Aloft Studios set a pretty clear, and ambitious, goal with what they want their new top-down adventure game, Hazelnut Bastille to be:
Hazelnut Bastille, “…seeks to continue the great lineage of superior design from the mid 90’s— the moment in time when mainstream 2D titles reached arguable their greatest level of refinement, in titles such as Super Metroid and Link to the Past.”
After spending some time whacking apart bushes, scouring dungeon chambers for keys, and dodging screen-sized monstrosities, it’s looking like Alof Studios was more than capable of achieving their goal. Hazelnut Bastille is great.
The recently updated demo of Hazelnut Bastille lets players explore a vast chunk of the game’s world. Beginning with a cheeky hippo demigod-like creature dropping the unnamed heroine at the docks of a small town, the Zelda similarities are immediate. The demo makes it clear that it is aware it is a demo, so while it does drop you in media res, right in the middle of things, it does so with a gently guiding hand. I was happy to discover that the demo works with my Xbox 360 USB controller so I was shooting arrows, dropping bombs, and whirlwinding around with my sword in no time.
Don’t dismiss Hazelnut Bastille as a 1990s Zelda knock-off. While the inspiration is overwhelmingly obvious, the game adds in some neat mechanics that the more retro Zelda games lacked. A collecting, crafting, and trading system is featured in the game that will, according to the developers, allow players to unlock additional, “optional” items. From what I explored of the demo, there seemed to be a number of optional side quests I could undertake that involved finding a lost ring to locating special treasure chests. I’m interested to see how these two aspects are expanded in the final game.
At this point in the game’s development, story details are a bit vague. The story summary provided by the developers is careful not to reveal too much, as I expect to hear more when the game comes to Kickstarter in late October.
“Hazelnut Bastille tells the story of a young woman who travels to a foreign shore on the outskirts of her world, in order to seek out the promised gifts of mythological ancients, in hopes of retrieving something which was lost to her,” Aloft Studio said. “On the way, her story becomes irrevocably intertwined with the lives of those living in this far off land.”
For those of you wanting to try the demo, sign up for the newsletter on the game’s official website to be emailed a link to play. Hazelnut Bastille is being developed for PC, Mac, and Linux, with Nintendo Switch an unconfirmed possibility.
