Zitifono is a cozy adventure game with quests galore, happy, colorful islands to explore and a mystery to solve. There’s boating in the ocean, swimming in watery coves, secret caves and lots of NPCs.
The Backstory of Zitifono
The game began with my raft crashing ashore on an island during a storm. My raft was totally ruined, and no one on the island could build me a new one. But maybe someone could build me a boat instead. To do that I needed to find items for the local NPCs. To add an extra element of fun there was also a train track that needed to be rebuilt in order for me to progress. And the adventure began!
During the gameplay, I was presented with many different dialogue choices. I’m not sure how much they influenced my progression, but they were plenty funny!
The Look and Feel of Zitifono
The demo of Zitifono takes place on an archipelago of the same name. One of my quests was to fix the railroad tracks, so I believe in the full game, I’ll ride the rails to another area. The island in the demo is bright and colorful. Different areas are sometimes connected by crooked, rickety-looking wooden pathways, which I found amusing. It looked like an old school roller coaster track! The game takes place in a 3D open world environment with lots of mountains to climb. I jumped off some high mountains and was not injured, which I like! No danger, just a lot of cozy exploring. My perfect type of game!
The Gameplay of Zitifono
I began the demo with the ability to walk, jump and swim. In a little while, I was also given the ability to run. That sped things up a lot! In the demo of Zitifono, my main goal was to find things that the NPCs have requested, such as pieces of wood. In order to do that, I needed to explore the island. I could use the rickety wooden pathways, or I could follow trails which always seemed to lead up mountains. I was able to tell where I could climb or jump up a mountain by a patch of yellow on the ground (or green if it was in the shade).
There was some very light platforming in the mountain areas, but I am very bad at platforming, and this was easy for me. In addition, I found a pickaxe in the demo. That was useful since there was a large boulder blocking my way to a quest item. Hooray!
My character also swam in the demo and was able to find messages in bottles, floating in hidden caves. That was an unexpected but wonderful surprise! There were 5 hidden messages in the demo, but I only found 2. In the full game, there will be other collectables, as well as items which tell a story or will otherwise surprise me. I look forward to that!
I learned that I can only swim for a limited period of time before I pass out and end up back on land. But I also learned that there are numerous patches of land in the water that I could stand on. They served to reset the total time I was in the water. Other than that, I did not see any other energy requirements for my character, no need for food, and no day/night cycle. So it’s just constant exploration, which I really enjoy!
The Inventory and Quest Management in Zitifono
Items were automatically put into my inventory as I found them, and I could select which I wanted to use. There was also a separate quest log to help me keep track of what I was doing. I always appreciate a quest log!
The demo for Zitifono does not have a save feature, although the full game will. I played for an hour but the typical demo playtime is 20-40 minutes. You’d be wise to keep that in mind when you begin the demo.
Some Interesting NPCs in Zitifono
I met some NPCs in the demo; there will be plenty more in the final game. One grouping that amused me was the band playing the soundtrack. Here’s a picture of them, they seemed to be nicely synced to the music I was hearing!
An Involved Developer is a Great Developer
I always think that a game developer who is very involved with the game players is a great asset to the game. That tells me that they will be tweaking and improving the game when necessary. I ran into a small issue playing the game, so I reached out to the dev for advice. They got back to me very quickly and completely solved my issue.
I also found the camera sensitivity a bit tricky in the demo of Zitifono, which was another thing I discussed with the dev. They are on top of it and will be tweaking that soon. Bravo to the indie dev, Loekni!
Final Thoughts
The complete game will have 3 or 4 more areas to explore, and they will be connected by secret passageways. Boy, that sounds like fun! There will be about 3-4 hours of gameplay, but of course, your time may vary. At the speed I play, I’m sure I’ll get a lot more playtime than that! The game is set to release sometime in 2026, hopefully in Q1 or Q2. Zitifono seems like it’s going to be a great romp of an adventure, and I look forward to playing the full game.
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