The best game like Zelda is Okami HD, Capcom’s ink-painted adventure of dungeons, new powers and a world that heals as you go, followed by Immortals Fenyx Rising, the closest match for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, and TUNIC, the best classic top-down pick. The 22 others cover every kind of Zelda: open worlds to climb and glide across, item-gated dungeons in 2D and 3D, new 2026 releases such as Mina the Hollower, and free picks for Android and iPhone.
We ranked these 25 games on how closely each delivers what people love about The Legend of Zelda: a world that rewards curiosity, dungeons and puzzles, tools that open new paths, and a small hero who grows into a big one. Critical reception decides the close calls. We left out Nintendo’s Zelda games and spin-offs themselves, which our ranking of the best Zelda games covers. Every entry lists the platforms it is on, checked against Steam, the console stores and the publishers’ own pages on November 8, 2026. Every PS4 game here also runs on PS5, and every Xbox One game on Xbox Series X|S, through backward compatibility.
25. Infinity Nikki
Platforms: PC, PS5, iOS and Android (released December 2024). It is free to play.
Infinity Nikki is the gentlest way into a Breath of the Wild style world, and it has a real tie to that game: executive producer Kentaro Tominaga was a game designer on Breath of the Wild and directed its Expansion Pass before he left Nintendo. You wander the bright land of Miraland without a sword, and outfits do the job of Link’s gear, granting floating, gliding, shrinking and purifying powers that open new routes and puzzles. That swap is why it sits at the bottom here: there are no real dungeons to conquer and very little fighting. But it costs nothing to start on Android or iPhone, which very little on this list can say, and it suits anyone whose favorite part of Hyrule was simply walking over a hill to see what was on the other side.
24. Lil Gator Game
Platforms: PC and Nintendo Switch (released December 2022), then Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4 and PS5.
This is Breath of the Wild as a kid on a playground would play it, which makes it our pick of the games like Zelda for kids. The Steam page sums up the verbs: climb, swim, glide and slide your way around an island, then bop cardboard baddies with a stick sword. Instead of a shrine, every hilltop holds another buddy with a quest, and each friend you make joins your game of pretend. Playtonic lists it as rated E, nothing in it is frightening, and a parent can happily sit and watch. Anyone who wants more can add In the Dark, the expansion that arrived in February 2026.
23. Eternal Strands
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (released January 2025).
If the part of Tears of the Kingdom you loved was poking at the physics to see what would happen, start here. Yellow Brick Games gives its hero Brynn fire, ice and telekinesis, and its official site promises a world where “heat spreads, cold chills” and you can use “raw telekinetic force to rip boulders from the ground.” You can start a wildfire and watch it roll toward enemies, pin a giant’s limbs with ice, or climb the giant itself, because the site says every surface is climbable. It is built from open zones rather than one seamless Hyrule, and it has no item-gated dungeons, so it ranks low on this list. Nothing else here comes closer to the chemistry of Zelda’s newest open worlds.
22. The Pathless
Platforms: PS5, PS4 and PC (released November 2020), Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S (February 2023) and iOS (June 2024).
From the makers of ABZU, this one bets on an idea Breath of the Wild made famous: take away the quest arrows and let your eyes do the navigating. Its Steam page says there is “no map to guide you,” so you read the landscape with spirit sight, then glide down from the peaks on the wings of your eagle. Ruins hide puzzles, and corrupted spirits stalk their own domains, waiting to be hunted down in big boss fights fought with a bow at full speed. There are no real towns and no item-gated dungeons. But the feeling of spotting something far away and setting off toward it, with nothing telling you to, is right there.
21. Chicory: A Colorful Tale
Platforms: PS5, PS4, PC and Mac (released June 2021), Nintendo Switch (December 2021), Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S (May 2023).
Chicory takes the top-down Zelda map and replaces the sword with a paintbrush. All the color has vanished from a coloring-book world along with its great artist, and you pick up her Brush to fill in for her. The Zelda skeleton shows in how the land opens up: as its Steam page puts it, you “unlock new paint abilities and use them to reach new places,” with puzzles and boss fights along the way. It is gentler and far more emotional than most games here, with more than 10 hours of play, and Metacritic lists a 90 for the PC version. Local co-op lets a second player paint beside you, which makes it a lovely adventure for a parent and child.
20. Minishoot’ Adventures
Platforms: PC (released April 2024), PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 (March 2026).
