Recently, I decided to get two games from earlier in the year that I had previously missed out on, those being Arzette: The Jewel Of Faramore and Berserk Boy. I'll review Arzette first since it was the first one I played, and boy, is it an interesting one.
With the indie scene came a lot of throwbacks and attempts to recapture the magic of various gaming series, and I'm all for it. I've always been for allowing indie developers to take from their inspirations, iterate on them, and toss their own unique spin onto it, but Arzette: The Jewel Of Faramore mines from a well I expected to be left completely untouched. Arzette made waves when it was announced to be a throwback to the infamous Legend Of Zelda games for the Phillips CD-i, a trilogy of games so despised that most people's reaction to hearing its name is either to groan in disgust or burst out laughing about the copious amounts of YouTube Poops made from them. It almost felt unbelievable that a developer would want to base their game off of the Zelda CD-i games, let alone that it would be actually good, but these devs had a bit of a history with the series. These guys already remastered the original CD-i games, so if there's anyone equipped to make a good game inspired by Zelda CD-i, it's them. When Arzette did release, it got some shockingly enthusiastic praise, which was the lynchpin that convince me to eventually get the game. And now that I've beaten and 100%'d Arzette, was it actually good?
Arzette: The Jewel Of Faramore's best aspect is easily the presentation. The devs at Seedy Eye sought to replicate the iconic visual mish-mash of the Zelda CD-i games while still adding a bit of polish, and they really nailed it. The cutscenes have the same loose feel and constant zooming in and out that Zelda CD-i's infamous cutscenes have, though I will say they're not quite as unhinged. There are some legitimately well-made bits of animation and charming expressions buried within these cutscenes, you can tell the animators are legitimately really talented, and that's not a bad thing at all. If anything, it reminds me more of the webseries Sparkle On Raven which similarly tries to replicate an infamous "so bad it's good" series while also sprinkling it some genuinely impressive animation to catch the viewer off guard. Similarly, the actual gameplay segments have the same blend of pixelated characters and painterly backgrounds, but it all looks a bit more visually-pleasing. The Zelda CD-i games had a pretty big issue where it was hard to differentiate the background, foreground, and walls, but the level art in Arzette is so crisp and clear that I didn't really have that problem here. And the actual spritework for Arzette, the other characters, and the enemies is actually really well-done and fluid. The soundtrack also does a great job at capturing that early 90s CD audio sound I love so much, though some of the stage themes did blend together for me a bit.
Arzette: The Jewel Of Faramore manages to strike this incredible balance between being incredibly sincere and reverential towards its source material, while also throwing a number of cheeky jabs at it without feeling self-aware or cynical in the slightest. There's a lot of references and deep cuts towards the original Zelda CD-i games, to the point where the devs even brought back Link's original voice actor as the tutorial narrator, but it comes off more as legitimate fanservice and not just picking at low-hanging fruit. The character designs are legitimately fantastic, to the point where I kinda want to know all of their stories. What's up with that fairy in the mountain area? Or that frog voiced by Vinny Vinesauce? And I'd pay good money to play a whole game about Zazie The Demon. There's full voice acting for every NPC too, and I love how hit-and-miss it is. There are some perfectly solid performances, but then here comes Remy The Rat who sounds like someone is eating their microphone and I love it. But I think the best thing about Arzette that really brings every aspect of its presentation together is Arzette herself. She's a genuinely fun, charming, likable, and fleshed-out protagonist with a memorable design. She's pretty much the only normal person in the room at any given moment, but she's never self-aware. Arzette is a balancing force for the absolutely insane NPCs she comes across, but she also rolls with the punches and takes their insanity at face value which leads to some really fun interactions. Also, like half the female characters seem to have the hots for Arzette which makes this a very funny game to play right after The Thousand Year Door.
So the presentation is great, but how's the gameplay? Did Arzette prove that the Zelda CD-i formula had some actual potential? Well, kinda yeah. Structurally, Arzette feels a lot like Shantae: Half Genie Hero. It's a level-based metroidvania where each area is in its own disconnected stage on a map screen, but you'll need to backtrack to and hop across them to find all the collectibles as you slowly gain more abilities. It's not a particularly groundbreaking formula, but it works, and managing to clean house and get a full 100% was an incredibly satisfying experience. There's even a few sequence breaks if you're into that kind of stuff. As for the moment to moment gameplay, it is a pretty standard action-platformer where you slash away at enemies, but it feels quite nice. Arzette's movement is tight and precise and you can comfortably land jumps, and her sword slash has a very generous hitbox so you don't have to worry too much about whiffing. And with that metroidvania format, you gain new abilities and moves at a pretty regular basis, and can get quite powerful at the end. My favorite weapon is the color gun you get that can destroy certain blocks and enemies depending on the bullet type, which I don't even think was in the CD-i games, it's just entirely unique to Arzette.
However, I do have some issues with Arzette on a gameplay level, some of which are new and some of which are fundamental to the Zelda CD-i games. You can't really control the camera which is a pretty big issue in the more vertical stages, which often had me making blind leaps. If you could move the camera up or down with the D-pad, this could've been pretty easily fixed. The game alsohas a pretty bad case of "reverse difficulty curve", as your limited health and low defense meant you can die really easily the early game, but by the endgame, you can pretty much tank through anything since you have so much health, defense, and movement options. Thankfully, Arzette has a very generous checkpoint system and no penalty for death, so I was never all that frustrated with the game even when I was dying a lot. While I praised Arzette's metroidvania structure and how satisfying fully completed it was, I do have to say that the backtracking can be pretty rough, as you will need to revisit pretty much every stage at least three times each. Most of the stages are thankfully pretty brisk, though, so it's more like the level revisits in Ufouria 2. And finally, I do have to say that I think Arzette is a bit too short and left me wanting more by the end. Despite having an impressive 15 areas to explore, I found myself fully 100%ing the game within three hours.
Despite all these issues though, I had a really pleasant time with Arzette: The Jewel Of Faramore. It's a wonderful love letter to the Zelda CD-i games with an impeccable presentation, and it's also just a polished and fun search action game that has its flaws but remains enjoyable and breezy throughout. Arzette was definitely one of the best surprises of 2024 so far, and it did really convince me that the Zelda CD-i games did have some actual potential. And even more, I think Arzette still has room to grow and get even better, and I'd definitely be on-board for a sequel if it ever happens.
4/5 Stars
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