izigame.me

TL;DR

This game is a rather bland, but somewhat competent Legend of Zelda "Rip off", with most of the mechanics, but not a lot of charm beyond its story telling method. The story being, a grandfather telling his children a story, which is very meta in terms of delivery.
The problem lies with lots of little things that make the game very unpleasant to play, as such I won't be putting more time into this.
If you are ok with a worse version of any 2d Zelda game, and that's all you care about, this game is far from offensive. Otherwise, this is just a bland, easy and tedious experience. For the $3 I paid for it, I could have done a lot worse. Though, honestly, I think you'd get a lot more out of any of the gameboy Zelda games.
This game has a sequel, but I'm not spending a lot of money to find out if it is better.

----Summary

Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King, is a 2d "Zelda-like" that wears its inspiration on its sleeve. You've got the standard sword swing, charge attack, and items straight out of any 2d Zelda game. The difference is that all items are tied to an energy bar, for better or for worse.
Told in the style of a children's story, literally, you play as Lily as she travels the fantasy landscape of whatever the place is called. While I haven't, and won't, complete this game, there isn't too much wrong, but a little goes a long way in this case.

----Positives

Game Supports Modern Resolutions and Controls
I can't tell you how many pixel art games I've played that support a very small amount of resolutions and sometimes only in windowed mode, or that weird zoomed in mode that messes with your monitor's resolution.
The sound is even at a reasonable volume and not so much louder than everything else when I boot up the game. It's very considerate in this regard, and more than I expect from games these days. If it sounds bitter, it's because I am, and I really appreciate it when a game comes configured with a reasonable default. If only network firewalls did this.
Colorful
Some pixel art games try to limit themselves to a really small amount of colors or a color pallet. This game succeeds in not doing that, and I think some things are easier to read visually.
This is not praise for the games graphics themselves however, as they have a few problems that I think makes them look quite ugly.
Some Player Choice
There is a section I played through that let you chose the enemies you fight, I imagine there is more of this kind of thing, and the story telling lends to the possibility, which is pretty cool, I guess.

----Negatives

Very Ugly Graphic Effects
I want to state that I'm not against the game's simple "12-bit" art style. It's everything else on top of it where I have a problem with.
There is a lot of "Juice" in this game. Juice is when a game dev adds effects, rather than mechanics, to make a game more enjoyable. Enhancements, or "enhancements". Enhancements are something like adding a red flash after an enemy is killed so you know you've killed it. "Enhancements" are something like "every sword swing connecting with something causes your controller to vibrate". This game actually does the latter.
Thankfully, I can turn the vibration off completely, because why would I want to feel it when my bombs explode, but not when I chop down grass? Unfortunately, I can't turn off the god awful lighting used for both particles and effects. This awful glow effect really clashes with the pixel art aesthetic and shows that those chunky pixels are actually a lot of smaller pixels. You can notice this every time you go under a light source and see the "banding" in the pixels.
It looks very bad, but what really makes the graphics truly awful is the tweening, scaling and "rixels". These effects aren't always bad, and there are a lot of regular animations. But the sheer amount of ugliness that comes from the combination of these effects makes the game hard to look at and unappealing. I'm already out of the story because the two kids keep interrupting, but now I can't even pretend this is a "retro game", because of all these ugly lasers and the terrible lighting.
This is a very ugly game when in motion, despite the color choices. Everything wiggles in an unappealing way.
The Controls Aren't Good
I will say this right now, I love that I am not forced to use the analog stick when I would rather use the d-pad. I mean this sincerely. This is the only nice thing I have to say about the controls.
I didn't like that my sword was mapped to the "Cross" button, so I remapped it to the "Square" button. To my surprise it also remapped the button you use to talk to people. Talk about a blessing and a curse, but it get's worse. While movement is fine, using items and your sword leave a lot to be desired.
* Not being able to swing your sword because the context changed is super annoying. I didn't want to grab the pot, I wanted to swing my sword. You have so many buttons on the controller, why did you make "talk", "grab", and "Sword", all one button? Put them somewhere else.
* Want to swing your sword after you've released a charge attack? Ok, but you need to press the button well after you'd think you'd be able to. This is very annoying.
* Want to move diagonally? You can. Want to throw an item diagonally? Sorry, you can only throw in the cardinal directions, even if you can move diagonally while holding something.
* Charging your sword is cool. Having the full 360 degree swing be interrupted by this really awkward and useless lunge attack is not. "Just stop pressing the button so quickly". Well I stopped pressing my sword button when I realized the bombs do so much damage that I almost never have to use my sword.
* Being able to throw bombs is neat. Not being able to throw them in all directions sucks. A lot. But what's even more infuriating is the inconsistency of throwing my bomb or placing it on the ground. I think it's tied to how long you hold the button, but it's not very clear. As such, bombs are annoying and as unfun to use as the sword.
Needless to say, the controls make this game very unenjoyable. I even went back to A Link To the Past to see if I was imagining things. I was not.
The Music Is Bad
The music, composition wise, is pretty boring and generic. To be charitable, I would say that rather than sound like music, it sounds like "what video game music could sound like". An awful choice of synths really make me think "generic video game". If they were going for generic, I can't say they failed, but it definitely doesn't sound good. It reminds of FEZ's soundtrack in a bad way.
Other than a few grating sounds, I don't remember much of the music. At least it was at a reasonable volume when I launched the game.

----Conclusion

I usually try to complete games before I give my thoughts on them, but this is another case where it's just so bland that I don't want to continue. Maybe the game gets better after a few hours, but I asked myself "did I play any 2D Zelda game where the first hour was extremely boring and tedious?" I haven't played "A Link Between Worlds", but I can say that none of the 2d Zelda games that I have played ever made me not want to play them. At least not in the first hour (That dang mermaid dungeon!).
You can say that directly comparing this game to Zelda isn't fair, but it's very clear what game Blossom Tales is trying to imitate. This game is very much a parody of the Zelda and its contemporaries. Deny it all you like.

This is a bland boring game that I don't want to look at it. It seems harsh when I read this back, but it's really how I feel. Don't waste your money.