Picture a classic Zelda overworld with a tiny spaceship where Link should be. SoulGame Studio built one handcrafted map of lush caverns, ancient temples and sunken cities, and each Primordial Power you find both sharpens your combat and, in the words of its Steam page, opens “up the map bit by bit.” The dungeons end on bosses, and everything is fought with twin-stick shooting, including bullet-hell battles with difficulty options for newcomers and veterans. It is a real change from swinging a sword. The itch it scratches is the one A Link to the Past started: wondering what is behind that ledge, and remembering it the moment you earn the power to get there.
19. Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC (released May 2025).
Pocket Trap calls this the first “Yoyovania,” and under the joke sits a very Zelda idea: your yoyo is both weapon and tool, and each new trick changes what you can reach. You cross a city of four districts and break into the businesses of four crime bosses, whose “labyrinthine buildings” play like top-down dungeons full of foes and action puzzles. Its Steam page promises more than 1,000 screens of challenges and secrets, and many have more than one solution, so old rooms keep looking different. Metacritic lists an 87 for the PC version, and Kingdom Hearts composer Yoko Shimomura contributes as a guest. It is one of the newest strong picks here, and among the funniest.
18. Sable
Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC (released September 2021) and PS5 (November 2022).
Take every fight out of Breath of the Wild and you have Sable. Shedworks sends a young nomad on her Gliding, a rite of passage across a desert of spaceship wrecks and ancient ruins, on a hoverbike you customize with the parts you find. The Steam page’s list of verbs is the whole appeal: “climb, leap, hover, glide.” There is no combat at all, only puzzles, other nomads to help and a world to take in at your own pace, set to a Japanese Breakfast soundtrack and drawn like a comic book. That missing sword keeps it out of the top half, but for pure exploration few games come closer to the first hours on Hyrule’s Great Plateau.
17. Ys X: Nordics
Platforms: PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC (released October 2024). The expanded Ys X: Proud Nordics followed on PS5 and PC in February 2026.
Wind Waker fans, this is your sea. Nihon Falcom’s Ys X puts you aboard a sailing ship, the Sandras, for ocean travel, naval battles and uncharted islands across the Obelia Gulf. Ashore, your Mana powers work a lot like Zelda’s hookshot and bombs: its Steam page says you “grapple and slide through dungeons, demolish obstacles, create new platforms.” Combat is a faster action RPG than Link ever fought in, with Adol and the pirate Karja fighting together or swapped in and out. Proud Nordics is the version to pick on PS5 or PC if you want everything, since it adds a new story on Öland Island and two new characters.
16. Hyper Light Drifter
Platforms: PC and Mac (released March 2016), PS4 and Xbox One (2016), Nintendo Switch (Special Edition, September 2018) and iOS (July 2019).
Heart Machine’s Steam page calls this “an action adventure RPG in the vein of the best 16-bit classics,” and one look tells you which classic it means: a lone swordsman in a ruined, overhead world, with secret rooms behind every odd-looking wall. It tells its entire story without a word of dialogue. The combat is far faster and harder than A Link to the Past’s, built on a sword, guns and a quick dash, and the page warns that “enemies are vicious and numerous.” Weapons and skills improve as you go, along branching paths with secrets all over them. Metacritic lists an 84 for the PC version, and the Steam version adds local co-op.
15. Kena: Bridge of Spirits
Platforms: PS5, PS4 and PC (released September 2021), Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S (August 2024).
Kena has the shape of a classic 3D Zelda, drawn by an animation studio. A young Spirit Guide works her way through a forgotten village and the forests around it, using a staff that also fires as a bow, and collecting the Rot, tiny spirit companions whose numbers unlock new powers. The Steam page says you open up new areas by delivering Spirit Mail left behind by lost spirits, and every part of the valley builds toward a boss that tests what you have learned. It is more linear than Breath of the Wild, but anyone who loved Ocarina of Time’s Kokiri Forest will feel at home. Metacritic lists an 83 for the PC version, and we have covered its sequel, Kena: Scars of Kosmora, too.
14. Tchia
Platforms: PS5, PS4 and PC (released March 2023), Nintendo Switch (June 2024) and Xbox Series X|S (July 2024).
Tchia crosses Breath of the Wild’s climbing and gliding with Wind Waker’s sailing, on islands inspired by New Caledonia. Its Steam page says the free climbing “lets you ascend anything in the world without restriction,” and you get between islands in your own boat. The twist is soul jumping: you can take over more than 30 animals and hundreds of objects, then solve puzzles or dig for treasure as a bird, a fish or a dog. The whole archipelago is a physics-driven sandbox, which will please anyone who loved the “will this work?” side of Tears of the Kingdom. It has no real dungeons and a lot more music than Zelda, thanks to a fully playable ukulele.
13. Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm
Platforms: iOS (released September 2019), Nintendo Switch (October 2020), PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (August 2023).
