Inspired by Zelda: Blue Fire Boasts The Wind Waker’s Art Style with a Metroidvania Twist

Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for dungeons and boss battles in Blue Fire. If you’d prefer to experience this element of Blue Fire yourself, please bookmark this page for later reading.

Welcome to another installment of Inspired By Zelda, our editorial series that looks at games new and old that take inspiration from the Legend of Zelda series. Our aim is to spotlight the games that Zelda fans might enjoy adding to their catalog. Up today is Blue Fire from developer ROBI Studios and publisher Graffiti Games, available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Steam, and Xbox.

Coming seemingly out of nowhere (or perhaps reappearing in the spotlight, having been released over three years ago), Blue Fire has received positive acclaim as a game that blends action-adventure styles with platforming mechanics. The game comes with many secrets, both in lore and in gameplay, but one thing that shows clearly is its influences. I’ll discuss in detail the subtle and not-so-subtle nods to the Zelda franchise made in this game. That said, as mentioned before and in the title of the article, this game also has a lot to credit to the Metroidvania platformer style of game development, and certainly to none other than the 2017 cult classic, Hollow Knight.

From the hearts, to the magic, to the quests and challenges, Blue Fire does well in paying homage to the Zelda franchise.

 

It Starts as it Always Does… Waking Up

One of the many consistencies in almost every Zelda game is how you start your adventure: Waking up. In Blue Fire, the protagonist Umbra is a silent hero much like Link, a hero who will later be referred to as the “Warrior of Light and Shadow.” Umbra awakens in what appears to be a test tube, and starts their adventure by breaking out and beginning to roam their surroundings in a world called Penumbra. The scene is immediately reminiscent of the introduction to Breath of the Wild, where you awaken in a vat of liquid with little more than zero context of where you are, why you’re there, and what you’re about to do.

The similarities to Breath of the Wild are noticeable as you make your way through the initial corridors of the castle you wake up in. It took me back to wandering the hallways and stairwells of Hyrule Castle, with its tattered flags of royalty, and its winding and crumbling walls. The presence of a black goo that glowed was immediately recognizable as the developer’s take on Malice.

One thing I found interesting in the initial moments of the game was how many doors in the castle were simply inaccessible. While I’ve been told, “You don’t have the right,” many times before, what caught my attention were the in-game notifications of what was behind these doors, such as “Guard Tower,” “Weapon Storage,” and even “Chief Bathrooms.” My hope was that in the future, I would be granted access to these locations and the secrets behind these blocked doors. Unfortunately, these hopes were left unfounded.

Shortly into your journey, you’re greeted by a masked figure named Von, who takes on a role similar to Sheik in Ocarina of Time. Their origin and involvement is mysterious, but they explain your destiny, which is to rid the world of the darkness that is taking hold by channeling your own darkness, or shadow, with the combination of your light, or fire. The darkness is presented in the form of monsters that have invaded Penumbra, originally built as a sanctuary from the darkness that has invaded the land once occupied by the gods. This sanctuary was protected with none other than the blue fire that exists within our protagonist.

The interactions with Von are sparse throughout the game, and they lack closure when the game is about to end. This is unfortunate, because in many ways, Von appeared to be a key role in driving the story. The lore and the story could frankly have used more, and my anticipation of what was to come quickly turned into just more unanswered questions. While this didn’t fully take away from the experience of the game in a fatal way, it sometimes left me wondering why Umbra and I were even embarking on such a quest, simply based on a mysterious recurring figure telling us it was our destiny. (It’s not lost on me that Ocarina of Time has Link beginning his destined quest because a tree told him to do it. I’ve willingly bought this narrative before.)

