Ittle Dew Review

By – John Williamson

Ittle Dew is a top-down puzzle adventure game which lovingly parodies the Zelda franchise.  Its aesthetic design is notably reminiscent of Zelda: Wind Waker and evokes a sense of nostalgia to those familiar with the series.  Far from being a basic clone, the core gameplay is focussed on block based puzzles instead of combat and levelling up.  The experience is surprisingly non-linear with a host of exploration options.

You play as Ittle Dew, an androgynous looking girl who craves excitement and adventure.  She randomly finds herself marooned on an obscure island armed with only a primitive wooden stick.  The only means of escape, is to collect a mysterious artefact in exchange for a seaworthy raft available to buy at Titan Carver’s store.  You can also purchase for 200-400 coins a Fire Sword, Ice Wand and Portal Wand.  Interestingly, it is possible finish the story with only two items providing you are able to select the appropriate path.  This adds to the replayability as being restricted to these creates a new approach to each conundrum.

On this quest, you are accompanied by Tippsie, a trustworthy and hilarious sidekick who provides location-based hints where the next adventure can be found.  These are, for the most part, useless only outlying which area you need to be in which is a given.  However, comedic retorts such as, “I hope that’s adventure I’m smelling.” add to the game’s charm and character.  This lovable fox uses self-referential humour to ridicule iconic game mechanics .  For example, in a similar vein to Zelda, your health is based on a heart system.  This doesn’t sit well with Tippsie who proclaims, “Ok that’s just sick, is that a heart? Where did you get that? Don’t eat stuff off the ground!”  Ittle Dew replies derisively with “Five second rule!”  The writing throughout is exceptional which contained a handful of entertaining moments.

Looking from the outside, you may assume each puzzle in Ittle Dew to be uncomplicated.  In truth, they are more complex than you would expect.  Instead of basing the game on simplistic block brainteasers which can become repetitive, additional elements are added including bombs and cubes with changeable characteristics.  The majority of tasks revolve around moving items onto a number of switches which opens a door to the next section.  Another nod to the classic Zelda formula involves destroying the enemies within a particular room to advance.  Crystals are interconnected beings which have to be whacked within a certain time frame to disable them.   In order to beat the majority of puzzles, you must consider the possibilities of your weapons.   You can use the Portal Wand to transport objects from one area to another.  The Ice Wand is particularly useful as it becomes possible to freeze blocks and slide them across spikes.  Finally, the Fire Sword sets alight bombs and also eradicates frozen cubes.

The amount of variables throughout is staggering which ensures each puzzle is challenging.  There is a significant amount of backtracking involved if you wish to attain 100% completion.  This is because some of the more advanced challenges which you see early on in the castle are impossible without items you do not yet own. It is possible to doubt if a particular puzzle is possible because you lack the abilities to complete it.  Even though the game promotes a non-directed approach, this isn’t necessarily the case because your path is linear in the sense that you must acquire the items initially to progress.  However, you do have some freedom in choosing which item to collect first

Ittle Dew’s combat is extremely rudimentary and fairly clunky.  The hit detection is poorly executed and seems wholly inaccurate.   On one occasion, I faced a predicament which required me to ignite my wooden stick, then extinguish a fire on the ground using the Ice Wand to walk past.  After this I quickly froze 4 rocks before bashing them with the lit stick before it dampened.   This involves a ridiculous amount of luck and timing mainly due to slow response times of the controls.  It could be hypothesized that the developer, Ludosity was somewhat aware of this and made fighting optional.  Whilst the odd puzzle is solved through defeating your enemies, the vast majority are concentrated on block rearrangement.  Considering every time you restart a room the monsters respawn, there’s little incentive to engage them.  This is a shame because the enemy design and variety is exemplary from dancing Turnips to jumping Cacti.

There are a few instances where Ittle Dew fails to explain key game mechanics which result in a confusing experience.  One notable example occurred during a task where you need to light a bomb using your Fire Sword, then freeze it and push it towards to other end of the room.  At no stage are you made aware that it is possible to freeze a bomb and remain volatile.  I became utterly perplexed with this and struggled to find a solution.  In the end, I resorted to looking up a guide so I could progress.

Perhaps the most substantial drawback of Ittle Dew is the game’s length, which can be completed in approximately 3 hours.  I was searching around dungeons and hidden routes but still finished it relatively quickly.  If you intend to stick to the main story, it’s possible via memorization to defeat the game in under 15 minutes with some adept skills.  In fact, there’s an achievement for successfully doing this.  There is added replayability in the form of collector cards, 26 in total.  If you manage to do this, then master levels are unlocked with harder puzzles for your gratification.  Competitive speedrunning is also encouraged given the fact that certain rooms within the castle complex have short cuts.  The core experience is much better suited to the player who loves to explore and finish every small aspect.

The game runs natively at 1080p and looks the part.  There is the choice to run via windowed mode and include multiple resolution support.  Oddly only one graphic setting is available but this shouldn’t restrict any people from accessing it due to the low system requirements.  The 360 controller is automatically mapped and works out of the box perfectly.  During the time of review, there was a major bug which prevented the right arrow key from working via the Keyboard configuration.  Thankfully, this was fixed and is now totally operable.

Conclusion – Is It Worth Your Money?

Ittle Dew is a fantastic albeit short puzzle adventure game.  The art style is stunning and consists of highly polished animations.  Ludosity have created a gem which not only honours the Zelda series, but create its own identity. I do feel the price tag of $13.99 is slightly excessive considering the length of the base game.  If you’re looking for a unique and captivating puzzle game, Ittle Dew fits the bill.