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The Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Feanor

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The Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Feanor

If Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Feanor had one iota of the grandeur promised in its title, it could write a new page in the abysmal tome of iPhone role-playing. Legends imply greatness, yet the only great thing about this gorgeous-looking game is the degree to which it fails to deliver.

Major revisions are needed to address fundamentally flawed gameplay before Chronicles of Inotia can be issued a writ of praise.

With victory over the forces of evil in sight, the sword-wielding hero Feanor begins his adventure in a climatic battle against the dragon Deathtaker. The cowardly villain skips out of the fight for fear of losing, leaving Feanor to the tedious task of tracking the dragon to his hiding place.

Using the appearance of new monsters across the land as a guide to finding Deathtaker, your primary objective lies in routing him out and finishing him off for good.

As undeniably epic as this sounds, Chronicles of Inotia sadly doesn't capitalise on this grandeur. Lacklustre dungeon crawling and minimal character development put it in line more with the role-playing games of yesteryear than those of a new portable generation.

Even the story fails to evolve satisfactorily, breaking down into a series of underwhelming fetch and assassination quests that provide little narrative respite from the monotonous action.

Many of the flaws that chip away at the game's greater potential are novice errors. Take the save system, for instance. At any time during the game, you can pull up the System menu to save your progress; you can't, however, load a specific saved game.

When you die, you can't load up a save. Instead, you're forced to continue from the distant village you're revived at. Worse still, experience is subtracted as a penalty. Perhaps if things were more exciting, the concept of replay wouldn't be such a chore.

Combat consists of nothing more than tapping an enemy to instruct Feanor to engage it. Once targeted, you automatically attack the foe until it's dead, or you fall, or a new order is issued. You can also throw in the occasional special attack by tapping icons lining the screen.

What the combat mechanics have in intuitiveness, they lose in appeal. Battles are boring. Hacking enemies devolves into a tedious affair of tapping and waiting, targeting and sitting around for an enemy to die.

The problem is exacerbated by poor balancing. Creatures are far too strong in each new area you visit, which forces you to level grind with piddly enemies before advancing.

You might be strong enough to fell rabbits in one screen, but move to the adjacent area and a bee will kill you in two stings. It's absurd. This is what makes the prospect of death so scary: the horror of having to hack through bunnies just to earn back the experience that was so cruelly taken from you.

Experience is so critical because of these overpowered foes. Every bit helps in reaching the next level, upon which you automatically receive enhancements to your core attributes.

Additionally, you're awarded skill points for upgrading special attacks. It's the only choice element of character development in the entire game, so enjoy it for what small role-playing pleasure it offers.

Outmoded gameplay makes Chronicles of Inotia seem like a role-playing relic, but the presentation runs contrary. The graphics, while decidedly classic in style, are detailed and colourful. Special effects when using combat abilities add flair too.

Even better is the music, which introduces a score of original compositions. They're absolutely marvellous: some of the best music to grace any mobile game to date.

Unfortunately, beautiful music and bright colours can't blind us to the fact that Chronicles of Inotia contains inherently flawed gameplay. The lack of in-depth character development is a drag, combat a mess, and level design and save system unforgiving. A bit of revisionist history is the only way this legend will find praise.

The Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Feanor

A failed role-playing game that pairs a beautiful presentation with fundamentally problematic gameplay
Score
Tracy Erickson
Tracy Erickson
Manning our editorial outpost in America, Tracy comes with years of expertise at mashing a keyboard. When he's not out painting the town red, he jets across the home of the brave, covering press events under the Pocket Gamer banner.