No game here is more openly built from the 3D Zelda blueprint. A young knight sets out across the world of Gaia, collecting powerful items, solving what the Steam page calls “clever puzzles” in “mysterious dungeons,” and facing massive bosses over more than 20 hours. Two companions, Trin and the robot Gen, fight beside you and can be directed to help with puzzles, and the Caster Gun adds ranged fire to your sword. It has a smaller budget than the big names on this list and fewer ideas of its own, which is why it is not higher. But if you want a straightforward Zelda-shaped quest with no twist, it is one of the few that plays completely straight.
12. Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince
Platforms: Nintendo Switch and PC (released August 2022) and Xbox (October 2023).
If A Link to the Past is the Zelda you keep going back to, this is the closest thing to a new one in that mold. Castle Pixel calls it a “classic top-down action-adventure,” with a vast overworld of haunted forests and pirate shores, dozens of mini-dungeons and caves, tricky puzzles, and a wide array of weapons and abilities across more than 15 hours. Its own charm is the frame: Grandpa is telling the story, and he narrates Lily’s quest as you play, with choices that change what happens. There is no PlayStation version. If you finish it hungry for more, the first game, Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King, comes from the same studio.
11. Crimson Desert
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Mac (released March 2026).
Crimson Desert is the biggest new game with Tears of the Kingdom in its bones. Pearl Abyss’s continent of Pywel is packed with ruins and hidden treasure, you can “scale cliffsides and walls” and leap off them to glide, and the journey takes you skyward to the Abyss, a mysterious realm above the land. Puzzles in the ruins pay out Abyss Artifacts that buy new skills, the same loop as clearing a shrine. Its combat is far heavier than Zelda’s, with grapples and kicks alongside the sword. Our Crimson Desert guides hub covers it all, from how fast travel works and the best skills to get first to getting your own wyvern.
10. Beyond Good and Evil 20th Anniversary Edition
Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC (released June 2024). The original came out in 2003.
Ubisoft’s cult classic arrived in the same years as Wind Waker and shares its love of a small, sunny sea world. You play Jade, a reporter with a fighting stick and a camera, crossing the planet Hillys by hovercraft. Ubisoft’s own list of what you do reads like a Zelda back of the box: “freely explore Hillys, combat creatures large and small, infiltrate dangerous areas, solve enigmatic puzzles.” Those infiltrations are its dungeons, and pearls you collect buy the hovercraft upgrades that open new parts of the map. The 20th Anniversary Edition runs at up to 4K and 60 frames per second and adds a new treasure hunt, so this is the version to buy today.
9. Elden Ring
Platforms: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One (released February 2022), and Nintendo Switch 2 as Elden Ring Tarnished Edition (August 2026).
Elden Ring is Breath of the Wild’s central idea, see something on the horizon and go there, handed to FromSoftware. The Lands Between gives you almost no direction, and every cliff seems to hide a cave or catacomb, mini-dungeons that do the job of shrines with far nastier rewards. Your spectral steed Torrent takes the place of Epona. It is far harder than Zelda, closer to fighting nothing but Lynels for hours on end, which keeps it out of the top five, and Metacritic lists a 94 for the PC version. Our Elden Ring guides hub can get you started, with how to level up and the best Elden Ring mods.
8. The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (released June 2026).
Square Enix’s first HD-2D action adventure reads like a checklist of Zelda’s favorite things. Elliot has a fairy sidekick, Faie, whose magic clears both enemies and puzzles. He steps through the Doorway of Time to visit four ages of one continent, a clear cousin of Ocarina of Time’s seven-year jump, all to lift a curse on Princess Heuria. You can carry two of its seven weapon types at a time, and magicite changes how they work, so obstacles have more than one answer. Its reviews landed below those of Death’s Door and Mina the Hollower, which is why it is not higher. It is still the best-looking new take on the top-down Zelda formula, and one of only a few games here with a Switch 2 version.
7. Death’s Door
Platforms: PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S (released July 2021), PS5, PS4 and Nintendo Switch (November 2021).
Acid Nerve’s little reaper crow is on a simple errand until its assigned soul gets stolen, and what follows is Zelda’s dungeon loop at its cleanest. You pass through doors into a handful of big, themed areas, and each one ends with a giant boss and rewards you with a new spell: fire, bombs or a hookshot. Each spell then opens shortcuts and secrets in places you have already been, which is the moment every Zelda fan lives for. Combat mixes melee, arrows and magic, and the Steam page is honest that “mistakes are punished.” It is a somber game with a surprisingly funny script, and Metacritic lists an 85 for the PC version.
