''Baldo: The Guardian Owls'' is an

action-adventure video game An action-adventure game is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements from an action gam ...

developed and published by

NAPS team NAPS team is an Italian independent video game studio based in Messina, Sicily. They work mostly in the home computer and Video game console, console market. Is the oldest Italian development studio. History The company was established as a gam ...

. It was released for

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PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

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, as well as

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and

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through

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. The Switch version of the game was scheduled to be released first in summer 2020 as a timed console exclusive, but the game was indefinitely delayed in September of that year. The game was released on August 27, 2021. Inspired by ''

The Legend of Zelda is a media franchise, video game series created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo; some portable installments and re-releases have been outsourced to Flags ...

'' and

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio based in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It has a strong presence in the animation industry and has exp ...

's films, it is an action adventure RPG, with puzzles, exploration and combat, set in a crafted hand-drawn open world. It was released on

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on January 22, 2024.

Plot

''Baldo'' takes place in the fictional land of Rodia. In undergrounds of this world owls sealed a powerful creature without a heart. According to the prophecy, this creature will free itself when a "pure child" is born. This prophecy has begun to come true and the player's task is to overcome its consequences.

Production

Baldo is a production of the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

studio

. The studio's artist Fabio Capone stated that: "The idea started a long time ago, as a game called ''The Dark Knight'' ... That project ended once the GameBoy Advance era came to an end. It was a shame. A few years ago, once technology that allowed better cartoon shading came around, we thought it was a good time to get our hands on the project once again." The game is inspired by ''The Legend of Zelda'': "It isn't focused on combat mainly, although that's a big part of it, but it will share a lot of elements from the Zelda series ... At its core ''Baldo'' is a puzzle and dungeon game, although there are plenty of other secrets inside". The game features a hand-drawn art style inspired by Japanese anime, including movies by

and works by

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...

, with decrepit ruins, mystical libraries and quaint forest towns filling the screen, each with their own distinctive colours and picturesque backgrounds. Capone stated: "I've always loved Japanese anime and that style since I was a kid. I always dreamed about a game that could bring people into that kind of magical world. No one's done that yet, so I decided to do it myself." The game was released on August 27, 2021.

Reception

''Baldo'' received "mixed or negative" reviews, according to review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. Nintendo Life called it "excruciatingly difficult, repetitive and clunky", but praised the artstyle. ''IGN'' said that "it's almost like Baldo is passive-aggressively daring you to stop playing it altogether". In August 2021, the game ranked thirteenth among the most downloaded games from the

Nintendo eShop The is a digital distribution service for the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2, and formerly available via the Nintendo Network for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo eShop served ...

in Europe.

References

{{reflist

External links

NAPS TEAM Official Website
2021 video games Action-adventure games Apple Arcade games Indie games NAPS team games Nintendo Switch games Open-world video games PlayStation 4 games Role-playing video games Single-player video games Video games developed in Italy Windows games Xbox One games