The Legend of Zelda: Dungeons of Infinity

Although the game is built on familiar assets and sprites, all locations have been altered, expanded, and are procedurally generated. New room types have been added (such as catacombs), and the atmosphere is noticeably darker than the original in places: dungeons may contain blood, bloodied weapons, and fallen characters.

At the start, you can choose from 9 unusual appearances — from Frog Link (who looks hilarious and is a direct reference to Frog from Chrono Trigger) to, for example, Monkey Link. You can also flexibly configure your run: choose the number of starting and maximum lives, enemy strength, shop prices, hide the map, and much more. Additionally, you can select a starting bonus: an extra inventory slot, 100 rupees, or one extra life.

Appearance selection before a run

Your goal is to fight through 7 procedurally generated dungeon floors and defeat the main villain named Agony. As befits a roguelike, dying means starting over. The game tracks run statistics: how many times you've won, died, killed monsters, and so on.

Character movement feels very responsive — sometimes even better than in the original. A sprint button has been added, which dramatically changes the exploration dynamic and helps dodge not only enemies but also the many traps on levels, which is very welcome — combat demands maximum concentration. The bosses are varied and tough, yet never feel unfair.

Boss room

Roguelike elements include strict inventory management, where gear and healing items share the same slots (expandable with bags), and a system of devious curses. The latter impose unpleasant debuffs — for example, hiding the map or draining health until you meet a condition like killing 20 enemies or opening a certain number of chests.

During your run you will encounter shops scattered across floors, offering a wide variety of equipment: consumables, numerous rings with passive effects, medallions, shields, tunics, bows, boomerangs, swords with unique sprites, and many other useful items.

Shop with a large selection of goods

Midway through a run, you may also stumble upon a large peaceful location. This village features full-length quest chains involving item exchanges, rewarding you with plenty of rupees and new swords. You can also take a break with mini-games, including chess and arcade machines. The game stands out for its enormous attention to detail, abundance of secrets, and great humor. Worth mentioning is the easter egg featuring the game's creator, who "Nintendo put in jail" (we hope that never actually happens).

One of the mini-games

Among the drawbacks, the floor length can feel excessive: dungeons (especially the early Hyrule Castle levels) seem too large and repetitive in content. The village quests, due to their fixed structure, can grow stale on repeat runs, so the game would clearly benefit from randomized NPCs or a full meta-progression system between runs.

Overall, The Legend of Zelda: Dungeons of Infinity is a masterful blend of roguelike gameplay and the spirit of classic Zelda. The core concept remains familiar, but procedural generation of rooms, enemies, and chests delivers a completely fresh experience. This is a true passion project made by a fan for fans. It's sometimes hard to believe that games of such quality are released completely for free — but this is exactly that case. Highly recommended, even if you're not familiar with the series.