Title: Zenonia
Developer: Gamevil
Distribution: Apple Appstore/Appulous
Release Date: May 2009
Price: £1.79
Firstly, yes, fuck you, I'm reviewing something on an iDoohickey.
Now that's out of the way...
Zenonia is a top-down action RPG, much in the same way as the earlier Zelda games, with finite screen zones, which transition smoothly. Enemies come at you from just about every angle except from straight down, and environmental hazards are in full force here.
Essentially, the story revolves around Regret (not the emotion...), the main protagonist, who's father was killed at the hands of a demon. Your mission, is to run around, killing everything in sight, until you find out what killed your father (I'm betting a volcano fight, and his burning body being the last thing you see), while picking up various quests along the way.
Simply put, this game ticks a lot of the "in the now" boxes. RPG elements, morality system, action controls, and mobile gaming. While none of them are not groundbreakingly well, they're nothing gamebreaking either. Gamevil have spent a huge amount of time with this game in South Korea, so a lot of it is a finished product. I think in the last 7 months of me having it, it's only had 1, possibly 2 version updates.
Controls are basically touch screen only, with zero input from the accelerometer. Screen layout is good, with the oversized "buttons" giving a great response. Both are near the edge of the screen, which is a bit of a pain with moving left, but other than that, they're well thought out, and respond quickly.
As you can see, the standard fare is present and correct. Massive health bar, level counter, a handful of active skills, and an SP bar to fuel them. SP decreases when you use a skill, and the bar itself goes up and down, depending on your character's hunger level.
The in game clock so far, affects 3 things.
1. The actual environment darkens at night (NO FUCKING REALLY?!)
2. A handful of quests are only completable at night
3. The Shadowy Merchant comes out, and sell some shiny shit for extortionate prices.
Now, the clock itself steps forward 5 minutes per enemy you kill, and either 30 minutes or an hour between screens, so it's definately not real time.
On to combat.
Combat flows beautifully, with plenty of enemies trying to gangrape you, there's an unsurprising number of area skills and buffs that you can apply to yourself, and debuffs you can use to scatter your foes. Basic attacks are done by hitting the big button on the right, and skills are activated by pressing their relevant boxes.
Only the skill nearest your attack button is hard to hit, as the hit location for the attack button is a little strange at times.
Health bars are clearly displayed at either the top left or right, depending on where the enemy actually is.
Bosses are suitably epic, with a return to form for the weak spots, and attack analysis. If you run headlong into an enemy, you gonna get raped, as the saying goes.
Character wise, stats are handled by the normal methods...
Strength and Agility affect damage and critical chance, Constitution affects defense and HP, and Spirit affects your SP bar, and its recovery.
Ability wise, these are handled in a method that Diablo fans will instantly recognise...
Overall, it's a very polished product, with some seriously strong points. Story is a little weak in places, and just really serves to push you to other locations. Morality is utter weaksauce in just about every other game, and this is no exception. I went evil just to see some succubus ass. srsly.
ScoresGraphics: Screenshots pretty much show it all - C
Sounds: Not bad overall. Lack of soundtrack is compensated by being able to use your iPod library - B
Gameplay: Very polished. Classes are balanced nicely, and game doesn't scale too quickly - A-
Replayability: 3 distinct classes, 2 storyline types, and a few quests lend it nicely - A-
Overall:
Highly polished game, which the South Koreans have been loving for a couple of years now. If you're looking for an action-RPG for your iDoohickey, then this is just about as good as I've played so far: A-
