They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and if that’s true, Zelda’s cheeks will be redder than the blood moon when players get their hands on Windbound when it launches.
In Windbound, the influence of modern Zelda is abundantly obvious on the surface - its painterly art-style purposefully reignites memories of Breath of the Wild and several of its mechanics and sensibilities act as a sort of roll call for some of the franchise's greatest hits. But beyond those similarities - that’s where the comparisons end. Though initial perception could easily conclude that Windbound is a spiritual successor to Zelda’s prime titles, in a similar vein to Oceanhorn, my actual playthrough proved that Windbound foregoes a lot of adventure sensibilities in favor of a much stronger focus on survival mechanics, sharing much more DNA with Rust and Don’t Starve than it does with Wind Waker. I’ve got to admit - I don’t think that’s to its benefit.