Zenith LadiesGamers.com

Review Zenith (Switch)

Game: Zenith
Genre: Action, Adventure, Role-Playing
System: Nintendo Switch (also PC, Xbox, PS4)
Developer|Publisher: Infinigon|BLG Publishing
Age Rating: EU 16+| US M17+
Price: $14.99USD| $18.89CAD | £13.49 | € 14,99
Release Date: 20th September 2019

Review code used, big thanks to BLG Publishing!

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Sarcasm Level: It’s Over Nine-HUNDRED!!!!!

But seriously, one of the first things I noticed in this game – after the pretty stunning and well done visuals and music – was that after a brief click into the menu screen, was my main character’s stats. I knew it was going to be a great game when I saw next to stats like Health, Mana, and Fire Resistance, that I also had a Sarcasm stat and it was at 999.

Done, hooked, roped-in, I am ready and willing to go on this wild ride that is Zenith.

*Woo-dee-loo-doo! Flashback Music! Woo-dee-loo-doo!*

So I’m hanging out, writing another review, and I see a message on the Ladiesgamers chat that this game Zenith has come out and would anyone be interested if we tried to get a review code?

I click the link, I read the synopsis stuff, I think to myself – and respond with:

“As a jaded 30-something adult, this game sounds right up my jaded-30-something-adult-alley. I’d be willing!”

*Woo-dee-loo-doo! Flashback Ended Music! Woo-dee-loo-doo*

Now I am so very entertained, and grateful, that the ability to review this game has come to pass for me. When they say in the game’s synopsis on Nintendo’s website: “Find tons of parodies and pop culture references. Let’s see if you can recognize them all.” they darn-well mean it! And every time I see one, it tickles my nostalgia button and I love it! I laugh, and I feel a connection with the writers and creators of this game, for they verily must also be jaded-30-something’s who grew up with all the same stuff I grew up with.

When a game can really make you feel connected to the characters and story, it’s doing an excellent job (and for me Zenith achieves this easily); when the game can take me even farther and make me feel connected to the writers and creators of this game, like they would be my kind of people, then that’s when I think a game has transcended into something even greater.

Zenith LadiesGamers.com

Well done, and many props, to Zenith – especially to your amazing writers with whom I wish I could just hang out and game and drink warm tea-like beverages with. Moving on!

Do You Know The Way… To Santa Fe?

Okay, so as a human bean I consider myself to have a bit of, what I call Left/Right Dyslexia. I don’t know what it is about quickly thinking about things to my left or right, but I constantly and consistently get the two confused. Despite having 30+ years of practice at identifying things that are to either side of me, I continue to mix them up.

Now you may be thinking: “Does this vulnerable and intimate story about how your brain works have a point?”, YES dear reader it does. My point is that I personally found myself struggling with the controls for longer than I deem normally necessary for me to struggle.

I added the story because I don’t think this issue I had is something everyone else will struggle with, for perhaps it’s only my brain that refused to catch on.

To give you an example, the “select things” button is R. In my gamer-trained-brain I feel like R is the button I’d push – especially in an RPG – for a spell or something! There were several times off the top of the game that I found myself hitting A (which is the dodge-roll button) and then rolling around for a few seconds before standing back up to read a simple sign of sarcasm.

That’s not to say I didn’t GET it; I understand why they did the controls the way they did. The battle related actions are all arranged neatly on the four buttons (magic spell, other magic spell, weapon attack, and dodge), and then you can assign consumable items to the four D-pad directions.

It just seemed like a strange choice to me, and maybe this just confirms that I am a little gamer monkey who has been well trained by the industry. BUT it niggled me a bit.

The References! Oh Gawd, The References!

As I briefly mentioned before, the writing is where this game shines. It isn’t afraid to, as the Brits would say, ‘take the piss’ out of any and every franchise, trope, and pop-culture idea.

Let’s get into some specifics, shall we?

You play as Argus Wendel, a mage with the title of Arcanologist. When we first meet him, a very lovely pan over a snow-covered forest shows him at the mercy of a gang of elves.

“Dang, thems some nice lookin’ graphics, I am impressed,” I thought to myself.

Then THUNK! We are dropped into an argument, the group of elves want to get to where Argus is going, but Argus says: “Well, I WAS going there, but a pack of singing tenor spiders stopped me”, and they reply angrily that they will kill him for his ridiculous lies. That was when the camera panned out and I heard some lovely singing and several giant green singing spiders pounced upon the unsuspecting Elvish prey.

