Within the ever-growing world of indie video games, the place creativity typically blossoms past the constraints of huge studio expectations, Zefyr: A Thief’s Melody stands out as a vivid testomony to the ability of solo improvement and passionate storytelling. Created by Mathias Fontmarty beneath the studio identify Oneiric Worlds, Zefyr just isn’t merely a sport however an invite to decelerate, discover, and savour a world crafted with care, humour, and emotional depth.
Developer: Oneiric Worlds
Writer: Oneiric Worlds
Style: Indie, 3D Platformer, Journey
Launch Date: June 2nd, 2025
Reviewed on: PC
Out there on: PC
Copy was offered by the developer.
Impressed by beloved classics like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Sly Cooperand Past Good & Evilthis charming action-adventure sport presents gamers a vibrant, tranquil, and considerate journey – one that lightly subverts trendy gaming norms in favour of coronary heart and ambiance.
Set throughout a phenomenal archipelago, Zefyr introduces us to a whimsical universe the place thieves gather flowers and assist out biologists, pirates roam the skies, and historic secrets and techniques lie tucked away behind waterfalls and mountain paths. You play as Eïko, a younger thief-in-training who stumbles right into a conspiracy much more harmful than they bargained for. At first look, Eïko’s journey might seem to be a traditional hero’s story – however Zefyr presents greater than a easy narrative arc. It’s a meditation on kindness, curiosity, and our connection to the pure world.
From the outset, the sport’s aesthetic units the tone. With a cel-shaded, pastel-infused artwork type, the visible palette seems like a watercolour portray coming to life. The character designs are stylized, nearly paying homage to late PSX-era journey video games – evoking a heat nostalgia with out sacrificing trendy polish. The vivid colors intensify the islands brimming with life, whether or not it’s birds hovering overhead, sick animals in want of therapeutic, or environmental particulars that lightly reward the observant participant. This consideration to ambiance doesn’t simply function a backdrop however turns into a part of the emotional vocabulary of the sport.
However aesthetics alone don’t make a compelling journey. What makes Zefyr shine is its gameplay construction, which well blends exploration, stealth, and puzzle-solving right into a cohesive and extremely playable expertise. Whereas Eïko can sneak previous enemies or have interaction them instantly, the sport encourages creativity and selection, with out punishing gamers for taking a extra pacifist method. There may be an openness to its design, actually and metaphorically. Most environments enable for climbing, leaping, and grappling with shocking freedom.
This verticality makes traversal really feel fluid and empowers gamers to have interaction with the world in a method that feels playful and liberating. There are not any double jumps or unlocks as you would possibly see them in most extra trendy titles. As a substitute, you’ve Zelda-style dungeons the place you remedy puzzles, are launched to new mechanics, unlock new skills, after which make the most of stated abilties in good and somewhat participating methods.
Zefyr: A Thief’s Melody, nevertheless, doesn’t merely take inspiration from different video games however it additionally innovates. Maybe one among its most iconic mechanics – and it’s most delightfully whimsical – is the power to journey between islands by driving on the again of a large turtle. This sluggish, light type of navigation is emblematic of the sport’s bigger ethos: Zefyr doesn’t rush you. It encourages reflection and curiosity, putting equal worth on reaching your subsequent goal and having fun with the journey alongside the best way. In a gaming panorama typically obsessive about quick journey and high-octane motion, Zefyr presents a uncommon pause.
Moreover, the sport nonetheless means that you can use quick journey in case you do certainly hurry for the subsequent journey, however it’s a selection somewhat than the one viable possibility, and at occasions, you would possibly simply have to mix the 2 if you wish to attain a spot that isn’t accessible but.
Interwoven with its core mechanics is a way of light urgency within the story. As Eïko uncovers the layered thriller of her world – assembly vibrant characters, confronting pirates, and uncovering historic relics – she’s additionally therapeutic, studying, and rising. There’s no grim darkness or extreme cynicism right here, which makes its emotional moments land much more powerfully. The sport by no means talks right down to its gamers. As a substitute, it trusts them to have interaction with its themes, together with compassion, environmentalism, and accountability, at their very own tempo. In some ways, the sport seems like an interactive youngsters’s novel – one which, for my part, adults will discover simply as transferring, in all probability.
So, to summarise my overview to date, Zefyr: A Thief’s Melody is a sport that rewards exploration and creativity, permitting you to method conditions stealthily or head-on. Practically each wall is climbable, and the sport doesn’t actually make use of invisible partitions, which additional helps with immersion and incentivising inventive options to the number of obstacles the participant might face.
Total, it’s a very polished expertise that’s well-designed each by way of gameplay and world-building, however regardless of that, there are a couple of little nitpicks I’ve. For one, I do not know why we’re thieves, why thieves usually are not unhealthy guys, and what makes a painting-stealing thief higher than a plundering pirate… “Oh properly…” These and different questions are sometimes left unanswered and I want there was simply extra lore within the sport.
One other minor situation I had with the sport was that the music simply wouldn’t play for a great whereas, and it simply appeared like the sport typically forgot to loop a observe or one thing.
Exterior of those smaller points, I did discover the sport to be pretty simple by way of fight. The puzzles had been all fairly neat by way of complexity. Not too exhausting, not too simple. The candy spot. Generally issues would take me some time to determine, however they had been nonetheless very a lot enjoyable and undoubtedly jogged my memory of Zelda by way of design and construction. I might additionally see the inspiration the developer took from Past Good & Evil (nice sport!) with the animal cataloguing, the assorted collectables, and the bo(workers)-centric fight, though I want that there was an possibility to extend the issue for fight a bit.
And properly, the animations are a bit janky at occasions – however, personally, I discovered that fairly cute. It will have been neat if Eïko was no less than doing a browsing movement or one thing on the turtle or maybe moved much less rigidly… however I don’t thoughts slightly jank, and it gave me a great few chuckles alongside the best way. I’ve seen worse from greater studios.
That stated, I don’t assume that these minor points outweigh the various positives that Zefyr: A Thief’s Melody has going for it. It’s a really well-balanced sport and a heartfelt journey that encourages exploration, empathy, and pleasure.
It’s maybe not the loudest or most groundbreaking title of its technology, however it absolutely exhibits loads of soul and actually manages to convey throughout how a lot ardour and energy the only developer behind this sport poured into it.
Zefyr: A Thief’s Melody takes loads of inspiration from different video games however seems like a lot, far more than the sum of its elements… and greater than something, it presents a somewhat accessible, magical world to get misplaced in, welcoming all forms of gamers with open arms (and a large turtle to trip), which I discovered somewhat nice.
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