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Zenonia DS
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  • Summary: Classic RPG action returns with Zenonia.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. Nintendo Life
    90
    Zenonia is an incredibly impressive game with a lot to offer its players.
  2. IGN
    80
    Zenonia for the DSi is a great port of a still-great iPhone game. (We included it in the Top 25 iPhone Games.)

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. PsychoticCoast
    8
    Zenonia is a relatively straightforward RPG for the DSi with some noticeable additions (both good and bad). You play a character named Regret (side note: two-thirds of your primary characters have names that are simply English words, which can make dialog sound a bit bizarre at times), who is searching for his father. Along the way he'll meet the usual host of companions and save the world in the process in some fashion. Visually, this game is well above average (admittedly, I would've thought it more impressive if I hadn't been playing Shantae: Risky's Revenge moments before), however "regret"ably, our main character's sprites during dialog sequences are at best average, at worst atrocious, and occasionally ill-suited to what's being spoken. On a related note, the dialog itself gets the job done, although evidently the writers thoroughly studied the comedic elements of FullMetal Alchemist. For those not in the know, the entire series had an ongoing "Ed is short" joke that was funny the first and MAYBE second time but that reared it's ugly head until maybe the third-to-last episode. What I'm saying is that the humor during the conversations is for the most part like watching a comedy in Latin; you can see the characters making funny (in this case, disturbing) faces, but you have no idea what anybody's saying, so it all just kind of leaves you confused and annoyed that it took that much longer to get a quest. Speaking of which, one of the game's big selling points is quests, and how there's a main quest line along with a side quest. Yes, ONE side quest, because every single quest you get is just "go kill 'x' to get 'y' and bring 'y' back here." Every one of them is a fetch quest (well, not EVERY one of them; some of them just have the "go kill 'x'" part). That said, the quests are fun, and you'll need the money. "Why do you need the money?" You ask? Well, the obvious answer is, "To buy weapons, armor, and potions." But that's not all! Another of the game's little additions (by far the most annoying) is the hunger system. Basically, Regret gets hungry every now and then, so you need to carry food (overpriced food) to feed him, or you "get tired" and can't use skills. Unfortunately, as I soon noticed, Regret appears to have a disorder where the instant he tastes food he gets hungry. I went for almost an hour before my SP bar started shrinking, so I gave my character an apple. Five minutes later, it goes back down again. There is no exact counter for hunger, so I'm not sure if feeding Regret when the SP bar is full will lengthen the time I have or just waste precious food. Furthermore, Regret eats food in real time, so pray he's not hungry during a fight (incidentally, food doesn't restore health--what's with that?) Aside from the hunger system, gameplay in Zenonia is fairly simple. This is good, because it's never explained. You attack with the A button, and you use any skills you've quick-linked (hotkeyed) by holding down L and then pressing either A, Y, B, or X. Pressing X by itself opens your menu (this switches off the music, which can be annoying when just opening it to use a potion--even though the music itself is dull), and start opens the map (virtually useless, as you have a minimap on the bottom screen). The best thing about Zenonia (and the only thing keeping me from giving it a 5) is the clever morality system. Most RPGs nowadays have a morality system (and thus at least two endings), but the moral choices are usually along the lines "Save the orphan baby," or "Take a dump on the orphan baby." Some of the other ones have this immersion-breaking thing where they TELL you just how evil or good your action was (maybe its just me, but in WWII, did a devil-horned frowny-face next to a "+300" appear over a Nazi's head whenever they killed someone?) Zenonia steers clear of both of these and in turn makes, in my opinion, one of the best morality system's I've ever seen. There's one point early-on where one main character is about to kill another main character, and Regret has the choice of saving the latter of the two. I chose to save the main character, and then, later on, discovered she was evil. Checking my morality later, I saw that I was now evil as well. True, there are some "'Save the village' vs. 'Burn it to the ground and laugh'" moments (one particular side-quest asks you to kill some Holy Knights for a demon--guess how that affects your morality?), but, for the most part, I just acted on how I thought was best and went from there. The game doesn't actually tell you if your decision was good or bad, either; you have to check for yourself, which is a plus in my book. All in all, Zenonia is a dish with average meat with bad and good sauces. However, I have to say that overall, it is a surprisingly satisfactory meal.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. BlogDog123
    8
    It's a good action-RPG, what with it's mix of flashy visuals and fun humor (breaking the fourth wall, anyone?), but one can't help but notice that it gets a tad boring as it goes along, and the game's framerate could've been MUCH better.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes