Princess Remedy is a top down action/adventure game in the vein of the older Zelda games. Basically, you walk through different areas and talk to NPCs, which initiates a combat sequence. Upon completing the encounter you gain a heart, and with enough hearts you unlock the next area and the gameplay loop repeats. There are also some pretty basic upgrades to find as well.

Combat plays out like a mix of a top down run n gun and old school Zelda. Your character shoots automatically in the direction you’re facing, so most of the decisions you’ll have to make basically revolve around whether to face an enemy and shoot at it, or to reposition to avoid damage. As the game progresses, your weapon spread will increase meaning you also have to decide between getting closer to the enemy for higher DPS or maintaining your or using off angles to be safer for at the cost of damage. You can also throw flasks, which are basically grenades and have a limited ammo count.

The enemy encounters are also pretty basic, though some of them can get pretty interesting. There’s a fairly wide variety of enemies, and for the most part they are all different in terms of movement and firing patterns. Some enemies do only contact damage and some fire projectiles, occasionally with different properties or conditions, such as the Slime, which only fires when it gets damaged, or the Bone Pillar which fires projectiles that go through walls but only in a straight line. Enemy movement patterns are more varied with enemies that move randomly, directly at the player, in a straight line and bounce off walls, and enemies that chase down the player if they get close. The game is pretty good with mixing enemies that control space in different ways, although occasionally you get put in encounters with only one enemy type. The enemy encounters are mostly pretty easy, but there were some that forced me to move and target enemies more deliberately.

Overall, the game is pretty simple, but it’s also free and very short(I beat it in under an hour with 82% completion rate). It has enough decent enemy encounters and a nice retro aesthetic that it’s worth the low price of admission. It’s not an outstanding game or anything, but it’s good enough to get my recommendation, though if you’re experienced with these types of games, I’d recommend playing on one of the higher difficulties.