Originally posted May 16th 2015 on the Seafoam Gaming forums

Title: Elliot Quest

System: Wii U (eShop)

Price: $12.99

Release date: 3/19/2015

The main game/story

A game inspired by many beloved classics such as Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Elliot Quest is here to blow you away, thanks to a successful Kickstarter in 2013! With a focus on the story of Elliot, a man who sets out to break a mysterious curse which will transform him into a demon if he’s too late! With a lot of variety and fun to be had, this isn’t an adventure you’ll want to miss.

Graphics

A very nice retro art style is used throughout the entire game, with one similar to early NES games that looks very nice, and gives the game a nice charm, making it feel right at home visually with other games from that era.

Music and Sound:

Right away when you start up the game, you’ll notice the Zelda inspirations in the music, with an ominous theme being played that sounds as if it’s right out of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, along with many more excellent themes, from the boss theme to the epic overworld theme, this soundtrack definitely rocks, and perfectly fits with the adventure theme of this game.

Gameplay

Similar to how Zelda II plays, you take control of Elliot in a side-scrolling view, as you defeat enemies with your trusty bow, find treasure, level up your attributes, and defeat the many bosses this game has to offer. Once you exit a stage, you get sent to the overworld map, where Elliot can explore and check in on towns, visit the next areas, or sometimes encounter an enemy to fight.

This is where Elliot Quest gains a Metroidvania vibe, as when you beat certain dungeons and get new items, it’s always a good idea to return to the older dungeons and test them out, to see if you can uncover a hidden area or find one of the elusive crystals hidden around the land. This was a lot of fun to mess around with, especially since it helped me gain more experience for the upcoming challenges ahead.

You see, Elliot Quest’s level up system is rather strange, but in a good way! Whenever Elliot defeats an enemy, he gains a little bit of experience, which can increase if you raise your chain meter a lot from defeating multiple enemies without taking too much damage. Once you level up, you can choose an attribute to increase, such as accuracy, strength, wisdom and a few others. You may decide to increase your shooting rate with agility, or you may decide to deal more damage with strength, it’s all up to you!

Now you may be wondering, “But what if I die and get sent back to the title screen?” well, luckily for you that’s not how death works in Elliot Quest. Due to the curse that the story focuses on, Elliot cannot die. Instead, when he’s defeated he simply respawns at a checkpoint with some of his experience points missing, making it harder to level up. Therefore, it’s still not a good idea to die, but it does pose an interesting challenge. Will you take more risks to get to hard to reach areas, or will you be super cautious to level up quicker?

Conclusion

With five main dungeons, over ten bosses to defeat and a lot of extra things to do, Elliot Quest is definitely a worthy purchase on the Wii U eShop, especially if the Zelda U delay made you angry and wanting a new experience similar to Zelda games. While there unfortunately were some glitches and bugs, (Including but not limited to framerate issues, graphical errors when using a certain item or game breaking bugs, which caused me to hold off on this review for a while) thankfully they have been patched at the time this review went live. I give Elliot Quest a 9 out of 10, and strongly recommend it to any Zelda fan wanting to go on yet another fantastic adventure!

Thanks to PlayEveryWare Games for the review code.