Purple hair, horns and an eye patch. Standard.
The App Store is rather lacking in the RPG department, which is a sad and curious situation considering how well the iPhone technology lends itself to the mechanics of the genre. That's not to say the say the genre has been neglected completely however; Dungeon and Hero, Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Feanor and The Quest have all dabbled with the RPG template, and whilst they all have their merits, none of them have quite got it right. The App Store has a large hole for that definitive iPhone RPG to fill, and one game in particular is looking like a perfect fit.
We brought word of Zenonia a few weeks ago, but since then have been treated to a first hand look at an early build of the game. First impressions are good. Very good. Put simply, Zenonia is the iPhone's very own Zelda: A Link to the Past, taking clear inspiration from Nintendo's classic franchise. That’s not to say the game is a cheap clone however, from what we’ve seen so far, Zenonia does the Zelda formula proud.
Zenonia is quite the looker. The vibrant anime visuals look fantastic on the iPhone's widescreen, and the character sprites, enemies and locations all scream quality too. Even the menu screens look great, as well as being terribly easy to navigate. Zenonia is a tidy little package, and the fact the game is a port of an existing Korean mobile phone game, makes it all the more impressive.
Control wise, the game doesn’t disappoint either. As with other iPhone RPGs, the game presents a virtual d-pad in the left hand corner of the screen, however this particular d-pad responds when touched, appearing to press down in the direction it is pressed. This nice little feature gives the illusion of tactile feedback, and puts the control scheme a notch above the competition. The right hand side of the screen is reserved for an action button (used primarily for attacking and interacting) and a cancel button (used for cancelling, funnily enough.)
Being an action RPG, a large percentage of the gameplay is based around combat. Thankfully, Zenonia comes up trumps here too, providing a simple yet effective approach to battle resulting in the fast paced gameplay you'd expect from an RPG with the word 'action' slapped in front of it. At the start of the game, there is a choice of which class you'd like to adopt. With Warrior, Paladin and Assassin all on offer, there's always an option to add some variety to a second playthrough. Using the d-pad to allign yourself with an enemy, hitting the action button will prompt our spiky haired hero to attack with his equipped weapon, in the assassin's case, two large knives.
The levelling up process is quick, resulting in a satisfying sense of progression. With every increase in level, the game showers you with points to distribute to Regrett's (your main character's) attributes. As well as all the standard RPG related features (items, weapons, shops etc), Zenonia throws in a day and night cycle and a mechanic that involves feeding Regrett in order to keep his stamina up. Think Metal Gear Solid 3 and you're along the right lines.
Although the build we played is still being localized, the story appears to have everything you'd expect from an RPG with a non-sensical name such as Zenonia. With a full cast of characters all named after emotions, the death of the main characters father and flying dragon warriors -- Zenonia has it all in place. We'll be able to comment further on the game's dialogue and narrative when the game's finished.
Words can only take a preview so far however, so enjoy the video below demonstrating the game in action. We'll be first on the scene with a full review nearer the games release in May.
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