 

Combat, Gameplay, and the Timeless Tradition of Breaking Pots

Combat in Blue Fire is simultaneously exciting and lackluster. The abilities you are granted have Umbra leaping around in the air and coming in for aerial attacks before retreating to brief safety before lunging in again. Eventually, you learn a spin attack that any Zelda fan will immediately relate to and enjoy. While the mechanics are more similar to other 3D-platforming games, like the dashing and spinning in Hollow Knight, or the deflecting in Blasphemous 2, the appearance and sensation of battles reminds me of the combat in The Wind Waker, as the protagonist zips around enemies to find points to strike and is able to use the classic Z-targeting that Zelda is known for pioneering. While there are a variety of enemies, I found almost all of them too easy to defeat, never having to worry about my health.

Speaking of health, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were unique from older Zelda titles in the way that one gained additional hearts (players could navigate small Shrines with a handful of puzzles or courses to build their health). Blue Fire seems to have taken direct influence from this tactic, granting players a heart for completing 16 optional areas called “Voids.” In each Void, players must navigate a series of obstacles suspended over an abyss. Thankfully, players don’t lose health when falling down, and seem to have increased stamina while in the Void. Throughout each Void are 30 “Void Souls” that help you in gaining extra slots to store your Spirits, which act similar to talismans in Elden Ring or charms in Hollow Knight, granting you specific abilities such as regenerating hearts, a triple jump, or immunity from fall damage.

Alongside accessing these Spirits, you also gain access throughout the game to new swords, which, while boosting your attack power, seem to offer nothing else in terms of ability or flare. You can also acquire a selection of tunics to dress up Umbra however you see fit — however, none of the tunics carry any sort of functional buff to my knowledge. One thing I found really fun (but a bit of an odd addition to the game) were emotes. Umbra could perform a variety of different gestures or moves, and while these emotes didn’t serve much purpose aside from a scavenger hunt for treasures, they bolstered a sense of silliness and light-heartedness to the game that already existed in healthy amounts. Personally, I just loved having my little guy dancing to techno at random times!

Later in the game, in order to access a certain area, one must go back to other regions of the game and activate a pedestal that greys their surroundings and has them collecting a number of orbs throughout the area. This moment immediately took me back to the Silent Realm in Skyward Sword, albeit this experience was much less stressful, and didn’t have giant guardian spirits chasing me down at first glance. The game lacks a map function, and so the player must rely on a sense of direction, good memory, and a few well-placed signs to navigate back to where they found these pedestals in the world. I’m not sure if a map would have been a positive addition to this game or not, because I feel like there is something to be said about going through the interconnected parts of the world without a large-scale showing of what they all look like together. I will also note that the game did eventually grant you the ability to warp between Shrine-like spots in the world, which helped tell a story of what order you did things in, as the game is mostly linear in the way that you access areas.

Throughout the game, you’ll have options for various side quests, all of which are worth taking on, as the length of the game is already rather short (around ten hours). The real gems in the storyline are found here, and often result in some comedically dark endings. As mentioned above, there is no map for location points, so this requires some memory on the part of the player to track down specific NPCs or objects in places formerly visited or previously inaccessible. This could be a welcome challenge to some or an unnecessary burden to others, depending on what you’re looking for in a game.

One quest that stuck out to me was finding and rejoining an orchestra of NPCs known as Onops, which was very akin to the Stable Trotters quest in Tears of the Kingdom. What I enjoyed about this was running into them throughout the earlier parts of the game, thinking they were just a nice addition to the area I was in, only to have to jog my memory and go back to find them all again.

Like Zelda games — and admittedly, many other games — you find chests throughout dungeons and the overworld that contain items for you to use or sell, including some pretty fly gear and the occasional random item, like an apple or a dead rat. One thing that stood out immediately that feels as quintessentially Zelda as the Triforce and the Master Sword was the breaking of pots to gain money. Blue Fire does a great job between the sound effects and the “per-pot return” to make this act as enjoyable as it always has been.

One very cool feature that Blue Fire provides is the Void Maker, similar to Dampe’s Chamber Dungeon in the Switch version of Link’s Awakening. While I’ve dabbled in neither, I feel like it’s worth acknowledging, as the Voids were a huge shining star in the game, and being able to create your own would certainly be a unique opportunity for those enticed to do so.

