Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King

 Switch
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 86 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 61 out of 86
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 86
  3. Negative: 6 out of 86
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  1. Daffyed
    Oct 26, 2018
    7
    Blossom Tales is praised by many as a very good reimagining of Zelda 3. However, the game doesn't quite live up to that promise.
    The game starts out with a grandpa telling his grandchildren a bedtime story about Lily, a future Blossom Knight. This is done with quite a but of humor, which saves the game from being another Zelda 3 clone. It may happen that grandpa is out of ideas for the    Blossom Tales is praised by many as a very good reimagining of Zelda 3. However, the game doesn't quite live up to that promise.
    The game starts out with a grandpa telling his grandchildren a bedtime story about Lily, a future Blossom Knight. This is done with quite a but of humor, which saves the game from being another Zelda 3 clone. It may happen that grandpa is out of ideas for the story and the children help him out, leading to a possible choice in enemies. Visually and musically, the game reminds more of Minish Cap than of Zelda 3.
    It's pros are the nice atmosphere, storytelling, good dungeon and overworld design and simple learning curve.
    However, the game has some serious issues.
    First of all, the controls feel imprecise, The way Lily keeps her momentum while changing directions makes for a really painful and weird feeling and is especially punishing during precision puzzles, which happen a lot in the dungeons.
    Secondly, being unable to de-bind the sword from the A-Button is weird for someone who has played a ton of Zelda, which is even more weird due to the A-Button being the interaction-button aswell. Instead, L or R could've been used for interaction (which are not binded at all).
    Furthermore, the weapon system feels imbalanced - the boomerang is compensated for too heavily by low energy costs while being unintuitive to use, using the bow is punished by high energy costs, so the boomerang has a sense at all, and the bombs' throw range is just too short, while the time they take to explode when not hitting an enemy is atrocious. - throwing them almost always results in you taking damage from the blast due to you having to throw them at enemies, or in having to wait forever for them to explode by itself.
    It's a fun, short game, but it doesn't really warrant the 15$ price tag - 10$ feel like they might've done enough for 10hours playtime.    … Expand
  2. bl1rt
    Dec 29, 2018
    5
    The big difference between Zelda and Blossom Tales is that you will not forget Zelda the moment you are done with it.
  3. GrahfZeppelin
    Jan 3, 2018
    6
    Overall a very decent game and a commendable Zelda "clone", especially for it's good price tag. It does have a few glaring issues however; hit detection is often horrendous, the dungeon level design is either unoriginal or annoying. I encountered 2 game breaking bugs throughout my play-through in which switches weren't working and I had to uninstall and reinstall the game to get them toOverall a very decent game and a commendable Zelda "clone", especially for it's good price tag. It does have a few glaring issues however; hit detection is often horrendous, the dungeon level design is either unoriginal or annoying. I encountered 2 game breaking bugs throughout my play-through in which switches weren't working and I had to uninstall and reinstall the game to get them to work properly. Other then those (admittedly major) issues, it was a fairly fun and charming game 6/10. I'd wait for it to go on sale, if I'm to be honest… Expand
  4. L0cky
    Jan 8, 2018
    7
    Picked this up as i am a huge link to the past fan, and seemed liked a fun little adventure game.

    pro's : narrative of the story told through a grandpa to his grandchildren and doesnt take the story to serious and has some nice inside jokes to nod other games. Controls are very straight forward and easy to understand. Fun dungeons with there own puzzles and situations. Some minor    Picked this up as i am a huge link to the past fan, and seemed liked a fun little adventure game.

    pro's :
    narrative of the story told through a grandpa to his grandchildren and doesnt take the story to serious and has some nice inside jokes to nod other games.
    Controls are very straight forward and easy to understand.
    Fun dungeons with there own puzzles and situations.
    Some minor side quest and secrets are to be found all over the world map that give you some additional play time.
    Colourful game and some nice music.

    Cons :
    No challenge, game is to generous with healing items and and hearts and you will never be in danger of dying.
    Map, the map is terrible and only usable to see if you going in the right direction.
    No dungeon maps.
    Warp points, the warp points are very vague as they only show text and hard to predict where they will warp you to on the map
    Price is a bit steep (14,99) as the game is short and easy (aprox 10 hours) and feels like it lacks 1 or 2 dungeons.
    Almost no replay value.

    Not a bad game but duo to length and replay value i advise to wait for a sale.    … Expand
  5. b00lpr0p
    Jan 23, 2019
    7
    A little bit overpriced, but it's an average Zelda tribute. It has fun enough to worth playing it if you want to buy.
  6. Deckard2
    May 24, 2019
    5
    I really didn't engage with this game. I found the level design to be bland and tedious in nature. Although it was playable I found myself eager to finish so I could move onto the next game. The dungeons are fine and the combat works but there are far better alternatives out there. This should only be for the severe Zelda nut (which this game aims to pay homage to) who has truly exhaustedI really didn't engage with this game. I found the level design to be bland and tedious in nature. Although it was playable I found myself eager to finish so I could move onto the next game. The dungeons are fine and the combat works but there are far better alternatives out there. This should only be for the severe Zelda nut (which this game aims to pay homage to) who has truly exhausted all other gaming options.… Expand
  7. TheHambro
    Oct 7, 2019
    7
    Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King is an obvious homage to the Zelda series; more specifically, A Link to the Past. While it does embody those inspirations very closely, it does have it’s own charm and originality. If you’re looking for something to scratch that top down Zelda itch, then look no further than this title.

    Let’s start with everything done right. Like I said, this game    Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King is an obvious homage to the Zelda series; more specifically, A Link to the Past. While it does embody those inspirations very closely, it does have it’s own charm and originality. If you’re looking for something to scratch that top down Zelda itch, then look no further than this title.

    Let’s start with everything done right. Like I said, this game really captures that old school Zelda feel from the gameplay, exploration, puzzles, items, and dungeons. The story is simple yet made effective on how it’s told through a grandfather narrating his unfolding story to his two grandchildren as you progress and play, which I thought is a nice touch. Of course, the pixel art is minimalistic but very charming, and the music is catchy.

    There are some aspects that needed improving, or I didn’t quite like. My biggest critique is that you will very often have to fight off a horde of enemies, which can make progressing through a dungeon feel slow and honestly not very fun. My second critique is that sometimes the game can feel tedious: you will solve the same puzzles over and over again, and discovering a secret chest typically doesn't yield anything particularly exciting.

    Although there are a few flaws keeping this from being great, it's still a decent title and I still enjoyed my time with it. If you're a fan of Zelda like myself, I think you’ll like this one.    … Expand
  8. jfirestorm44
    Aug 29, 2021
    7
    This game was a pretty decent game. I thought the way the story was presented, with the grandpa narration, gave it its own personality although being an almost Zelda clone. The puzzles were fun to figure out. Most were way too easy and a few were a bit tougher. The combat was just way too easy as everything dies in one hit of the arrow or boomerang. The enemies that come in swarms (bees,This game was a pretty decent game. I thought the way the story was presented, with the grandpa narration, gave it its own personality although being an almost Zelda clone. The puzzles were fun to figure out. Most were way too easy and a few were a bit tougher. The combat was just way too easy as everything dies in one hit of the arrow or boomerang. The enemies that come in swarms (bees, zombies, fireball things) can be killed with one use of the quake medallion also. My biggest gripe was how short the game was. I blew through it in one day (8hrs) and was left scratching my head wondering if there was more or if I really just beat it. I hope that if they make a sequel that they remove some of the insta-kill methods and make the enemies just a tad bit harder along with the bosses. Also a few more hours of game play would be nice. Either way it was worth playing and I did have fun with it.… Expand
  9. judgementblade
    Nov 29, 2022
    7
    It is a nice homage to 2D (top-down pixel) Zelda games and has an interesting but slightly annoying stamina system to use items but you get used to it eventually.

    Controls are nice for the most part but can get tedious in close-space areas for stick controls. Unfortunately though, you don't have a dedicated shield button and instead it goes for the item slot. You are also locked into    It is a nice homage to 2D (top-down pixel) Zelda games and has an interesting but slightly annoying stamina system to use items but you get used to it eventually.

    Controls are nice for the most part but can get tedious in close-space areas for stick controls. Unfortunately though, you don't have a dedicated shield button and instead it goes for the item slot. You are also locked into the sword being on the A button (Switch) and while I don't mind that, I got used to it by playing the old Zelda games (and am very comfortable with it) other people might not like this.

    Story is simple stuff and the "choose your path" aspect is very under-utilized to a point that it shouldn't have been implemented and just give a straight narrative.

    The game has a very uneven difficulty. For most oft the time exploring, enemies don't pose too much of a threat and then you come to mid-bosses and bosses that have way too much HP and spam the screen with bullets you can hardly avoid with the finicky controls.
    In some rooms there is also enemy spam with way to fast respawn ruining the fun.

    Another terrible part of the game are the "Simon say's puzzles" that go on way too long and have random patterns all the time. It wouldn't have been that terrible (but still bad) if they wouldn't always reset to zero if you make a mistake and just have you try the current phase again until you either get an easy pattern or can remember it all. In some cases the triggers are too close together so you accidentally hit the right and the wrong one at the same time.

    In other cases it simple was good puzzles but going on way too long and/or unneeded enemies to make it more tedious than it should be to get through.
    Or you just had no hint what it wants, where it wants you to begin with or from which view angle or position the solution is supposed to be.

    It's not a bad game by far but it has it's issues and the game being what it is, can't avoid being compared to old Zelda games that were just done much better in terms of gameplay and mechanics. It is a "first" development so it will have issues but air to improve so I won't be too harsh. It's definitively something I recommend for classic Zelda fans and a good entry for kids or younger generations who want to see where Zelda started without playing the old (overpriced) classic old school games.    … Expand
  10. azathoth_91
    Apr 24, 2023
    7
    Quick review: quality copy of A Link to the Past and Links awakening, but game is completely devoid of personality

Awards & Rankings

46
#46 Best Switch Game of 2017
37
#37 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2017
79
#79 Most Shared Switch Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Feb 26, 2019
    95
    Blossom Tales has enjoyed a lot of success on Switch, and it deserves it all. [Issue #37 – January/February 2019, p. 23]
  2. FNintendo
    Jul 22, 2018
    70
    Blossom Tales stands as a good example at how a game with a rather simple origin can provide a surprising amount of content and a world to explore, even if it does not reach the monumental peaks it would like to. Thanks to its fine controls and gameplay and to the satisfaction of exploration, as well as to a visually charming outlook, Blossom Tales is a very welcome addition to the adventure and exploration games of the Nintendo Switch catalogue.
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  3. Nintenderos
    Feb 5, 2018
    75
    A carbon copy of classic Zelda games, but in my opinion the best part of this game is not how it looks, but its story design. A mixture of fairy tales.
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