Game Reviews

Zenonia 2: Lost Memories

Star onStar onStar onStar halfStar off
Get
Zenonia 2: Lost Memories

Human memory is a funny thing. We’ll forget our mother’s birthdays and our loved one’s anniversaries, we’ll forget the faces of friends long gone, and we’ll forget what we had for dinner yesterday (or is that just me?).

Yet, for some reason, when someone puts a trivial old RPG in front of we seasoned gamers, we know exactly what to do. Our fingers and eyes do all the work and we barely have to think. Scientists call this ‘body memory’, and it’s something Zenonia 2: Lost Memories induces almost immediately - not necessarily in a bad way.

Forget me not

The game retains the series’s familiar Japanese anime look, including its colourful Zelda-like backgrounds and maps. The character designs remain devoutly rooted in Japanimation, with the standard issue giant scythes and impossible hairstyles on show.

From the outset, you play as one of four characters: two are ranged attackers – a gunwoman and a magic-user - while the other two are close combat melee specialists.

Although this opens up a few individual perspectives, the game doesn’t take full advantage of having four people supposedly questing together. You’re usually sent off on your own, making the story feel like you’re an extra constantly on the periphery.

For example, Zenonia 2: Lost Memories often lumps you with an unimaginative fetch quest while your 'friends' proceed to the next dungeon without you. On the one hand, this sense of being left behind by the trio of protagonists is interesting in terms of narrative, but on the other hand, the rote quests of ‘kill ten whatevers’ or vague instructions to ‘investigate that there dungeon’ leave you feeling slightly extraneous to the main plot.

Thumbs up

The controls of the Xperia Play lend themselves well to the game, however, making the fighting and exploring that bit more enjoyable. The D-pad controls movement and the X button determines attacks. A string of successful lunges and slashes will naturally produce a combo, while other abilities can be mapped to a palette at the bottom of the touchscreen.

Although these work fairly well, it might have been a better idea to map some of them to the other PlayStation buttons, since pulling your thumb from X button to screen to hit or heal can get a little panicky if you mis-tap even once.

Apart from that, the Xperia Play is obviously well-suited to the simplified action JRPG format. Those with little or no experience of Zenonia but with tens of hours under their belt playing similar titles will get to grips with the hack ‘n’ slash combat and the equipment-tweaking menus soon enough.

Newcomers to the genre might be a tad overwhelmed, though, as there is no set tutorial as such - just a few basics are explained, and you are left to figure out the finer details for yourself.

One of a grind

There are a few social networking-esque gimmicks thrown in for good measure, too, like the ability to swap items or money with another player. These aren’t an integral part of the game, mind, since most of your time in Zenonia 2: Lost Memories is spent bashing monsters and levelling-up.

On occasions, the grind is very noticeable, while at others, your button-mashing instincts kick in and you forget yourself long enough for it to be genuinely enjoyable.

In the end, Zenonia 2: Lost Memories is a well-formulated RPG with mostly responsive and thoughtful controls. All the same, it is a very familiar experience. Your memory won’t let you down here, that’s for sure.

Zenonia 2: Lost Memories

So long as you’re willing to put up with the same old RPG conventions, Zenonia 2: Lost Memories is a decent game, if easily forgotten
Score
Brendan Caldwell
Brendan Caldwell
Brendan is a boy. Specifically, a boy who plays games. More specifically, a nice boy who plays many games. He often feels he should be doing something else. That's when the siren call of an indie gem haunts him. Who shall win this battle of wills? Answer: not Brendan.