Game Reviews

Inotia 4

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Inotia 4

Inotia 4: Assassin of Berkel neatly encapsulates the worst of the RPG genre together with the worst of mobile gaming. Ropey localisation results in a flat group of characters, while the ever-present spectre of in-app purchases limits your progress.

Starting out, you choose from six different classes. As is traditional, these will give you different starting stats as well as limiting the weapons you can equip.

No matter which class you choose, you'll still be playing as Kiyan, a young man in the Shadow Tribe sent on a mysterious quest to hinder two factions about to go to war.

Bursting at the seams

The combat is enjoyably simple - level-up your chosen skills and push buttons in rotation until one or the other of you is dead.

Mobs will drop mana blobs and loot for the crafting system. However, the fusion machines required for crafting are few and far between, resulting in the components nicely filling your inventory and encouraging you to purchase a bag upgrade.

You can bring up to two mercenaries in your party, and have 16 more on stand-by. These are crucial for boss battles. While they'll happily keep fighting once you hit a target, your mercenaries won't initiate a fight even in self defence, and nor will they take potions automatically.

You have six hotkey slots for skills and equipment, a virtual D-pad on the left, and a 'use' button on the right. Annoyingly for iPad gamers, Com2uS hasn't learned from the previous game in the series, and so this interface is clearly designed for a much smaller screen.

There's no contortion in which you can safely hold your iPad and reach all the buttons you need. It's particularly stressful when you're in a tough boss fight and find yourself walking in squares around the all-important mana pick-ups instead of replenishing your supply.

Sticks in your craw

Every character in the game speaks in a charmingly modern tone. This doesn't make up for the terribly slow expositional exchanges in which Kiyan and Eara (also known as The Channel) will talk about how Kiyan is here to save Eara because she is The Channel and therefore everyone wants her power and she can't go back because she is The Channel and there's going to be a war because she's The Channel and so on ad nauseum.

Fortunately, there's a 'skip' button for almost all of the dialogue, leaving you free to get back to your skill rotations and inventory-management.

Inotia 4 on the iPad has all the hallmarks of a decent linear RPG. Sadly, it lacks the writing, character development, and combat depth of a good one.

Inotia 4

A half-decent Korean RPG with a weak interface that obscures some entertaining combat grind. Don't expect a good story or any interesting characters
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