6. Darksiders Warmastered Edition
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One and PC (released November 2016) and Nintendo Switch (April 2019). The original came out in 2010.
Strip away the apocalypse and Darksiders is the best M-rated 3D Zelda ever made. You play War, a Horseman framed for ending the world, and the structure is right out of Ocarina of Time: huge dungeons with puzzles, each one handing you a new tool that also unlocks areas you passed earlier. The Crossblade is your boomerang, the Abyssal Chain your hookshot, and the horse Ruin gallops in once the world opens up. Bosses are massive, and the combat is heavier and bloodier than Link’s. It is not for kids, but for grown-up Zelda fans it is the nearest thing to Twilight Princess with demons. The sequel, Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition, is worth a look after it.
5. Genshin Impact
Platforms: PC, iOS and Android (released September 2020), PS5 (April 2021) and Xbox Series X|S (November 2024). It is free to play. The PS4 version ended service in April 2026.
Genshin Impact is the most thorough Breath of the Wild homage there is, and it is free. You climb nearly any surface on a stamina meter, paraglide from the peaks, cook food at campfires, and mix elements so that fire ignites grass and lightning meets water. HoYoverse’s world of Teyvat is full of puzzles, chests and Domains, which work as short dungeons. What separates it from Zelda is everything outside that world: it is a live game with a large cast of characters unlocked by paid or earned pulls, and a story that keeps growing. It is the top answer for anyone searching for Zelda on Android, since no other game here is as big on a phone. Our report on Version 7.2 shows how much HoYoverse is still adding.
4. Mina the Hollower
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC (released May 2026).
The Shovel Knight team spent years on this, and it shows. Yacht Club Games has made the Zelda: Link’s Awakening of a darker world, with 8-bit visuals in the style of the Game Boy Color and a huge island of interconnected areas, bosses and secrets. Mina whips foes with her Nightstar, picks from an arsenal of weapons with their own move sets, and uses sidearms and trinkets the way Link uses his items. The big idea is burrowing: she dives underground to dodge hazards and pop up behind enemies. It is far tougher than Link’s Awakening, with a Victorian Gothic horror story, and Metacritic lists a 90 for the PC version. If you only try one new game from this list, make it this one.
3. TUNIC
Platforms: PC, Mac, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S (released March 2022), PS5, PS4 and Nintendo Switch (September 2022).
TUNIC stars a small fox with a sword and shield, and it is a love letter to being a kid with the original Legend of Zelda and a manual you could barely read. The Steam page says you rebuild the game’s Instruction Manual page by page as you find it, revealing maps, tips, special techniques and “the deepest of secrets,” much of it written in a language you cannot read. That manual slowly teaches you that the world was full of things you walked straight past, the best trick any game here pulls. Around it sits a tough isometric adventure of big monsters, strange items and “intricately-connected” lands. Metacritic lists an 85 for the PC version.
2. Immortals Fenyx Rising
Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC (released December 2020).
If what you want is Breath of the Wild on another console, this is it. Ubisoft’s Golden Isle is a huge open world you can climb on a stamina meter and cross on the Wings of Daidalos, and its Vaults of Tartaros are shrines by another name: trap-filled puzzle dungeons, from bite-sized tests to multi-stage labyrinths, that pay out Zeus’ lightning to raise your stamina. Zeus and Prometheus bicker over the story as narrators, the combat adds fast aerial moves, and Herakles’ Strength lets you pick up and throw heavy objects in a way that will feel familiar to anyone who has spent time with Ultrahand. It only misses #1 because its puzzle rooms never match the grand dungeons of Zelda’s past.
1. Okami HD
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One and PC (released December 2017) and Nintendo Switch (August 2018). The original came out in 2006.
Okami HD is the best game like Zelda because it copies the whole formula rather than one part, then adds a single brilliant idea of its own. You play Amaterasu, the sun goddess in the form of a white wolf, with a tiny talkative companion named Issun riding along to do the job Navi did for Link. The land of Nippon is cursed and ruined, and you bring it back region by region, with towns full of side quests, a growing set of powers, dungeons built around them and giant bosses at the end.
The brilliant idea is the Celestial Brush. Instead of a hookshot or bombs, you stop time and paint on the screen: draw a slash to cut, a circle to bloom a dead tree, or paint over a broken bridge to restore it. Every technique you learn is a new key to the world, exactly like a new Zelda item, and the Sumi-e ink art still looks wonderful. Metacritic lists a 92 for the PC version. If your Zelda is Twilight Princess or Ocarina of Time (our guide has how long its Switch 2 remake takes), this is the one to play next.
