Zelda Meets Pokémon In Gorgeous PC RPG, Try for Free

One of the latest Steam freebies to grace the platform is one of the Legend of Zelda fans, with equal amounts of Pokémon flair mixed in.

We don’t know when we’ll get the next Zelda game or what it’ll be about but I’m personally hoping for a return to the traditional formula.

Whether it’s from a top-down perspective or fully-3D I’m not that bothered, I just want a more linear story and classic dungeons. However, this upcoming Steam release has me leaning more towards the former, as it’s taking me back to the first time I played games like The Legend of Zelda: Link To The Past or The Minish Cap.

It’s called Under The Island and you can play it for free on Steam right now via a short demo. The Legend of Zelda inspiration is clear to see, but it has so many cute critters to interact with we can’t help but think of Pokemon when we see it.

The graphics also help a lot with the Pokémon comparison, as boy do I miss the days of pixel-art and sprites. The latest 3D stuff looks fine but some of the sauce was spilled post-Pokemon X & Y and I’ll die on that hill.

Only the demo for Under The Island exists for the time being but the full release promises plenty of monsters to battle, puzzles to solve, and gameplay “steeped in ‘90s charm.”

Slime King Games

As for when the game will launch, developer Slime King Games has kept the release date close to its chest. There’s not even a release window to speak of unfortunately but looking at the existing gameplay it feels like a semi-safe bet to assume it’s launching sometime this year, hopefully anyway.

For those who want to play an actual Legend of Zelda/Pokémon hybrid while they wait, you’ll be happy to hear that sort of already exists and Nintendo made it itself.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom felt like a game that flew under a lot of gamers’ radars, which is odd considering it went in such a bold, new direction compared to previous games in the franchise.

Playing as Princess Zelda the core gameplay revolved around using a magic wand to summon objects for solving puzzles and creatures for battling. If the latter doesn’t sound like Pokémon to you I don’t know what to tell you.

The demo for Under The Island is available now and it’s free, so don’t sleep on it, especially if you love Zelda-like games.