Zelda Meets Pokémon In Gorgeous New RPG You Can Play Free Now

Steam is managing to surprise me on what is now a weekly, or even daily, basis. New RPGs are constantly dropping on the service, and they're all over the place in terms of monetization, in a good way. There are plenty of premium offerings, as well as completely free games with no strings attached and free-to-play titles that offer a ton of gameplay with very little incentive to keep paying to play.

On Steam now, you can play a game that will appeal to pretty much any RPG fan out there. While we're spoiled for choice, this game is definitely something that will appear on a lot of wishlists going forward.

Leafblade Looks Adorable

Right now on Steam, you can play Leafblade, an adventure/RPG that borrows a lot from classic games like Zelda and Pokémon, while having plenty of personality on its own. Plus, the art style is adorable and easy to discern in-game.

Here's the premise, which explains it perfectly: "An ARPG monster caretaker. Fight along the Mons you meet in your adventure to recover the bond between humans and Mons. Take care of your Mons in your farm, improving their combat and farm skills while ensuring their happiness."

Described as a "cozy monster caretaker" game, you play as Rain, a chosen human who has the ability to bond with animals (referred to as "Mons"). You'll fight them, interact with them, and generally hang out as you attempt to complete your quest. The Farm Sanctuary serves as a base of operations, where you can gather food and cook meals, in addition to tending to your farm.

While Mons are called "deadly enemies" at first glance, when you bond with them, you can earn both combat skills and passive or active abilities that help with farming.

There's also an ongoing overarching mystery behind the game's world as you locate the "Ancient Mons," and a cozy set of minigames tied to the farm. Cooking is a huge part of downtime, and you can "awaken new combat abilities" through it, so it's not just a superfluous element of the game.

You Can Check Out The Demo Now

Right now, the demo is live, where you can play Leafblade for free. While it's not the full experience, you can tame Mons in it, explore a "piece of the first biome" of Leafblade, engage in combat, and adventure in a portion of what the team has in store for the hub.

The team also has a message for fans: "If you enjoy your time with the demo, please consider adding Leafblade to your Steam Wishlist. Every wishlist helps us reach more players and continue developing the game. If you have any feedback, suggestions, or bugs to report, we'd love to hear from you in the Steam Discussions or on our Discord. Thank you for supporting indie games, and thank you for giving Leafblade a try."

Note that while the game doesn't have a release date yet, the demo is available to play on Steam now.