If you’re a fan of classic top-down action adventures in the vein of classics like Link to the Past, the Switch indie scene absolutely has you covered. Best of all, it isn’t as if all of the titles play the same way, with some choosing to be more action-oriented, focused on puzzles, or even incorporating roguelike elements. When trying to take a hard look at Kara Fantasy, it’s absolutely imperative to keep these competitors in mind, as this isn’t a game being released in a vacuum. While it may have some merit, if you’re willing to give your time to it, there’s no question that its glacial pacing puts an enormous dent in its playability.

Starting with what does work, you can see that the developer has set the stage reasonably well on the surface. You’ll move through multiple environments, face down a mild variety of enemies, and gain some more useful, if usually quite generic, equipment along the way. To the game’s credit, there’s also a fair amount of instruction available, helping you get acclimated to what you need to do and how, rather than simply throwing you into things and assuming you’ll work it out on your own. All of that I can at least admire, and demonstrates that some care was put into this production.

The problem is that, at least in my eyes, there’s no getting around how slowly your character moves, and how quickly that sucks the enjoyment out of things. While I wouldn’t say the play areas in the game are staggering in size, the snail’s pace that you’ll move and maneuver through them can make it feel like a bit of an ordeal. Then there’s the fact that the combat can be a bit odd and buggy, with even simple enemies seemingly taking many, many hits that seem to do no damage, and yet can cause damage in ways that visually don’t always make sense. 

The problem is that you’ll run into these issues very quickly, and it seriously strains the desire to throw more time into the experience. The fact is that bad initial impressions are a great way to get relegated to the backlog when the eShop is chock full of titles that simply play better, and don’t exhibit so many issues with so little return when it comes to original gameplay. The fact that it would take little effort to rattle off a number of reasonably-priced competitors in the same space, that simply have better fundamentals, really makes this tough to take seriously, though perhaps with some patching it could immediately improve its viability.