With so many people asking "what are some good games? what should I get?" I thought I would start doing some full fledged reviews of my own.
I'll do more if you guys like it and/or I'll stop if big review posts get too obnoxious. I figure I might be able to help give more insight since a lot of iOS review sites out there read like press releases rather than reviews and are so quick to slap a "recommended" rating on anything half-decent.
I often find when reading reviews I wish I knew the reviewers bias and how much they completed the game before passing judgment on it. In regards to bias, I will do my best to put down anything about myself I think would affect my review (positively or negatively). I will also list how much I paid for the game as I think it factors in with a games overall enjoyment. I also wont be giving out scores, ratings or anything of that nature. Ive always thought it's silly to try and sum up an entire game with a number. If youre interested in the game and my thoughts about it then it wont kill you to take a few minutes to read. So without further ado here's a game I just finished:
By GAMEVIL Inc.
ver 1.7 reviewed on an iPod Touch 4th gen
My Bias
-I didnt play the original Zenonia
-I grew up on SNES RPG's
-I enjoy the grindy nature of Korean RPGs
-I am drawn to games with Anime art styles
My Completion
-Completed the main story with Paladin class (Lu)
-109 hours (which surprises me a lot since it didnt feel like nearly that many)
How much I paid for it
$1.99
The story of Zenonia 2 follows what has become a very cliché tale of a group of young heroes chosen to save the world. Quite frankly the story just wasnt very good. However I found that despite how bad the story was it really didnt affect my enjoyment of this game. While the game could have benefited from a good story to drive you from point A to point B, I simply shrugged it off as nonsensical fluff text in between the fun parts of the game.
How many times have we heard this line in a video game?
Along the way many villagers will ask you to perform side quests for them. I did a good handful of these side quests but towards the last quarter of the game stopped caring. Almost every single time the quest consists of either collecting a certain item or killing a certain amount of enemies. Needless to say these side quests dont add anything to the overall story and just serve as a vessel to earn rewards.
This is a Korean RPG at heart which means it has a sort of mindless grinding flavor to it. I've played a few KRPGs before so I didnt really have a problem with this as it never got so bad that I was irritated I had to grind. There were very few parts when I had to put the games progress on hold and grind, and when I did the time went by quick. I admit I actually like the laid back style of killing countless enemies just for the sole purpose of reaching that next level.
Something tells me the localization team was having too much fun
During about the first half of the game I had a big problem with weapon/armor durability. As you attack and get hit the durability ratings for your equipment go down and once they reach zero they become unusable. There were a few times I got frustrated because by the time I fought all the way to the next dungeon, fought all the way through that dungeon and finally reached the boss my equipment was close to breaking. This meant I had to go all the way back to town and try again avoiding enemies. I guess I just dont understand why equipment has durability in the first place as I feel it adds nothing to the experience and only serves as an annoyance.
If I understand correctly Zenonia 2 was originally a game developed for Korean cell phones and then ported to the iOS platform. I mention this because the game is very choppy/janky at times and does not look at all optimized for iOS devices. When you are walking around towns and fighting in fields (a majority of the game) its a lot less noticeable than during the games story sequences. I think part of what creates this effect is that the game is tile based (think Pokémon movement) and so every time a character moves it has to walk one full tile instead of a smooth little nudge. Luckily Zenonia 2 boasts some really nice sprite work and environments that help to counteract this and give it a feeling of visual polish. In addition to the great sprite work there are quite a few flashy effects during battle that are subtle and yet provide a nice look & feel.
Look at me cut the heck out of this log
Musically this game has some nice tracks in it. I am quite fond of the first town theme and it gets stuck in my head a lot. The only bad part about these tracks is that they are such short loops. The music reminds me of the 16bit days of old when a themes melody had to be good because there were no orchestras or choirs to hide that there was no melody. Some of the dungeon tracks get a little aggravating because they are SUCH short loops and when grinding for a good hour you get sick of it. Thankfully the game lets you toggle music off for these parts and play your own music.
Some of the dungeon music will do this to you
The on screen D-Pad controls are alright, not the best Ive used but certainly not the worst. Like with most Gamevil games, you can customize the size and position of the on-screen controls. I ended up making the D-Pad as large as I could and as tight into the corner as possible. This helped because the D-Pad will abruptly stop functioning if you finger slides off its edge which during frantic fights put me in some real binds. It also doesnt respond quick successive taps in different directions. So for example if I wanted to run just one step left and one step up I have to tap left, wait half a second, then tap up. Too quick and it wont recognize that second Up command. The only way to move that quickly is to slide your thumb around the D-Pad which isnt as precise as a single tap. All said and done the D-Pad gets the job done and while it could be better, it didnt prevent me from enjoying this game.
When you level up you are given stat points that you can use to increase your characters attributes. I personally have never liked these stat allocation systems because the OCD in me is too afraid Ill screw it up. However with my Paladin I started off by pumping nothing by strength just to see how far I could get and never needed to pump another stat for the rest of the game. For the games other 3 character classes it may be different but it was something I didnt have to worry about with Paladin.
Look at how cool my character is
As of version 1.7 there are numerous glitches to be found in this game. Ive had the game crash on me a few times, refuse to load and just hang on the title screen a few times, and about midway through the game my item/skill hotkeys shifted around to weird spots and nothing I did would shift them back. I imagine this is all because this is a port rather than a game developed specifically for iOS devices. Still, while they didnt happen often enough to make the game unplayable it was quite obnoxious when they did occur.
The equipment system in this game reminds me a lot of the Diablo series for the PC. Equipment is dropped by enemies and can either be one of 4 qualities: Normal, Magic, Rare & Unique. Each class of item comes with better bonus stats on it so finding a Unique piece of equipment is really great. Towards the second half of the game you start finding really fun bonuss on equipment and can start to customize how your character plays. In my case I strived to equip my character with gear that added to his Critical Hit chances, and by the end of the game almost every single attack resulted with a critical. I love stuff like this in RPGs and this became one of the best parts of the end game.
The game has a crafting system as well but its not done very well. Its issue lies with the obscure ingredients needed to craft these items with no indication of where to find them. For the longest time I had all these crafting designs requiring Steel. I never did find any Steel nor found any recipes to make Steel. I eventually out-leveled the usefulness of the equipment I was trying to craft anyways, but the game is full of stuff like that. Very quickly I learned to simply ignore the crafting recipes that would drop from monsters because I knew finding the materials was a ridiculous task without some sort of FAQ.
With my Paladin the games difficulty was a cakewalk for the most part
.. except for the bosses. Almost every standard enemy did damage to me in the single digits while I was dishing out thousands and I dont think I ever became in danger of dying out in the field. Yet, the bosses feel like hitting a brick wall of challenge. They can easily reduce your character to half health in one attack and are quite difficult to avoid. I remember trying to beat the first boss several times and I almost considered giving up it was so difficult. To make matters worse every boss will regenerate all its health back if you dont finish it off quick enough.
Despite my complaints and the games many nuances, Zenonia 2 still ended up being a fun game overall. Once you complete the main quest you can carry your character over to a new game on a harder difficulty. I may tackle that someday but after 109 hours I want to move on to something else. If anything, between 4 different character classes, a lengthy main quest, and an additional difficulty this RPG gives you a lot of content for your dollar. Im glad I played it and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a meaty RPG for their iPhone/iPod/iPad.
