Resonant Tale
Starting off Orange Thief Week strong on Playdate Unofficial: Resonant Tale might be the single best game on the Playdate, even nearly two years after its release. It riffs on The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, an already pretty fatless game, by making it even tighter. Just three dungeons, a limited inventory with game-changing items that open up new areas Metroidvania-style, secrets hidden all over the place, some charming characters, a final boss that’s just tough enough… and it was made in Pulp. Somehow. Even the people that made Pulp still aren’t really sure how it was done.
The only real problem is that if Link’s Awakening is not your kind of game at all, you’ll have a hard time enjoying this one. But also, I can’t really understand that? Here is a small but fully realized world with a ton to discover. The obstacles and objectives are clear, each new item you find unlocks a formerly inaccessible chunk of the map, and the combat is done in a smart and minimal way to get around Pulp’s limitations. The music and sound effects are terrific, and it’s hard to believe that they were made in Pulp. The dungeon layouts reward exploration in a way that you don’t see often, and every secret feels like it’s in a place it should be, with a worthwhile reward hiding.
Resonant Tale is only 2-3 hours long (maybe 5 if you try to 100% it), and every moment counts. The backtracking is minimal, the map isn’t too big so you always know which direction you should be headed, and each screen has something to discover (often many somethings). Many Playdate games are short burst, pick-up-and-play games, but sometimes you want something a little meatier, that will suck up all your attention for hours until you finally see the credits roll. Resonant Tale could sell for $15-20 on the Switch. But it’s only $5, and you can only play it on the Playdate.
This is not a game you show someone as an example of “what the Playdate can do” – I’d use something a lot more gimmicky and crank-based for that. Instead, this is a game you show to your friends as proof that the Playdate is not just an idle distraction, a passing fad. It will make you feel like playing the early Zelda games did as a kid. A full, real world, with so much more hiding just outside the borders of the screen. It’s a game you’ll think about playing when you’re doing something else. It’s really special.
The only reason I hadn’t written about it before (besides in my 2023 Game of the Year article) is because I played it before this site existed, and I needed a fresh replay to enable me to explain exactly why I like it so much. It’s just as good years later. The existence of Resonant Tale helped prove the limitless potential of the console, and without games like it, I probably would’ve never started this site. Just a few people, using a 1-bit, browser-based game engine, made this? Just think what any of us are capable of.