Ever since the first Zelda game has released, developers have used it as inspiration for their own games. This is especially present with The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. A lot of games went for a similar art style and/or formula. Games like Genshin Impact, Immortals – Fenxy Rising, Pokémon Legends: Arceus just to name a few. XEL is also one of these games. It combines elements of Breath of the Wild with more classic Zelda elements. This however doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. Borrowing elements from Breath of the Wild and Zelda games, in general, is very acceptable. Let’s see if the execution is acceptable too.
XEL
XEL is a 3D action-adventure set in a sci-fi fantasy setting. Here you explore the mysterious world of XEL. You play as Reid, shipwrecked on the strange world of XEL and set on a journey to help her uncover her enigmatic past. Ready your sword and shield as you explore the overworld of XEL and dive into imposing dungeons full of unforeseen threats and puzzles. Throughout your journey, you will make new friends and foes, find new gadgets as well as be able to jump through time and space.
Top-down doesn’t mean graphics-down
The game is a mix of old-school gameplay that meets new-school features. The gameplay is a classic top-down 3D action-adventure game while the cutscenes go for a third-person 3D point of view. The cutscenes are voice acted which is always a big plus but the cutscenes take place in the same low resolution/polygon world as the top-down view, they look pretty rough.
The top-down view however looks a lot nicer at first glance. The low poly cell-shaded art style has of course not changed. But when looking in more detail you can see everything is pretty rough. The world also feels really empty. Nothing around you is moving. The trees are not blowing in the wind, grass blades don’t move out of the way, and heck even the enemies don’t show any movement until you get into their tracking zone. The fighting is like a hack ‘n’ slash, this combined with the bad AI made for tedious and annoying fights.
Lack of any guidance
There is hardly any guidance on where to go or what you should be doing. I was stuck on a certain spot in the beginning and just brute forced through it. I apparently completely missed the shield earlier in the game. There was no prompt for me that there was even a shield I could obtain this early on. The first boss was nearly impossible to complete without a shield so this meant I had to backtrack all the way back to the area where I initially missed it. No fast traveling, nothing, just a 3-minute walk to get back with the stuff I needed. The puzzles are also quite basic. The hardest part is not the puzzle but knowing what the heck you’re supposed to do and finding out where you should.
No polish
And you know that the funny thing is, the shield didn’t help at all against the first boss. When you shield the attack you are stuck in the shield with your stamina depleting. If it depletes fully you start taking damage. You are supposed to clear the first boss by dodging out of the way of its attacks. However, the dodging doesn’t grant any invulnerability just a tiny bit of added movement speed. Just enough to barely take no hits or only one. The hitboxes are so off in the fight as well. Red indicates where the attack will be landing and therefore were not to stand. You go stand outside of this area and you will still get hit. It’s ridiculous. I mean what Is the point of showing its hitbox anyways. The hitboxes are really weird.
This is also seen outside of fights. It looks like your character can fit through certain areas pretty well but the game doesn’t let you. The gameplay in general is pretty rough. You don’t have the ability to jump. Your character will jump on its own to jump over a gap. This takes a lot of the challenge out of traversing the world. What is even the point of the jumps if there is no way to fall off because the game does it for you
Glitch City
There were a number of glitches too. I saw the AI freakout on multiple occasions. On the route to get the shield that I missed I had a glitch too. Here the ladder that I previously had lowered was raised again. This however was purely a visual glitch so I could just climb up an invisible ladder.
Save the World Edition
Besides the regular version, there is the “The Save the World Edition” which contains the game as well as the official Soundtrack (which is actually pretty good), an artbook and the Comic “A Lost Friend”. Besides supporting the developers and getting some small bonuses, the publisher Assemble Entertainment will donate 10% of the proceeds for every sold Save the World Edition to Sea Watch, in order to help refugees from distress at sea!
Conclusion
I did not have a good time. The lack of any guidance made it awfully complicated to know what to do and go which is very impressive for a pretty linear game. This got to the point that I missed out on a pretty important key item. The game lacks polish on all sides. The jumps are pointless, the combat is basic and the game is full of glitches. The game only costs €14,99 which is an acceptable amount but definitely not something I would be willing to pay for what I just played.