Again, as someone who HATES spoilers, I will refrain, but suffice it to say some pretty hardcore stuff goes down – airships and corrupted kings are involved – and we wake up as Argus seven years later. Now he’s a potionist: a person who makes potions, which incidentally is a job that affords very little respect, even from himself.

In classic RPG-trope-style we flip flop between ‘the now’, and flashbacks into Argus’s past. These flashbacks happen when he is asleep or unconscious (so in dream sequences). Classic storytelling trope, amirite?! I loved it.

What I also loved was walking around the town and then trying to talk to a character who stood out a little TOO much, and then busting out laughing when I saw who he was and what his name was.

Claude. Iris. Titus. Their character art lives directly in the Uncanny Valley, and it filled my heart with, what I like to call, “nostalgia-squee”. It is that warm feeling that fills up your heart when you experience a reference to a past experience that was fun and pleasant, and the reference is making fun of it in such a way as to bring you joy.

Blah blah blah: long STORY short, the angsty teens recruit you for a quest to right the wrongs that have happened to this world.

And, in all seriousness, we should never doubt the power and determination of young people who want to change the world. Even if our sarcasm meter is OVER NINE HUNDREEEEEEEED!!!

Gonna Grab My Switch, Gonna Hold It Tight, Zenith Has Music That Will Delight!

The music is pretty dang-dog-diggity-dang great. It legitimately sounds like they had a talented orchestra play and record everything. I was walking over the world map…

OH, I forgot to mention that there’s an overworld map. In true Final-Fantasy-Reference-Fashion, to get from location to location you must run your Argus-character-sprite over a world map, dodging around the visible ‘random battles’, and trying to make your way to the next area without using too many health potions.

So yes, returning to my original thought: I was walking over the world map, and thought to myself, “Oh dude, I think I hear an oboe! Isn’t the oboe just like, one of the coolest instruments? Not just one reed, but two. TWO reeds!? Insanity! But some really cool sounds come out. If you listen you can hear many other classical instruments making their lovely voices heard as well, violins and cellos. I was a flautist myself, and feel that nostalgia-squee I mentioned earlier whenever I hear their lovely woodwind-y voices.

But I digress… let’s get to the:

Little Niggle Wiggles

PROFANITY: I am an adult who can safely say I use crude language from time to time. I can also safely say that when others use crude language from time to time I have no problem, and it doesn’t bother me at all. However, constant use of crude language isn’t really my cup of tea. Now I’m not saying every other word in Zenith is an F-bomb, but I am saying that there are enough F-and-other-letter-bombs in this game that I thought to myself, “This is maybe a bit too much swearing for MY tastes”.

I, personally, especially dislike the B-word. I hate it when men call women it, and I don’t like it when women call themselves it (unless it’s to empower themselves). So there were some times when characters were calling some females the B-word, and I felt my “Not cool” gauge go off.

So keep that in mind if you are purchasing this for a youth you know who is much too impressionable.

CLIPPING AND GLITCHING: Now honestly, sometimes, because of this game being so sarcastic and making fun of video game tropes, I am not even sure if the glitchy-issues I experienced are an actual problem, or if the game creators put it in the game on purpose.

There were many times when the character models would be randomly twitching when they’re supposed to be simply standing and having a nice conversation with Argus. OR, there were many times when I’d kill an enemy, and rather than simply falling to the ground, it would fall to the ground and then awkwardly slide slowly out of the frame through a solid impenetrable wall. Sometimes, the game also looks like it has a little bit of old-school-TV-static going on as well.

Now, IF those kind of things are intentional, and are there to make fun of the fact that old RPG games used to (and still could) have those problems, then that’s brilliant. BUT, right now, from where I’m sitting – which is behind my Switch screen – it looks unintentional and therefore glitchy.

Final Verdict

I like it a lot!

Here are some of the things I found that were being referenced: Resident Evil 4, Italian gangsters, Final Fantasy, Spaceballs (which is one of my favourite movies) and Dumbo (yes, the 1941 Disney animated film).

I think if you are a young-youth of the current times, full of memes and smartphones you might pick up this game and not really understand much. I don’t think the humour would be up your youthful alley.

If, however, you are like me – a jaded-30-plus-something – you will very likely instantly click with this game’s characters, writing, and humour. Despite some strange visual glitches that briefly took me out of the game, I was able to get over it pretty quickly and focus on the excellent writing, stellar music, and excellent sarcastic vibe.

A fun game worthy of the actually quite modest price point!

I like it a lot!

2 comments

    1. Nice! Don’t you just love being old and jaded! 😀 Feel free to message me if/when you play it! I’d love to have a discussion with someone else who has played it!

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