Game Reviews

Advena

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Advena
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With Advena, which tells the story of Urus and his quest to stop a power-hungry wizard, Gamevil has brought yet another familar-looking RPG over to our dear shores.

Those who have played Gamevil RPGs before will instantly get to grips with the game's comic visuals and simple controls. Button-bashing is the order of the day.

Unfortunately, there's also a huge focus on monetisation, and if you're not planning to put any cash down for this free-to-play title then you're not going anywhere fast.

It's either U-or-us

Advena focuses on repetitive hack 'n' slash action, as you battle through hordes or enemies with your team by your side.

As you hammer the 'action' button, you can also throw a special power in here or there, and even swap to your team-mates and play as them alongside your main character.

The game looks really impressive in action, with bright vibrant visuals that really won us over. The world is expansive too, with plenty of areas to visit and lots of quests to partake in.

You've also got tons of RPG elements layered over the top, allowing your characters to level-up and equip different items depending on their status.

The simplicity of the controls will either be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on the amount of depth you want in your RPG experience.

We found that it became less and less bearable throughout play, to the point where we eventually didn't really care any more and simply stood at one edge of the arena hammering the 'action' button until everyone was dead.

Advent our frustrations

Repetition isn't Advena's only fault - it also wants to consume your wallet, and isn't afraid to admit it.

Items dropped by fallen enemies will constantly be too high a level for you to use, to the point that it's difficult to progress without simply paying for better weapons and stats.

There are also a number of strange translation and porting issues, with dialogue proving very wooden and characters sometimes moving in an unusual manner or not leaving the screen properly during cut-scenes.

There are online elements, such as raids and player versus player action, but these feel very tacked on and really not worth your time at all. Imagine button-bashing against other players and you get the gist.

While it's not terrible, nor is Advena worth bothering with when there are so many other great RPGs already available for smartphones.

Advena

A very average Korean RPG that isn't worth the button-bashing hassle
Score
Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.