Developer Tiny Roar has released their new game. XEL is a top-down action RPG where you explore and solve puzzles. You start your journey by crash landing in an unknown place and waking up to realize you got amnesia because the crash was not bad enough.

You play as Reid, who seeks to find answers on her journey while overcoming a variety of challenges and uncovering the dark past of XEL. The gameplay feels like a combination of The Legend of Zelda series for its items and puzzle dungeons and Metroid, where you unlock more of XEL with the new items you get.

The game world is an overgrown futuristic location, and both the story and the enemies you will be facing fit this theme perfectly. There is a variety of enemies with different move sets and ways to take them down, even though you can stun most enemies early on and that makes encounters with different types of enemies easier.

For a place with so many life threatening problems, the music is really relaxing most of the time. It came as a big surprise since this is indie, not a big budget title, but it is a fully voiced game. It includes main cutscenes and even conversations with small side NPCs.

The story itself is interesting and will get you hooked to see what is next. Even though the story is getting a little dark, there is always a cheesy joke thrown in there to lift your spirit and to keep going

XEL will also not hold your hand in terms of where to go. If you did not listen to what the people say during the cutscenes, there is no way to hear it again and there is no mission marker. Luckily, it is all voiced so people who prefer not to read can listen to it.

If you are the type of player who just wants gameplay and no story, then this might not be the best game for you. Other than that, the game is a lot of fun to play. I totally recommend it to anyone who has an interest in story-driven adventure games.

XEL is now available on Steam, coming to Nintendo Switch on July 14th.