Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince (NS) - Review
by Evan Norris , posted on 22 August 2022 / 1,933 Views
Zelda-like games are nothing new. A quick look at the recently unveiled line-up for Sega Genesis Mini 2 reveals Crusader of Centy, a 1995 game that Next Generation magazine called "almost an exact replica of the SNES Zelda." Yet the marketplace for games inspired by Nintendo's flagship action-adventure franchise has never been so rich, thanks in part to indie developers like Castle Pixel, which has now developed two remarkable ones: Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King in 2017, and Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince just this month. So, how does this sequel match up against the first installment, and Zelda-ish games in general?
Like many Zelda games, The Minotaur Prince takes place in the same universe as the original game, but many generations later. A young girl named Lily and her mischievous brother Chrys live in Blossomdale, which is in the middle of the Minotaur Moon Festival. During a friendly sparring contest, Chrys lands a cheap shot on Lily, after which she accuses him of cheating and utters a wish aloud that the once-banished Minotaur King take her brother away forever. When the King suddenly appears and whisks Chrys away, Lily, racked with guilt, sets off on an adventure to right her wrong.
As in the premier Blossom adventure, The Minotaur Prince enjoys a clever "story within a story" format. The game opens on a camping trip, where a kindhearted grandfather regales his granddaughter Lily and grandson Chrys about Blossomdale and the Minotaur King. Everything that unfolds in the game comes directly from the grandfather's imagination, with frequent interjections from the kids. You can even steer the story yourself ever so slightly, during those moments where Lily and Chrys argue over what exactly is happening. Like the first game, The Minotaur Prince takes on a distinct "choose your own adventure" flavor. Not only does this add elements of warmth and humor to the proceedings, but it allows Blossom Tales II to distinguish itself — an important step, since the game sticks rather slavishly to the core gameplay loop and mechanics of The Legend of Zelda.
As a matter of fact, if you replace Lily with Link, Chrys with Zelda, and The Minotaur King with The Demon King Ganon, you're left with Zelda, essentially. That said, in the words of Jerry Seinfeld, "not that there's anything wrong with that!" Indeed, developer Castle Pixel has done the template justice, turning in one of the better Zelda-like games on Switch.
The entire experience will be familiar to anyone who grew up playing A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, and other top-down action-adventure titles in the Zelda mold. The heroine Lily will cross back and forth across an expansive overworld divided into discrete geographic areas and populated with towns, shops, dungeons, caves, secrets, and plenty of quest-giving NPCs. Exploration in the overworld will yield heart pieces, stamina crystals, gold coins, and other items, and each trip to a dungeon will require real-time combat with monsters and some environmental puzzle-solving.
The Minotaur Prince pulls off this tried-and-true formula better than most. The overworld, where you'll spend the majority of your time, is truly great. It's geographically diverse, thanks to forests, jungles, deserts, and seaside areas, and packed with things to do. You can collect resources like plants and flowers to brew potions, go fishing in lakes and ponds, search for secret caves, dig for gold, or take on any number of side-quests. Some of the most memorable moments in the game revolve around these side-quests. Work hard enough and you'll earn a couple of animal companions, play matchmaker for a single mom, learn new fighting techniques, and claim dozens of heart pieces. Search thoroughly and you might even find a powerful new weapon...
The game's four dungeons are also good, although not quite as engaging as the world around them. Each one leverages inventory items in clever ways, and provides plenty of opportunities to do battle with baddies and solve puzzles. Although combat scenarios and puzzle rooms represent a marked improvement over the first Blossom title, thanks to new moves and gadgets, they're not especially challenging. This is true for The Minotaur Prince in general, which falls on the easy side of Zelda-likes. Not once in my 10+ hours in the game did I die.
The best parts of each dungeon are its two boss fights, one with a mid-boss and another with an end boss. As it did with The Sleeping King, Castle Pixel turns in an outstanding collection of bosses that are both visually and mechanically unique. There's a giant octopus that manipulates water depth and strikes with barbed tentacles, an enormous bird (which looks suspiciously like the evil eagle from Link's Awakening) that attacks with hatchlings, a teleporting vampire, and many more. Interestingly, several of the bosses display moves that wouldn't be out of place in a "bullet hell" shooter, including laser beams, swarming fireballs, and walls of projectiles. It makes for some exciting and kinetic battles.
Just like the first game, The Minotaur Prince advertises "15+ hours of gameplay", which is a little generous. I finished it short of 12 hours, with the majority of optional side content completed. It's likely you could beat the main campaign in around 8 hours, and hit the 100% mark in around 14 hours. In any event, the game boasts many non-mandatory side-quests and activities to keep you busy and entertained. The only downside is that Castle Pixel didn't provide a great system to track your progress against these quests in the pause menu. A quest log and/or the ability to add pins to the overworld map would go a long way.
Graphically, The Minotaur Prince embraces the same SNES-style pixelated graphics as the premier Blossom tale, albeit with great depth and detail. This is a richer visual experience that retains the original's sense of whimsy. It's not as handsome as some of the pixel art and hand-drawn assets from other modern throwback releases, but it fits in well with the tone and mood of the game. Music, similarly, suits the tenor of Lily's latest adventure. Indeed, Josie Brechner's eclectic soundtrack goes a long way. The highlight is absolutely "Sunkiss Canyons", which stands as one of the great individual tunes of 2022.
If you enjoyed Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King, you'll love this sequel. Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince is bigger and bolder than the first installment and even approaches the greatness of the better top-down Zelda titles. It's sometimes too easy, and it doesn't provide a great tool to monitor progress against side-quests, but it hits all the right Zelda marks, and then some. Here's hoping for a third Blossom Tales game to elevate this franchise even higher.
VGChartz Verdict
7.5
Good
This review is based on a copy of Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince for the NS
