as we progress and increase our strength and skills. This is the most prevalent, but it also includes monsters scattered everywhere that we must eliminate (of configurable difficulty, but in no case campy or tedious). In any case, the fights are not the most decisive thing, if that's what you like. The game's narrative and story unfolds without words, which makes it very special, not in a bad way for me. But the story is not something very developed, original or complex, for those who value this. I appreciate that Hob doesn't offer a bombardment of stimuli and allows you to play at your own pace, enjoying the charm of the graphics or speeding through the jumping - or checking every hideout for new resources. You may feel lost on the map and in certain alleyways, but if you get stuck keep exploring and moving on to other places - you may need that exploration to move forward.

I came into this expecting a 3D Super Metroid, and what I got wasn't quite that. Combat isn't terribly complex, but it is challenging, and that's a step up from most Action-Adventure titles already. There are a lot of comparisons to Zelda, but motion is fluid (including pushing blocks!), platforming requires skill, and it isn't so heavily structured that it suffocates the whole adventure. There will be areas that you can't reach initially, but more often than not, there's some sort of logical reason for it; some obstructions are from abilities that you don't have just yet, and to describe others would be a massive spoiler. It was genuinely a joy to explore, collect new abilities, and use them in combat or platforming. Admittedly, money is a bit tight, and there aren't really any good spots to grind, so buying all skills and garb will be a bit of a strain. The visuals are nice, if a little plain. There's a neat desert area with some strange vegetation and lightning strikes everywhere, but visual design doesn't stray terribly far from that; it's at least consistent. The ruins have some neat patterns on them, I suppose. There isn't all that much of a story, not that it needs it; the only real scenario thing that bugs me is the vista points. These are spots where your character stops to admire the scenery with a certain camera angle. The game finds these to be extremely important; while they don't actually do anything, they are marked on your map, and counted as something to find in underground segments. The thing is, though, that there isn't anything really all that special to look at, and this is from someone who is aesthetically driven. The game also has some weird glitches, though that's understandable, when you consider that the developer went under just before launch. I didn't encounter anything too devastating, though, and you shouldn't let that hold you back, if this seems interesting to you; it's really good!