*This is our first guest review by game reviewer Haly. You can find Haly at Halycopter.com and on Twitter as @JenJeaHaly. Haly also reviews for XboxGameZone, play.tm and ThePortableGamer.*

Take it away Haly….

Zenonia

Despite the wonders of the app store and its many games, there is also a lot of, how can I put this nicely, shovelware on there. Poor quality games that are great for a five minute distraction but ultimately are nothing special whatsoever. As well as these, there are also hundreds upon hundreds of puzzle games, most of which copying Bejewelled’s mechanics. So despite feeling like there are plenty of games available, it’s pretty tough to dig through the rubbish to get to the high quality stuff. This is why I was particularly pleased to see a game such as Zenonia appear on the app store: one of the best original games I have played on the iPhone to date.

Zenonia starts out quite slowly, as many great RPGs, but any older gamers can’t help but instantly recognise that it’s a great homage to Zelda: A Link to the Past on the SNES. That’s not to say it’s copying it, far from it in fact. Instead it takes the best elements from LttP and builds upon them making a terrific unique game. As is often the way with touch based games, it does take a little while to adapt to the controls but they work well once you have mastered them. I found it easier to hold my iPhone in both hands as if I was holding a DS or PSP, then it’s simply a matter of using my left hand to move young Regret, the hero, about, while the right hand deals with combat and interaction. I did however find that the menu systems were a little fiddly to deal with and I suspect those with larger hands might get frustrated at times. However, overall the game more than makes up for this.

Things unfold in quite a generic manner with Regret being banished from his village after his father is killed by a demon, and he is blamed for bringing the evil spirits upon the village. But some of the dialogue works quite well and it still keeps your interest. In typical RPG fashion, you undertake quests from people within the local towns to gain experience and items. The game manages to achieve a surprising level of depth however, with some quests resulting in different endings depending on what decisions you make. It is certainly quite quirky at times as it is quite apparant that this game is suffering from slightly odd translation as it was originally designed in Korea, but this just adds to the charm. The fact that in every town you can talk to dogs, yes dogs, also adds to the quirkiness and I strongly recommend talking to them all as they come out with some great lines, as well as in game advice and quests.

There is a relatively complex skill tree for increasing your competency which works pretty well, as well as gives you some room for flexibility. Even in the early stages, there are choices to be made which make the game slightly different with the option for a good path and an evil path, as well as different skill classes such as Paladin and Warrior to play as. The game really does ooze an impressive amount of replayability for such a title and it’s immensely refreshing to see on the iPhone. I found the game took me around 30 hours to complete which considering the game currently costs £1.79 to buy, is incredibly good value. Sure the control system may be a little flawed, but do look past that as for RPG fans, this truly is the best RPG currently available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.