 

Direct Influence in Dungeons and Bosses

Once exiting the tutorial area and traversing some paths in-between, your first significant dungeon experience involves the lowering of water to access new areas in the Forest Shrine, all of which reminded me very much of Skyview Temple in Skyward Sword. While this isn’t as dynamic as the lowering of water levels in Ocarina of Time‘s Water Temple, the influence appears clear to me. In other areas and dungeons, the flipping of switches can reveal access to new areas or shortcuts back to old ones, reminiscent of similar mechanics in Skyward Sword.

Before we entered the newly-accessed temple, however, we’re greeted by a ball of light and a voice, who addressed us as the “Warrior of the Night” and requested that we defeat the corruption of darkness that has taken over their temple. The voice is revealed to be that of Nuos, one of the five gods of the land that we’ll be working to free from the darkness (or at least that’s what we’re led to believe). This reminded me of freeing the Sages one-by-one in Ocarina of Time. We actually only end up meeting and liberating two of these gods from their corruptions, however.

From there, we head to the first temple that’s dedicated to an actual god, where we insert ourselves into a movable statue to activate switches in order to enter the temple proper. This reminded me of using the Dominion Rod in Twilight Princess to assist in navigating through the Temple of Time. This temple belongs to Uthas, another one of the five gods, who approaches you in a fashion similar to Nuos and requests you clear the darkness and corruption from their sanctuary. Uthas’ Temple took on an icy-cold feeling, with hues of blues coating the environment. Rather than working your way down like the Forest Shrine, Umbra and the player had to work their way up in this dungeon.

The apparent structure of these “traditional” dungeons and their bosses gets switched out for a more “open” approach, where Umbra and the player explore the world to obtain keys to access the rooms of the remaining bosses. These last three dungeon/temple style areas — the Temple of the Gods, the Steam House, and the Graveyard Shrine — certainly carried flavor of their own, but ultimately were more reminiscent of a Divine Beast or one of the temples from Tears of the Kingdom rather than a temple with more character and a specific item attached to it. I particularly enjoyed Steam House, as it involved tracking down an NPC, which reminded me of hunting for Princess Ruto in Ocarina of Time‘s Jabu Jabu’s Belly. The Graveyard Shrine and the Temple of the Gods were less temples or dungeons and more just pathways to the boss arena, similar to any other area of the world.

To elaborate on the bosses, I found the first two to be almost like practice enemies for the three boss knights you face later on. This is arguably a good thing, since that’s what early bosses are meant to do. All five of the bosses evoked tactics that required lots of dodging, jumping, and timing. I found the knight bosses to be significantly more difficult than the previous enemy and boss encounters, putting to test my acrobatics and having me running back to make changes to my character and return better equipped. The knights also resembled in appearance the Blights from Breath of the Wild — only, rather than being manifestations of the evil incarnate, they are knights corrupted by the shadow darkness. In order to defeat them, I had to utilize the Spirits I had gathered through the game, as well as learned abilities from previous temples. These sorts of tactics were more reflective of the approach Hollow Knight took in combat techniques rather than any Zelda game, but having to use specific abilities is certainly a trend in the franchise.

While the dungeons in Blue Fire are about as challenging as early-game levels in the Zelda series, it’s clear that they provide opportunities for critical thinking and problem solving, even if they hold your hand a little bit throughout the process. Boomstick Gaming put in best in their video, which also covers the similarities between Blue Fire and Zelda: “Your dexterity will be put to work more than your brains.”

 

Art Style and Music

I’ve mentioned several different Zelda games as showing their influence on Blue Fire. However, no game shows itself more explicitly than that of The Wind Waker, which the game’s art style mimics greatly from the get-go. While not as outwardly “cartoonish” as The Wind Waker, the colors and textures of the surroundings gave the world of Blue Fire the similar, simple beauty of a true fantasy world that we get when we travel across the Great Sea as Link.

