Game: Phoenotopia: Awakening
Genre: Adventure, Action, Role-Playing, Platformer
System: Nintendo Switch
Developer | Publisher: Cape Cosmic | Cape Cosmic
Age Rating: US T
Price: USD $19.99|UK £ 17.99|EU € 19,99
Release Date: August 20th 2020
Review code used with many thanks to Cape Cosmic!
Pink Hair Adventures
Phoenotopia: Awakening is a 2D pixel game packed full of puzzles and adventure. You play as Gail, a teenage girl with pink hair, who must transform from a normal villager without any cares to a hardened adventurer out to save the world. While out trying to round up the rest of the kids from the woods for dinner, a starship appears over the village. When Gail and the rest of the kids return, they find that all of the adults disappear and must have been abducted by that mysterious starship. After resting and gearing up, you must head out to try to find out what has happened. Careful, though, the world outside of the village is dangerous and teeming with things just waiting to kill you.
Can’t Escape this Game!
To be completely honest with you, after two hours of gameplay, I threw my Switch Lite down and vowed to never play this game again because I was so frustrated from getting lost in a temple and dying many, many times. That didn’t last very long, though. The next day, I picked my Switch up again and ended up playing Phoenotopia and experienced a rush of exhilaration and pride by being able to get through where I was stuck and then beat the first boss of the game – and that’s when my addiction to the game began! No matter how many times I died or messed up, I was determined to figure it out and push even further into the rabbit hole that is Phoenotopia.
Cape Cosmic’s Successes
There are so many things that Phoenotopia: Awakening does to make Cape Cosmic’s debut so great. One thing is the graphics of the game, which are well drawn and quite cute. You can tell just how much time was spent to make this 2D game so detailed. You are also required to give this game a good amount of brain-power to figure out how to best get through whatever you are currently trying to traverse through. You are always gaining new tools that you can then take back to previous areas and be able to get more resources out of.
As with most RPGs, you have a specific amount of health or lifepoints at any given time and if you run out, you die. Phoenotopia: Awakening also has this type of system but it gives you a second attribute that you have to be able to manage as well: energy. If you use up all of your energy sprinting to get through somewhere more quickly, you may not have any energy available to attack an enemy that pops up unexpectedly. I really enjoy trying to balance keeping my health up, getting through an area, and making sure that I have enough energy to fight when I need to. What makes this game even better, in my opinion, is that throughout the game, you can find special items to increase your health or energy and the increased levels are game-changing every time you find these items and this really makes the game even more fun as you progress. You can also add additional spaces to your bag through tailors and customize your game play with the gear ring.
This game also has the potential to keep you entertained for quite a while. The game boasts about 25 hours of gameplay for the main campaign and up to 50 hours if you want to collect and complete everything that the game has to offer. You will definitely spend at least that amount of time playing the game, if not so much more, especially if you are interested in exploring everything the game has to offer, which I highly recommend doing, especially if you are enjoying the story and want more details!
Not Completely Without Fault
While this game does a lot of things really well, it does have some parts of it that just drives me crazy. When you first open the game, you get a loading screen; halfway through the loading screen a controller selection screen shows up, which really does not make much sense to me since you are already using whatever controller you are going to use before you even open the game. I also really dislike the way you travel to a different area, as I found it to be confusing and more difficult than it needed to be since there is only a specific place on a city or area that you have to find to be able to enter into the city. Another big issue that I had with this game is that the developers have made it where you are not allowed to take any captures or screen shots of the game while you are playing it.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, Phoenotopia: Awakening is a game that is really worth checking out if you enjoy RPGs. There is a lot to this game that is guaranteed to keep you entertained and pushing forward in the story, especially at its price point.
Keep your eyes peeled for this game, because Phoenotopia: Awakening is not a game you want to miss!
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot
