I had an itch for a blue sky RPG, and after replaying the first half of the Ys III remake and Ys VI, I went to start Legend of Mana again, only to find this on sale, so I took a chance. And it's a 100% totally just okay Zelda love letter that wants to be Link to the Past but plays more like the first Legend of Zelda.

It's hard to be mad at it because I felt the love in this, and seeing the very short credits appreciated how much work just a few people did.

That said, it can be incredibly frustrating and a little polish would help. For instance, it's really easy to fall in the water on accident, the "interact" button is also the "roll" button, so I frequently rolled when trying to talk to someone, and boss fights are uninspired. The game also ends with a whimper.

It is gorgeous, with beautiful sprite work and a lovely score, the dungeon design is solid, and the writing is clever and fun. There are lots of areas to explore and lots of side quests that are actually fun to complete. I'd guess I finished the game with ~90% of it complete (I had 15 hearts, I think, had completed 30 side quests, with one left incomplete, and had two gaps in my inventory screen), so clearly it was charming enough that I wanted to keep going.