Confident they would avoid a copyright battle, the developers at CriticalX Games drew on elements from The Legend of Zelda series, Darksiders 1 and 2, and even Nickelodeon's animated Avatar series to create the original world of Tales of Yinka. We played the demo firsthand and obtained exclusive information about this third-person hack-and-slash game.
The game tells the story of the young warrior Y’in, born in the small village of Itzal, whose name means gift from God. He becomes a warrior on his eighteenth birthday, a position created to protect his people from adversity, hunt, and scout the area around the village. The village of Itzal, along with its magical artifacts and great temple, is kept safe by an elemental force controlled by Kataro'in, the last living shaman residing there.
Kataro'in spent many years searching for a way to achieve eternal life and thus preserve his lineage, as he was its last shaman. The game's introduction is expected to explain that he achieved his goal by imprisoning the elemental avatars of the gods Tǔr'dã (earth), Shink'u (water), Kalu'ak (fire), and Hura'kane (storm), corrupting their principal artifacts kept in the village's great temple, and performing a sacrificial ritual to awaken the legendary Gutsukami, god of life and death. The shaman bargains the villagers' souls in exchange for the continuation of his lineage. Creepy, right? Do not worry, the story explains everything.
Unaware of anything involving the shaman Kataro'in, Y’in, the game's protagonist and hero, returns home from a scouting journey to find his village completely empty. Puzzled by what happened, he sets out on a journey in search of answers.
> See more images from the game in our gallery.
The story is in beta, as is the game, but it presents promising elements. The same cannot be said yet of the gameplay itself, which is at too early a stage for premature conclusions. Zelda's influence is quite apparent in the game system, since you spend much of the game in dungeons uncovering secrets and puzzles and opening doors and chests containing items. We also noticed Avatar's influence in the character designs.
We played the first available demo, and the game's release is scheduled for the second half of 2017, though delays may occur as new features are added to the project. For those who were curious, Tales of Yinka was available to play on PC at the Epic Play: Games & Animes 2016 event on October 8 and 9.