Games Like Zelda by Platform
- PS5: Immortals Fenyx Rising, TUNIC, Mina the Hollower, Genshin Impact, Death’s Door, The Adventures of Elliot, Elden Ring, Beyond Good and Evil 20th Anniversary Edition, Crimson Desert, Oceanhorn 2, Tchia, Kena, Ys X, Sable, Pipistrello, Minishoot’ Adventures, Chicory, The Pathless, Eternal Strands, Lil Gator Game and Infinity Nikki all have PS5 versions. Okami HD, Darksiders Warmastered Edition and Hyper Light Drifter are PS4 games that run on PS5. Blossom Tales II is the only game here with no PlayStation version.
- Xbox: Immortals Fenyx Rising, TUNIC, Mina the Hollower, Genshin Impact, Death’s Door, The Adventures of Elliot, Elden Ring, Beyond Good and Evil 20th Anniversary Edition, Crimson Desert, Blossom Tales II, Oceanhorn 2, Tchia, Kena, Sable, Pipistrello, Minishoot’ Adventures, Chicory, The Pathless, Eternal Strands and Lil Gator Game run on Xbox Series X|S, and so do the Xbox One versions of Okami HD, Darksiders Warmastered Edition and Hyper Light Drifter. Only Ys X and Infinity Nikki are missing.
- Nintendo Switch and Switch 2: Okami HD, Immortals Fenyx Rising, TUNIC, Mina the Hollower, Darksiders Warmastered Edition, Death’s Door, Beyond Good and Evil 20th Anniversary Edition, Blossom Tales II, Oceanhorn 2, Tchia, Hyper Light Drifter, Ys X, Pipistrello, Minishoot’ Adventures, Chicory, The Pathless and Lil Gator Game are on Switch. Mina the Hollower and Minishoot’ Adventures also have Switch 2 versions, while The Adventures of Elliot and Elden Ring Tarnished Edition are on Switch 2 only. Genshin Impact, Kena, Crimson Desert, Sable, Eternal Strands and Infinity Nikki are not on a Nintendo system at all.
- PC: all 25 games on this list, and all but Genshin Impact are on Steam. Genshin Impact uses HoYoverse’s own launcher or the Epic Games Store instead.
- Mobile: Android has two, Genshin Impact and Infinity Nikki, both free to start. iPhone and iPad add Hyper Light Drifter, The Pathless and Oceanhorn 2.
Games Like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom
For Breath of the Wild, start with Immortals Fenyx Rising and Genshin Impact, the two that copy its climbing, gliding and stamina most closely, then move on to Tchia, Sable and The Pathless if you want something calmer, or Elden Ring if you want something much harder. If getting more stamina was the upgrade you always chased first, Immortals will feel like home.
Tears of the Kingdom is harder to match, because no other game on this list copies its vehicle building. Crimson Desert comes closest on scale, with its journey into a realm in the sky. For the physics, try Eternal Strands and Tchia, and for the feeling of moving heavy objects with magic, Immortals Fenyx Rising. If you are still working through Link’s latest, our guides cover the best order to do the temples and how to fuse weapons.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the closest game to Zelda? Okami HD is the closest to the classic Zelda formula, with dungeons, a growing set of powers and a talkative companion. For the open-world style of Breath of the Wild, Immortals Fenyx Rising is the closest.
What are the best games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild? Immortals Fenyx Rising and Genshin Impact are the two best, since both are built on climbing, gliding and stamina in a big open world. Elden Ring is the best pick if you want that same freedom with a far harder challenge.
What are the best games like Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom? Crimson Desert is the best match for scale, with a journey skyward into the Abyss, and Immortals Fenyx Rising and Eternal Strands come closest on physics and moving objects with magic. No other game here copies its vehicle building.
What are the best games like Zelda on Switch? Okami HD, Immortals Fenyx Rising and TUNIC are the top three on Switch, and Mina the Hollower and Darksiders Warmastered Edition follow. On Switch 2, The Adventures of Elliot and Elden Ring Tarnished Edition are the big additions.
What are the best games like Zelda on PC and Steam? Every game on this list is on PC, so our top three all apply: Okami HD, Immortals Fenyx Rising and TUNIC, all on Steam. Genshin Impact is the one big exception to Steam, since it uses its own launcher.
What are the best games like Zelda on PS5 and Xbox? Immortals Fenyx Rising and TUNIC are the best with native versions on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, followed by Mina the Hollower and Genshin Impact. Okami HD runs on both through backward compatibility, as a PS4 and Xbox One game.
Are there games like Zelda on Android? Yes, but only a few. Genshin Impact is the best, a free open world with Breath of the Wild’s climbing and gliding, and Infinity Nikki is a gentler free option from a producer who worked on that game.