What's a zelda clone? And what's a zelda game anyway?
From the sound of the OP we're looking into 3d action platformers with goofy graphics. So here's a few franchises:
Spyro, Ratchet n' Clank, Jak and Daxter, Rayman, Banjo Kazooie, Psychonauts, Crash Bandicoot, Sly Cooper, most lego games (SW, Avengers, Marvel super heroes, DC,...), tak games, the hobbit,...
Disclaimer: they come with varying mixtures of action vs puzzle gameplay. I'm also not trying to say which of the above were inspired by Zelda or vice versa, just listing some games which feel a lot like what OP describes.
Yes, 10 chars are required mainly to forego the lazy attempt at an edgy reply you just did.
So you are not even gonna acknowledge the rest of my reply where i listed a plethora of game franchises, out of which most have 3-4 games fitting the description you just provided?
Ok, let's go through them.
Spyro = platformer, one of the earlier 3D collectathons. Comparisons with Mario 64 would be better.
Ratchet and Clank = action games. Colourful and I love the style, but they are action games with some platforming added to it.
Jak and Daxter = platformer (first game) in the style of Mario 64 turned into a cartoony GTA action clone for part 2 and 3, with some platforming intact.
Rayman = Pure platformer
Banjo-Kazooie = 3D collectathon platformer, one of the best. Again, better to compare with 3D Mario.
Psychonauts = This one I haven't played, but from the looks of it, another platformer focused game.
Crash Bandicoot = Pure platformer.
Sly Cooper = Again, haven't played, but from the looks of it it looks more of a platformer with stealth elements added to it.
Lego games = fun, cartoony action games.
Tak games = ??? What are those?
The Hobbit = Again, haven't played it, but from the looks of it it's definitely the closest to the Zelda formula of the ones you mentioned.
It's always better to just be honest. It's okay you don't like these games bro, no one is gonna judge you. But you are out of your god damn mind if you think Zelda isn't the king action puzzle explorer game series.
Everything else that is that exists because of it. This is not really even a matter of opinion. It's like saying that stupid Rock movie Rampage with the giant white gorilla is better than King Kong.
Last edited by Shakou; 2021-01-20 at 12:59 PM.
You don't have to agree with my posts, which would obviously make for a dull conversation if everyone here was just making one big giant echo chamber. You don't have to go to ad hominem lengths to basically make a post of nothing. The Zelda franchise is just inconsistent in terms of what it is, and nobody with a straight face can say that it's the king of action, puzzle, and exploring. Breath of the Wild wasn't so much exploring as it was mostly empty space with a lot of tiny puzzles thrown around. The seeds were stupid and while they were a puzzle they didn't emphasize on exploring like older Zelda games did.
Lets take a critical look at Breath of the Wild and see how it compares. It's certainly an action game as the combat is actually really good. Especially since you can use physics as a tactic to kill enemies. It certainly has puzzles because you have shrines and seed puzzles just everywhere in this game. But exploring? Nah, the game is designed to waste peoples time when you explore. If this were like most other Zelda games then you'd have dungeons that you can explore and find unique items and fight bosses. Don't tell me that's not what makes a Zelda game because even Miyamoto mentioned about exploring caves is the inspiration of the original Zelda. It's pretty clear that Breath of Wild's development was ended early to push for release because otherwise players would have access to things like the hook shot which would make traveling across the game much faster. Due to the lack of content, the hook shot would make for a quick game, and hence it was removed.
I'm not saying that Zelda games are terrible, but to me it seems like Nintendo is still trying to find a good spot for this franchise. Hence why it introduces new elements and then doesn't always reuse them in sequels. But there are better action puzzle exploring games like Prince Of Persia and Tomb Raider series. I would even include the Thief series, which is largely forgotten nowadays but are still amazing games in terms of action, puzzle, and exploring. Skyrim is still king, even though the claw puzzles in the game are rather weak.
So again, there's no Zelda clones because there's no uniqueness of the Zelda franchise besides aesthetics. Even Rise of Fenyx which the OP mentions as a good Zelda clone is on Yahtzee's 4th most bland game of the year. Again, the OP means Breath of the Wild clones as Zelda games in general are just all over the place. We're talking about 2D top down side scrolling Zelda clones or 3rd person perspective clones? How about clones of Zelda games where you have two worlds to explore like Ocarina of Time's time travel or Twilight Princess dark and light worlds?