Oh, what shall we do with a drunken Wizard? Throw them onto the barge with the captain’s daughter!
Zenith, a game that really is the pinnacle of comedy. The game is a decent RPG that could use some touch ups, but the overall story really digs into the tropes of RPG games and lands every hit for humor. The story takes place in Fulgur, a fantasy world that doesn’t get constrained to the normal, orthodox characters that everybody has been initiated to accept from RPGs.
Without giving away the story, you follow Argus as he tries to keep a doomsday weapon hidden from the Infinigon and the Coalition, the two dominant factions that tried to use the weapon once before. Your efforts are stymied when a heroine named Alana comes along and makes your years of effort worth nothing. With the weapon’s location discovered, you must fight to save the world and rid yourself of all forms of responsibility.
For those that are wondering what the comedy is like, it’ll send you into tears. The jokes hit their mark with such precision that it left me laughing long after the game ended. The humor is reminiscent of the book Mogworld, which is a great example of the feel that this game gives off. The characters seem to be semi-aware when things are too gamey, and they make sure to voice their concerns.
The game also takes a bite out of Final Fantasy, making a joke about strange haired adventurers, and how one has an addiction to Ether. This could have been a mistake if the game kept pushing that button and hoping the fiftieth Final Fantasy joke would make somebody laugh, but the game knows when to stop pushing something, quickly leaving behind the strange haired adventurers for an amazing cast of characters, each better than the last. Each character gets explained through their dialogue, and the game will give a very brief reminder as the characters introduce one another.
So, you may be wondering, what’s the gameplay like? Well, it’s pretty much a button mash as you try to take on the hordes of enemies. The enemies die pretty quickly, and you can always dodge around them. You do get gems, of which there are three. They can be equipped to cast one of three spells, and you can use scrolls for another spell.
The combat isn’t anything special, but it doesn’t feel like a hassle that you could do without. It feels like it separates the game out into just the right intervals of jokes and puzzles, and that really helps keep the pace of the game in a steady, contained fashion. The real thing this game has is fun puzzles.
The puzzles aren’t anything like the Portal games or some other puzzlers, but it doesn’t try to be one of those games. The puzzles are meant to be decently simple and a nice break from the brawn of the base game. This includes a puzzle very reminiscent of a scene from the third Indiana Jones film, and Zenith is all too aware of where it comes from. They crack jokes and continue onto the rest of the dungeon, and the game really sets the mood with that small exchange. From that point on, the game continues with a formula for success and doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Well, now we get into the negative of things. It doesn’t have a map of the main world, and that really sucks when a character says the city is located east, but you don’t know how far east you need go to get there. It became really irksome when I was looking for Thelos at the start of the game, and I walked the whole map before I found the city. I felt a little annoyed that one of the staples of RPG games was missing from a game that had most everything else.
One other thing that really got on my nerves was related to the absurd difficulty curve that comes out of nowhere. I was killing creatures quite quickly, but the next location kicked my absolute teeth in. I tried to think of a reason why, but there isn’t a wonderful reason behind it. You can’t get any upgraded weapons that do more damage, and the roll is quite useless without the final upgrade from the fire skill tree.
The final downside I have with Zenith is the very mild skill tree. Nothing is really too game changing, save for the rolling upgrade from the fire skill tree. I wish the developers had put a little more work into the skill tree, just to give a feel of heavier progression that would help kill off the exponential difficulty change.
To be frank, this is a fantastic game if you’re looking for something that will make you laugh, cry, and wonder if there’s such a thing as Alto-singing Spiders. The game uses the comedy to its advantage and has enjoyable gameplay that doesn’t make you want to turn off. I wish there was more in the way of variety in the combat, but I’m more than content with what has been offered by the development team at Infinigon.
It’s definitely a game worth buying if you’re an RPG fan, or just want a good laugh.
