Seedling Review

If you don't know already Seedling is a Zelda-esque flash game on Newgrounds.com, made by user ConnorUllmann. Who has created several games, including Quietus, Casus and Hollow. Does it deserve Zelda comparisons? Is Seedling worth your time?

Story- Seedling is based around our adventurer who happens to be a seed and his journey. He does not know much but knows he is here for a reason. "A small boy is born from the wind, appearing in front of a house. He doesn't know his purpose, but knows that this house is important. This house holds his answers--and the beginnings of an arduous journey that will introduce him to creatures and objects he has never seen, as well as bring him to question right and wrong." As stated by the developer.

Gameplay- The gameplay is essentially a RPG/ top-down dungeon crawler with various easier than it seems puzzles.While trying to navigate seedling's various obstacles, as arrow keys are set to control your movement and x and c for combat you will find your hands cramping up quite often and certain parts seem impossible after trying twenty-five times. There is no difficulty setting and is pretty straight forward with dungeon progression. Every stage can be completed as difficult as it may seem, seedling is actually more forgiving than some of his indie brothers like the binding of Isaac. There are respawn points at the entry of every room and you never loose items upon death. The level design is set up to complement your progression and move along with every new item you acquire. Bosiniad burning tremors was the most rage-inducing level for me while the bosses was defeated in 15-20 seconds tops while the first boss I could not figure out how to beat at all. But that is my only complaint as far as gameplay goes. Seedling took me about three hours to beat  the most I have spent playing a web based game with an end which is a good thing in my book.

Graphics and Sound- The graphics are as good as a flash based top-down RPG can look. The art is amazing not complex but is done very well. Every level feels alive and has an atmospheric vibe that the sound complements very well. With the exception of certain bosses every enemy when hit looks and sounds like there were hit, this is some thing a lot of flash games and even big published games have trouble perfecting but seedling has it down packed. Also the soundtrack for this game is great and fits the game exceptionally and is only 1$ on bandcamp.

Final Grade 8.5- I love this game a few glitches, puzzle bugs and misleading level design, keeps Seedling from getting a 9 or 10 but it is an amazing game and deserves a play and it is free so why not. Click here to play Seedling.