The Legend of Zelda fans will love Steam's latest free download

A new Steam download looks like a mix between The Legend of Zelda and Monster Rancher, a combo I did not know I wanted until now.

Aethermancer is an upcoming roguelite, monster taming RPG from developers Moi Rai Games - and it just got a free demo on Steam that you can check out right now.

The devs describe it as a turn-based monster collector where your monsters of choice can actually perish in battle, so sort of like a Pokémon nuzlocke challenge with Final Fantasy-style combat.

In Aethermancer, you’ll be tasked with exploring “the ever-changing Fractured Ruins” (there’s the rougelite influence) and you’ll have to “plan your moves in challenging turn-based battles, and watch your Monsters grow stronger from previous lives and defy death” if you want to succeed.

While your monsters can and will perish in combat, at which point they will be permanently lost. However, by “rebirthing their souls”, you can create a new version of said monster.

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This will cause them to “change in the process”, but they’ll also evolve into a stronger monster once you bring them back to life.

Kind of reminds me of the old PlayStation and Game Boy Advance Monster Rancher games, which allowed you to merge your monsters with other monsters once they were close to death. Well, I’m sold based on that comparison alone.

This isn’t the first swing at a monster taming game that developers Moi Rai Games have taken either, as they released the relatively well-regarded Monster Sanctuary back in 2020 (which is currently sitting at a "Very Positive" score with over 9,000 reviews on Steam, 91% of which are positive).

I’m convinced, and may already be downloading the demo for Aethermancer as we speak. No word on a release date quite yet, but the demo has already received glowing reviews, so here’s hoping it’s not long off.