You know, there are some games that get called "clones" of other titles for no reason. Neutopia, however, has all reasons to be called a Zelda 1 clone.
It's an open-world adventure game where you control a hero with a sword who can only move in 4 directions, needs to complete 8 dungeons, has bombs (8 initially, +4 on each upgrade), a tool to burn trees, a stepladder to bridge one-tile gaps... You get the idea.
It's not a bad thing, mind you. Zelda 1 has a unique feel that hasn't been replicated within the series ever, but it's also not a small task to take one of the best games ever and copy it so blatantly. Due to this, some problems this game might have become more apparent, since those problems weren't present in its main inspiration that was, at the time of the release, three whole years old.
Let's start with the most obvious thing: Neutopis is a little easier and way more hand-holdy when it comes to exploration, featuring not one but four open worlds, each one opening after two dungeons have been completed. The maps, I believe, are no bigger than 8x8 screens so it can't really replicate the same sense of adventure as Zelda 1 had, nor can it capture its non-linearity.
Much like Zelda, almost every screen has a secret doorway or a staircase, accessed much like you would find them in Zelda, too. They're way easier to find, which isn't an issue, but their contents are a mixed bag. You'd think pretty much having them all but marked ensures that player sees them all, but for some reason a lot still have repeated hints. There are a LOT of caves that are basically a waste of time, telling you how to find a Rainbow Drop, for example.
The dungeons are basically full-on Zelda 1 style with one item, a map, and a boss key instead of a compass. The only difference is that they have a LOT of bombable walls. I honestly think minimum amount of bombs should've been raised to 12 at least, because enemy drops are unreliable, and you'll be bombing every side of the room, because as two or three NPCs early on point out, the map isn't that reliable.
So, that would be Neutopia: a competent Zelda 1 clone, if not for one thing that I never got over. You know how in the original Zelda almost everythin is one-tile, from you to basically every standard enemy? Neutopia ditches that and makes itself very unpleasant to play due to this.
There are strange decisions in Neutopia regarding hitboxes and hurtboxes all over the place. The player character is two tiles tall, for example. Naturally, if your feet occupy a place one space below where a projectile is flying, you shouldn't get hit, right? No, unfortunately. For whatever reason your head is vunerable to everything, and while it makes sense visually, it doesn't register as dangerous because you perceive the player character as standing tall, not lying and crawling all over the place. Enemies feet connecting with your head shouldn't do damage if you're both just walking, but they do, and it's always infuriating. The decision to give some enemies, like bats, shadows, is similarly weird, as you never have to know where they are in relation to the floor and it just screws with your expectations of their placement. You can't walk under them, you always need to hit the sprite of the bat itself, and again, Zelda 1 did that so much better with limited animation on Keese.
Early on in the game you get the fire rod capable of burning trees and stalactites for some reason, and another thing you may quickly discover is that the sword is PRECISE. I feel like in Zelda if I swung into an enemy tile, it'd get hit. Here, it feels like your sword is maybe a few pixel wide, so an enemy being slightly off-center means you just don't hit them.
The reason I'm mentioning the fire rod is that its hitbox is much, much better, so in this game where the main weapon is the sword, you might just not use it, instead going for weaker, but ranged option at most times.
Neutopia is one of those games that's just stuck. It can't stand on its own two feet, yet every time I booted it up I got the distinct feeling of "I wish I was just playing Zelda 1" due to some kinks in enemy and player behavior. It's not incompetent or even that bad, but when it borrows so much from a much better game, why shouldn't I just play that game instead?
It's an open-world adventure game where you control a hero with a sword who can only move in 4 directions, needs to complete 8 dungeons, has bombs (8 initially, +4 on each upgrade), a tool to burn trees, a stepladder to bridge one-tile gaps... You get the idea.
It's not a bad thing, mind you. Zelda 1 has a unique feel that hasn't been replicated within the series ever, but it's also not a small task to take one of the best games ever and copy it so blatantly. Due to this, some problems this game might have become more apparent, since those problems weren't present in its main inspiration that was, at the time of the release, three whole years old.
Let's start with the most obvious thing: Neutopis is a little easier and way more hand-holdy when it comes to exploration, featuring not one but four open worlds, each one opening after two dungeons have been completed. The maps, I believe, are no bigger than 8x8 screens so it can't really replicate the same sense of adventure as Zelda 1 had, nor can it capture its non-linearity.
Much like Zelda, almost every screen has a secret doorway or a staircase, accessed much like you would find them in Zelda, too. They're way easier to find, which isn't an issue, but their contents are a mixed bag. You'd think pretty much having them all but marked ensures that player sees them all, but for some reason a lot still have repeated hints. There are a LOT of caves that are basically a waste of time, telling you how to find a Rainbow Drop, for example.
The dungeons are basically full-on Zelda 1 style with one item, a map, and a boss key instead of a compass. The only difference is that they have a LOT of bombable walls. I honestly think minimum amount of bombs should've been raised to 12 at least, because enemy drops are unreliable, and you'll be bombing every side of the room, because as two or three NPCs early on point out, the map isn't that reliable.
So, that would be Neutopia: a competent Zelda 1 clone, if not for one thing that I never got over. You know how in the original Zelda almost everythin is one-tile, from you to basically every standard enemy? Neutopia ditches that and makes itself very unpleasant to play due to this.
There are strange decisions in Neutopia regarding hitboxes and hurtboxes all over the place. The player character is two tiles tall, for example. Naturally, if your feet occupy a place one space below where a projectile is flying, you shouldn't get hit, right? No, unfortunately. For whatever reason your head is vunerable to everything, and while it makes sense visually, it doesn't register as dangerous because you perceive the player character as standing tall, not lying and crawling all over the place. Enemies feet connecting with your head shouldn't do damage if you're both just walking, but they do, and it's always infuriating. The decision to give some enemies, like bats, shadows, is similarly weird, as you never have to know where they are in relation to the floor and it just screws with your expectations of their placement. You can't walk under them, you always need to hit the sprite of the bat itself, and again, Zelda 1 did that so much better with limited animation on Keese.
Early on in the game you get the fire rod capable of burning trees and stalactites for some reason, and another thing you may quickly discover is that the sword is PRECISE. I feel like in Zelda if I swung into an enemy tile, it'd get hit. Here, it feels like your sword is maybe a few pixel wide, so an enemy being slightly off-center means you just don't hit them.
The reason I'm mentioning the fire rod is that its hitbox is much, much better, so in this game where the main weapon is the sword, you might just not use it, instead going for weaker, but ranged option at most times.
Neutopia is one of those games that's just stuck. It can't stand on its own two feet, yet every time I booted it up I got the distinct feeling of "I wish I was just playing Zelda 1" due to some kinks in enemy and player behavior. It's not incompetent or even that bad, but when it borrows so much from a much better game, why shouldn't I just play that game instead?