1/18/2023 0 Comments Phoenotopia awakening ending![]() ![]() Phoenotopia’s combat is, in a word, clunky - but intentionally so, and that makes all the difference. Both feature large “open worlds” that lead into smaller individual areas, both are filled with secrets, and both are more than a little inscrutable at times. The closest analogue I can find for Phoenotopia’s genre is Zelda II: a side scrolling action-adventure game with RPG elements and deliberate melee combat. Throw in a soundtrack that can veer between ambient piano and hard battle rock, and it’s a game that conveys a distinct set of moods.īut this isn’t a game you play for the writing or the visuals or the audio - it’s one you play for the game. There are three different locations that could be described as “grassland towns,” but each has its own distinct feeling and atmosphere. Colors pop, environments are distinct, and animations feel lively. Cities are stuffed with little intricate designs, just shy of being overbearing - and as a result appearing florid and lively. At a glance Phoenotopia indulgences in the stock pixel-art style of countless other indie titles, but it makes up for that stock aesthetic by indulging in gorgeous amounts of environmental detail. It’s not a laugh riot from beginning to end, but it’s a world that brims with life and personality nonetheless.Īnd it’s a pleasant-looking one, too. Characters you talk to often have multiple bits of dialogue, and several express their own unique quirks or mannerisms that stand out - whether they be a five year-old sovereign, a couple different nutty professors, or a group of traveling musicians. The narrative isn’t the focus of Phoenotopia - nor should it be - but the game levies itself quite a bit with charming writing and NPCs. ![]() Along the way she travels to a number of other towns and locales, does battle with baddies both terrestrial and extraterrestrial, and discovers a great deal about the history of her planet… including the mysterious weapon known as the Phoenix. One day - while attempting to round up the local kids playing in nearby ruins - aliens abduct all of the townsfolk, setting her on a long quest to find their whereabouts and bring them home. The game follows the journey of Gail, a young village girl living on a post-post-apocalypse Earth. And now, six years later, it’s landed on Nintendo Switch with new areas, new tools, new content, and the same sterling core that makes this one of the best engrossing indie adventure games you can pick up on the Switch. Phoenotopia: Awakening is a remake of Phoenotopia, a 2014 Newgrounds flash game that was far better than any Newgrounds flash game had any right to be. And it does so with charm, style, and more than a little heart. So few manage to really, truly express that sense of grand discovery and exploration - but this unlikely contender, a 2D-action-adventure RPG epic that started off as a humble flash game, has captured that essence and so much more. It’s a high that countless games of the modern age have attempted to recapture, often in big-budget open-world games stuffed to the gills with activities, reaching for an endless stream of worthwhile content but often ending up as a series of chores. It was grueling, byzantine, and downright baffling… but it also provided a sense of infinite discovery, that any particular nook and cranny might hold a secret worth revealing, that in the act of exploration you can uncover a whole new side of something. Before the internet, before dedicated strategy guides, before you could Google a side quest and find five different walkthroughs on how to beat it, children playing the original Legend of Zelda were left to solve the elaborate open-world puzzles of Hyrule with only their wits, their friends’ hearsay, and the odd copy or two of Nintendo Power. There was a time, long bygone, when getting stuck in a video game was a problem not easily resolved. ![]()
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