Milo’s Quest Review

If you remember the first Legend of Zelda game then Milo’s Quest may initially look very familiar. Milo is a very cute looking dog who is having fun in the park and finds a bone. Obviously, being a dog, Milo starts chewing on the bone. Unfortunately unknown to Milo, the bone is cursed and once he starts munching on it he releases the Evil King Old Skill. Now Milo has to go on an adventure to stop the curse form getting worse!

As mentioned previously Milo’s Quest looks a lot like the first Legend of Zelda game. Milo’s Quest is a played from a top down perspective. There are not levels as such but I guess you could refer to them as dungeons, you simply move from one area to another, finding keys to unlock gates which will give you access to another area. Keys can also be used to unlock treasure chests as well. There are hearts and stamina bonuses to be picked up that help increase Milo’s stats. Additionally there are bones that act like currency that can be discovered in chests or more frequently found by running through the many bushes that are present in Milo’s Quest. It’s a pretty simple premise in Milo’s Quest, run around the different areas, find some keys, unlock new areas, beat some bosses until you reach the end.

Usually in a game you have a choice of difficulty settings, this is what is found in Milo’s Quest which isn’t surprising. What is surprising is the additional choice of which version of Milo’s Quest you want to play. You can choose from three versions, one is the Adventure/Puzzles, one is just Adventure and the other is Puzzles. If you choose Adventure/Puzzles then you will have to fight enemies and complete puzzles, the Adventure only version means you will only have to fight enemies whilst the Puzzles versions removes the enemies and you just need to complete the puzzles. Milo’s Quest is not a difficult game at all, so I’d suggest playing the whole version to get the most out of it. Puzzles are a pretty standard fare, moving blocks onto certain hotspots to unlock certain areas. Enemies are pretty easy to beat, it’s a simple case of dashing into them, a skill you will uncover early in Milo’s Quest. You just need to be careful because this uses up stamina, so the more stamina you have then the more dashes you can perform in a short period. There are boss enemies which are pretty simple to defeat, it’s usually a case of running around until the boss slows down or becomes vulnerable. Combat can be a little frustrating as the small enemies will often hide behind scenery, which gets worse in some of the narrow corridors you have to navigate through, making the dash attack a bit hit and miss.

Milo’s Quest is a very cute and charming little title and protagonist, even the little ghost enemies are cute little sprites for the most part. There are 3 separate dungeons to traverse through, all full of bold colours, but they all play the same. There’s non-offensive chiptunes that match the cute visuals in Milo’s Quest. Strangely there isn’t a map, so you’ll find yourself running back and forth between areas which can be a tad annoying as enemies respawn. That’s not much of an issue later on in Milo’s Quest, but at the start can make things more frustrating than they should, bear in mind if you choose the Puzzle version of Milo’s Quest there won’t be any of these enemies to interfere with your adventuring. Milo’s Quest is pretty quick to complete and once you have there’s no reason to go back to replay it. Milo’s Quest feels like it’s almost catered towards a younger audience in terms of story and how it plays, that’s not a negative but it means Milo’s Quest isn’t really a challenge to play. Navigating around some areas can be more pain than it’s worth as Milo’s Quest seems to rely on you moving perfectly around the areas, as mentioned before the narrow corridors can be hard for dashing, they can sometimes be quite hard even to enter as they are so small.

If you’ve never played an adventure game before, then Milo’s Quest is definitely an entry level title for you to try out. The story is cute, the characters are cute but there really isn’t much of a challenge in Milo’s Quest. Younger audiences would certainly enjoy playing Milo’s Quest but adults will struggle to get that much out of it. The slightly dodgy combat mechanics and pixel perfect movement are annoyances but a younger audience won’t be too bothered about that.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Playstation 4 code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.