When reminiscing about games from yesteryear that made an incredibly strong impression, it’s hard not to reflect on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Oddly enough, it’s a game I’d actually borrowed from a friend, then going on to play through it completely in a series of late-night play sessions before returning it. What can be hard to appreciate now, many generations later, is how so many things it did set up a roadmap that many have pulled from since. 

While there have been quite a number of titles on the Switch eShop that have been made in a very similar vein, I’d say that Elementallis feels the most balanced and similar to it overall. That isn’t to say its quality is necessarily higher than some others, just that most have chosen to either be more focused on the combat or the puzzle-solving elements, diving deeper in one direction or another to create a variation on that classic experience rather than being balanced overall. While in this case you’ll be working with a variety of elemental powers instead of Link’s well-known collection of classic weapons, in the end the overall feel is similar. You’ll go to new areas, talk to the locals, deal with a variety of monsters, and then venture into the dungeons, working your way through both puzzles and combat to secure a new element. Then, once you have that new toy to play with, you’ll need to quickly learn how to make use of it before working through the balance of the dungeon and taking on the boss.

While all of that can be quite satisfying, there are also some more minor pain points that can be frustrating nonetheless. Given the volume of secrets strewn around the world that you’ll encounter before you have the elemental powers to get to them, the developers should have made fast travel opportunities more easily available. Trudging around in areas you’ve already worked through previously isn’t something modern gamers should have to waste so much time on, especially since there’s somewhat reward in it. Weirdly enough, more often than not it also felt like the bosses I encountered skewed to the easier end of the spectrum. I suppose I’m a fan of accessibility and trying to make experiences that should be approachable to gamers of all skill levels, but in some cases it didn’t feel like I even broke a sweat since the elemental powers I needed to use were pretty clear, and working through their patterns was only mildly challenging. Nevertheless, those amount to smaller quibbles about a game that’s otherwise very enjoyable, especially if you’ve got a taste for those classic feels of yesteryear.