Zenonia

Overview

Zenonia follows the quest of a young man who, as a child, was taken--or perhaps "rescued"--from his family during a war. Growing up in a town that no longer seems to want him, he sets out to find out the questions surrounding his origins and the death of his adoptive father. Featuring a full stat, equipment, loot, and leveling system reminiscent of Diablo, and an aesthetic sensibility reminiscent of 16-bit JRPGs, Zenonia is a full-fledged RPG for cellphones that can take the player approximately 40 hours to complete from start to finish.

Plot

The protagonist in the story is named Regret, a man whose origins are initially unknown. He is a young boy who was taken from his family during a war. A military leader upon hearing of the boy takes him into protective custody and exiles himself and the boy to a nearby town, resigning his military position. During the years the military man, never tells him about the boys origins nor about his past career during the war. As far as Regret is concerned, he is just a lumberjack for the town.

One day, a huge demon appears in the town and kills his father with Regret seeing the whole ordeal. After that incident everyone in town acts strange towards Regret, as if his father was the only thing keeping them civil towards him. After some rudimentary errands, he is sent out of town and into the wild. His mission is simple: Find out why his father was killed.

Gameplay

Zenonia is an action oriented RPG whose core mechanics bear some resemblance to top-down, real-time affairs such as the Mana series. Pressing the action button will swing Regret's weapon of choice, with damage and accuracy being determined by statistics (i.e. it's possible for Regret and his enemies to "miss" attacks up close). There are four quick slots to which you can assign spells and other special attacks, similar to western action-RPG's such as Diablo, Torchlight and Titan Quest.

The game features your run of the mill equipment slots such as head gear, belts, weapons, chest pieces and leggings. You have your usual attack button, but you also have a special attack that you can use to deal special damage according to the spell. Each time you use this special attack your SP is depleted. Depleted SP will regenerate over time, but each time the maximum amount of SP will decrease unless you eat or rest at the inn.

Each time you level up you are given 3 points to spend on your stats: Strength, Agility, Luck and Int. Each one having it's uses according to your class.

There is a quest system in place that allows you to receive quests and upon completing get XP, items or gold. They range from typical kill X type of monster to retrieving a lost scroll from the woods.

The controls on the iPhone are a little bit cumbersome to use, but it's apparent that Gamevil Inc. took that into consideration because your character will sometimes try to detect where you're trying to walk and correct path accordingly.

Visual Style

Zenonia's graphical style has been praised all around, with people claiming it is very similar to early Zelda games or Final Fantasy. It has been said that the animations are very slick without being overwhelming and fit with the general look very well.