Summary
- Aloft brings a fresh twist to the survival game genre, combining elements from Zelda and Stardew Valley for a unique experience.
- Players can explore floating islands, cleanse fungal corruption, and build their sky fortresses in this ambitious co-op sandbox game.
- With similarities to Tears of the Kingdom and Stardew Valley, Aloft offers immersive exploration, creative building, and cozy farming.
As if 2024 didn't already have a wide variety of survival games available and more on the way, indie developer Astrolabe Interactive is swooping in with another one that survival fans can add to their list. Aloft is an upcoming co-op sandbox survival game that sees players stepping into a world full of floating islands, where they must cleanse the fungal corruption scattered throughout the islands and bring balance back to the world's ecosystem. Aloft is a rather ambitious game, as it combines unique elements of two of the gaming industry's best adventure and sim games — both of which are almost nothing alike.
It's not every day a game comes out of the oven looking like a combination of creative and simulation elements from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Stardew Valley. In fact, Aloft might be one of the first games to accomplish such a task, despite plenty of other games now borrowing some of Tears of the Kingdom and Stardew Valley's best features for their own uses. Rather than pulling from one or the other, however, Aloft manages to take the creativity of Tears of the Kingdom and combine it with Stardew Valley's cozy farming for an atmospheric and feel-good experience unlike much of its current competition.
Aloft Is Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Stardew Valley Rolled Into One
Aloft Borrows Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's Setting, Exploration, and Creative and Traversal Mechanics
At first glance, it's very easy to spot the similarities between Aloft and Tears of the Kingdom, as there is a multitude of them. Firstly, Aloft's sky-island setting is far from a plagiaristic representation of Tears of the Kingdom, but the inspiration is nonetheless there and very difficult to deny. Unlike Tears of the Kingdom's sky islands, which float above the land of Hyrule, Aloft's world consists of nothing but floating islands in the sky. As far as what lies below them, that much is unknown, but it's of no consequence.
Aloft also seems to borrow some of Tears of the Kingdom's exploration and traversal mechanics. While Aloft's sky islands can't rightly be compared to Tears of the Kingdom's open world, the same elements of curiosity-driven exploration found in Tears of the Kingdom are also present in Aloft. Aloft hardly holds players' hands and instead invites them to be the sole driver in their exploration, much like Tears of the Kingdom does for its players. To get from one island to the next in Aloft, players initially use a Glider, but they can eventually use the game's creative tools to craft peculiar vehicles.
Similar to Ultrahand in Tears of the Kingdom, players can build sky vehicles from the ground up in Aloft, though the primary chassis for these vehicles is the islands themselves. Rather, instead of transforming the islands into mere vehicles, players can use Aloft's building tools to convert them into giant flying sky fortresses they can call home. As seen in the game's demo and some of its screenshots, the possibilities for what players can build seem endless — from giant ships to flying castles resembling Studio Ghibli's Howl's Moving Castle.
Aloft Lets Players Grow and Manage a Farm Like They Can in Stardew Valley
On the islands where players choose to build their homes in Aloft, they can also establish farms like in Stardew Valley. As players explore the sky islands in Aloft, they may occasionally find seeds and crops that they can then plant in their own gardens. Once plants are fully grown, they can be harvested and then cooked for food. Furthermore, players' animals double as companions and resources, just as they do in Stardew Valley.
There is currently no release date set for Aloft, but it has been confirmed for a 2024 launch. Based on what has been revealed so far, it is bound to be a unique experience.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Released
- May 12, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the beloved open-world adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This installment once again sees Link and Zelda battling to protect Hyrule from falling to Ganondorf. This new adventure takes place in the same land of Hyrule as Breath of the Wild but sees something called the Upheaval, which allows link to travel to Sky Islands, as well as deep into the Depths beneath Hyrule. Players can use special abilities to fuse together weapons, and build items to help them progress through the release.
- ESRB
- Rated E for Everyone 10+ for Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Franchise
- The Legend of Zelda
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
- Genre(s)
- Adventure, Action, Open-World
- How Long To Beat
- 59 Hours
- Metascore
- 96
