Grind Time- Zenonia Reviewed

RPGs have done great things for other genres in gaming. Castlevania was dramatically improved by the inclusion of RPG elements. Puzzle Quest took Bejeweled, a game I found quite dull and repetitive, and breathed a necessary depth and life into it. That said, I believe the RPG genre, itself, to typically be much too stuck in its ways, too traditional. Games like the Boktai series and Knights in the Nightmare take RPG elements and do interesting new things with them. Sure, they’re amalgamations but they’re innovative via amalgamation. We need to innovate the RPG genre in some way. The days of clunky interfaces, cliched plots and characters, and excessive grinding should be remembered but left behind. Zenonia is an iPhone/Touch game that does nothing to innovate or improve RPGs, but manages to be fairly fun despite this.

Zenonia is an action RPG for the iPhone/Touch that first interested me because it appeared similar to the Boktai series. Unfortunately, Zenonia shares nothing that made the Boktai series unique and plays a lot more like a Legend of Zelda game as an RPG but dumbed down. Zenonia takes inspiration from Zelda‘s combat, puzzles, and visual style. The combat (with the exception of the game’s controls) is fairly successful, but the puzzles don’t even hold a candle to the Zelda series, consisting mainly of bland block pushing puzzles.

The graphics are actually quite good with impressive 2D sprite work and animations, and pretty, albeit derivative, artwork and character design. While the framerate gets a little choppy during graphically intensive segments, it’s never much of a problem and the graphics quality is adjustable in the game’s options. The music and sound are a bit too simple and repetitive and end up sounding more like an older java-based mobile phone game. The story is unfortunately pretty cliche and predictable but it serves the purpose of driving the action well enough. I could tell the game’s creators did at least put some thought and heart into it. There are a lot of fourth wall breaking jokes, that are pretty amusing, but they are presented in a way that hurts the storyline’s gravitas a bit.

My major complaints with the game (aside from the lack of innovation) are the finicky on-screen gamepad controls, clunky menu system, and excessive grinding. The on-screen gamepad works for the most part but in an action RPG “the most part” isn’t quite good enough. A swiping control scheme or Diablo-esque tap controls may have worked much better. The menu system oddly requires you to use the gamepad, as well, rather than just letting you tap the various menu items. There are rare exceptions to this that only make the system more awkward.

A v1.1 update is coming that attempts to improve the gamepad and inventory navigation. At its current state, the game is slightly crippled by these flaws but it is in no way broken. Lastly, Zenonia makes you grind something fierce. You’ll have to spend a somewhat annoying amount of time killing the same monsters in order to level up enough to not get absolutely surrounded and slaughtered when moving forward. The quick speed at which enemies respawn doesn’t help this either. Still, Zenonia‘s combat may be a bit simple and clunky, but it’s quick and fun enough to make grinding not all that bad, especially in chunks.

Zenonia isn’t nearly as good as any of the games it draws inspiration from, but that is definitely a tall order. For its price of $5.99 USD, Zenonia actually gives you a lot of game. If you want a fairly solid straightforward Japanese-style action RPG for the iPhone/Touch, you’d be hard-pressed to do better than Zenonia (for now). Just don’t expect anything you haven’t seen elsewhere.