Luckily when you first appear on the map after exiting a location it takes a few seconds for the enemies to start spawning, so if the screen is overrun with monsters you can pop in somewhere, pop back out, and then continue on your way. It’s a neat idea, but it gets kind of old quickly. The system is essentially the same as the one featured in the aforementioned Zelda 2. If you touch any of these enemies you enter a battle encounter, which places you in the middle of a six or seven screen wide area where you can face off against a few monsters or you can book it to the left or right to exit the area. Eventually, a red bat-like sprite spawns and homes in on you. They move up, down, left, and right, at a quick yet random pace however, they usually aren’t particularly hard to avoid. After you take a few steps in the overworld, small black enemy sprites will start spawning. Overall this setup reminded me a bit of classic JRPG’s, but perhaps the game it has the most in common with is Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. Most of them are easy to notice, like a house or a cave, but some are less obvious. You can move freely around the overworld map and look for new locations to enter. The majority of the game is in 2D side view, but the overworld map is top-down and zoomed out – Gail’s sprite is only a fraction of the regular size. When you leave the village you’ll get your first taste of the overworld map and how it functions. Right at the start, Gail is tasked with rounding up all the other children for dinner. The game features a fair amount of quests, and unfortunately, there is no quest tab menu to help you keep track of them. As you play you’ll begin to stumble across more sci-fi type settings, like a hidden, underground monorail system, buildings with what looks like teleportation equipment, and a ruined city filled with rusty but deadly robots. Eventually, you learn that the Peace Ministers have set limits on the use of technology and travel around enforcing this law. It seems like the majority of the population gets by without any extra technology, but there are a few scientist-type characters and their houses are packed with tech. Much of the early game has more of a fantasy sort of feel. The setting is a combination of fantasy and sci-fi. The current inhabitants of the land are descendants of those survivors. The game starts with a short cutscene featuring beautifully drawn images and accompanying text that explains that long ago the Great War destroyed a once-great civilization and that only a fraction of the population survived by hiding underground. Phoenotopia: Awakening takes place in the nation of Castella, and begins in the small village of Pansela, the home of the main character Gail. The extensive scope and scale of the game made more sense after learning that this game has been in the making for over six years. It was originally created as a flash game which was released in 2014 and simply titled Phoenotopia. Eventually, I realized I had to buckle down, ignore my typical gaming urges, and focus on the main plotline so I could actually write the review.Īt its core, Phoenotopia: Awakening is a 2D action-adventure game with a splendid pixel art aesthetic, and as a whole, it is much more elaborate than a simple side-scrolling action platformer. It took me just as long to realize that this is not the type of game I like to play to review – there’s tons of stuff to do, to the point that you just get completely wrapped up in the game and spend hours and hours talking to characters to learn their stories and the lore of the land, as well as thoroughly exploring each area, looking for hidden items and encounters and trying to complete every side quest. There are a bunch of side activities, ranging from fishing and cooking to joining a treasure hunting club. Each area opens up even more as you gain new weapons and abilities. It has a huge world with many locations you can explore. And a bunch of piano melodic lines and rhythms that permeate 90% of the soundtrack just because pianos are great.After playing for a few hours I realized that developer Cape Cosmic’s Phoenotopia: Awakening is exactly the type of game I like to play in my free time. Soundtrack For Phoenotopia Awakening, now on Steam! Sit back, chillax, and let these tunes bring back memories of exploring the world of Phoenotopia.Ħ0 songs ranging from melancholic solo piano to heavy rocking battle themes, from orchestral adventuring to otherworldly synthscapes.
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