I finally decided to jump into Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King and it is scratching that itch of old school The Legend of Zelda.

In fact, Blossom Tales is so similar to Zelda titles that I have to remind myself I’m not playing one. To some, that may be a bad thing that reeks of desperation, but to me, it’s more of a love letter.

This is a concept we see a lot in gaming, especially in the indie world. This is how genres such as Zelda-like, Soulslike, and Metroidvania come to be.

I know many who clamor for originality and expect no amount of crossover between games. For one, that’s not reasonable as there is always going to be inspiration and borrowing.

I should clarify that there is a line in this concept. Flat out plagiarizing and theft is never ok in this realm. Rather, we’re focusing on heavy borrowing that doesn’t quite cross that line, at least not legally.

The area where games like Blossom Tales and Palworld occupy seems to center on being a love letter to their source material. I see them as being closer to a cover of a famous song by a different band.

To further this comparison, I see these types of games adding their own flair to it. In music, bands tend to take an original song and cover it in their unique way.

Take Land of Confusion by Genesis. When Disturbed covered it in 2005, it was pretty faithful to the original, but carried that unique Disturbed sound.

The same can be said for Blossom Tales, Palworld, Immortals Fenyx Rising, and many others. Each one takes obvious inspiration from other sources, some closer than others, and offers a unique twist on it.

Blossom Tales feels a lot like A Link to the Past in both design and gameplay. That said, there are areas where it differs. The storytelling is one of them as there are narrative points that the narrator can change since he is telling the story to his grandchildren.

One such example is the player arrived at an open area where a mini-boss fight commences. At first, archers appear but then the grandpa questions if his memory is correct and then says the enemies were golems. The game then shifts to golems instead of archers.

It’s such a clever and unique way to take a tried and true formula and make it your own.

As I said previously, each of these games differ in how close they stay to the original. Blossom Tales is more of cousin to The Legend of Zelda while a game like Anodyne is a much more distant relative to the franchise.

It’s the same concept in music. Some covers stick much closer to the original while others take a much more loose approach.

To borrow from the old cliché, imitation is absolutely the sincerest form of flattery. You can see it in these games that borrow heavily from more established franchises and that is particularly true with indie games.

Many of these developers grew up with these titles and can finally make their own. I see it as similar to a garage band covering their favorite band growing up just before making it big.

There’s only so much innovation that can happen in gaming so seeing that creativity put into redefining or revering past genres is always a welcome sight.

Do you enjoy when games imitate established franchises? What is your favorite game that borrowed heavily from others? Let us know in the comments below or head over to our Discord channel to join the conversation.

Featured Image: Castle Pixel (via Steam)

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The Boss Rush Podcast – A Podcast About Video Games

The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of The Boss Rush Network and Boss Rush Media. Each week, hosts Corey Dirrig, Stephanie Klimov, LeRon Dawkins, and Pat Klein come together with their friends, colleagues, and fellow creators to talk about their week in video games, discuss industry topics, conduct interviews, answer listener questions, and more. New episodes every Monday. Get each episode one week early and more perks over on the Boss Rush Network Patreon page.

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