Braise fully cooked up on Windows PC

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Demo also available for combat-free Zelda-styled fantasy adventure on Steam

A fantasy pixel art adventure spent romping around an overworld armed with a sword in search of a rampaging dragon might sound like just another Legend of Zelda clone, but appearances can be deceiving. Instead, solo developer David Musique has something a little different in mind for his newly released combat-free adventure, Braise. 

After many centuries of mankind's champions ruthlessly hunting dragons, a "fragile peace" between the two species has arisen. While some hunters fought until the bitter end, others laid down their weapons and formed the "Draconic Order" after coming to understand that dragons were crucial to "the balance of the earth and life itself." In Dragon's Valley, however, temples are being mysteriously defiled and one dragon seems to have gone mad, terrorizing the human populace who dwell there. Players control a young woman who returns to her hometown in search of her grandmother, a former champion who went missing in search of the rogue flying serpent. You'll start out equipped with her sword, but it will be your wits, not your skill with the blade, that will help you "complete quests and puzzles to uncover the mysteries [the valley] holds."

Presented via a slightly overhead view like A Link to the Past and numerous 16-bit RPGs, Braise forsakes the combat and stat-leveling of those titles in favour of a more passive puzzle-solving experience. Using either the keyboard or gamepad, you'll guide the young unnamed protagonist around a gorgeously lush fantasy environment, from "the river to the temple, passing through the dungeon," accompanied by suitably medieval minstrel-like music. There will be a variety of valley inhabitants to talk to along the way, some of whom may offer assistance in exchange for your help with different quests. You'll need to find, collect and combine useful items and magic potion ingredients in order to progress, along with solving other challenges using "logic and creativity" – and yes, occasionally that sword on your back as a tool rather than a weapon. It isn't meant to be a long adventure, with an expected playtime of less than two hours to complete, but if you wish to stop and do some fisihing while you're there, you'll want to "look for bait and the best fishing spots to discover all the varieties of fish in the river."

If you're already hooked, you can dive into Braise right away, as the game has already launched on Steam for Windows PC. Or, if you'd prefer to start with a little nibble to test the waters first, you can do that too as a playable demo is also available to download.

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