Like the Hero of Winds from The Wind Waker, Umbra also carries a cartoonishly-large head, and the area they both traverse can feel bright but unrefined (there is argument that such an approach to this art style actually improves the ability for a game to, “hold up over time,” but that’s a topic for a future article.) To me this is nowhere more evident than in the Stoneheart City, where I felt immediately transformed back to Forest Haven.

Stoneheart City is the first area in Blue Fire that exists outside the main castle area and the sewers that lead out of it, opening the gates to story, NPCs, and just what the world has to offer in terms of environment and atmosphere. It’s really the first area you explore that contains any sort of “green,” and the presence of grass and light shining through the treetops. I also felt notes of both The Wind Waker and Skyward Sword when traversing the Firefall River later in the game, with it’s echoing sound effects, platforming mechanics, and flowing lava carrying me through simple brownish tunnels to my next destination.

I found the music here to also resemble the music from the Earth Temple in Skyward Sword, with its driving drums and string instruments filling the empty space. The Steam House area found near the end of Firefall River contained a more Malice-like environment as well as a number of valves that needed to be activated. Its large, multi-room mechanical nature reminded me of a Divine Beast in Breath of the Wild, but in an art style similar to the other two games mentioned, with its bright but basic colors painting an area that never was meant to look like something out of real life.

The music in both the overworld and within dungeons is whimsical and fantastical. It reminded me very much of the music heard throughout Link’s adventures on The Wind Waker‘s Great Sea, albeit less melodic and with a soundscape similar to tracks in Hollow Knight, which contained more of an empty, ethereal atmosphere with long, low notes blanketing the entire sound. The Forest Shrine — the first true dungeon you experience — has chiming drum patterns and uplifting harmonies that remind me very much of the type of musical spread in Skyward Sword. This is a fuller sound compared to previous Zelda games that brings out a dance between orchestral instruments that is both catchy and atmospheric. Between the tapping of Umbra’s feet against the floor, the chants made by enemies as they strike, and the old-fashioned smashing of a pot, the sound effects throughout the game leave nothing to be desired. Umbra even gives his best Link-style grunts as he moves and swings his sword through the world.

 

Conclusion: Blue Fire Burns Bright, then Burns Out

The appeal of this game is very understandable, and Blue Fire has received mostly positive reviews. However, it seems like that has to do more with what it models rather than what it makes. While the marriage of elements from the Zelda series with the platforming and mechanics of Hollow Knight seem like a match made in gaming heaven, the relatively easy combat and lack of consistent and substantial story left me thinking that the whole isn’t always more than the sum of its parts. I truly enjoyed playing Blue Fire, and wished that there was more to experience with it. Alas, after the ending, I felt like there was more missing than fulfilled. It might be too much to expect a lengthy game from a small indie developer like ROBI, but some extra time in the game for additional dungeons and lore might have allowed the candle of Blue Fire to burn a little longer.

What I would have loved to have seen would have been a more fleshed-out version of this game, filled with more lore, more dungeons, and perhaps a few more items with special effects. I understand that sometimes a developer is constrained by what resources they have when developing a game, and the product of Blue Fire shows that the resources were well spent. If a sequel to this game came out, I would certainly give it a shot, as the first left me hungry for what sort of story might evolve from the light meal we were served.

There are many things I enjoyed about Blue Fire, and while it may seem like I’m being overly critical at times, there are a lot of positive takeaways. At the end of the day, I would recommend this game to those who enjoy Zelda, and a price tag of $20 USD for the Switch is worth what the game offers you. Between the art style, the world, and just being able to run around with the zoomies, this game brings a lot to the table. And while it misses many things that would make the experience feel more complete, I’m left feeling mostly warm towards my time in Penumbra.

So, will you play Blue Fire and experience the darkness within Penumbra yourself? Or have you already played this game and recognized the same Zelda-inspired elements as I? Let me know in the comments below!