Zenonia 2: Lost Memories

As the title suggests, Zenonia 2’s super-deformed citizens appear to have lost their memories.

Appropriately enough, then, the strongest sensation while playing Gamevil’s action-RPG sequel is a distinct case of déjà vu. While that includes the warm, fuzzy feeling of familiarity, there are clear signs that it’s also beginning to breed contempt.

Zenonia 2: Lost Memories follows an almost identical template to the first game. You wander around a fantastical world, talking to villagers, exploring new areas and fighting beasts.

As before, combat is something of an intensive grind used to mould and shape your hero. Defeating opponents grants you experience points, which in turn enable you to level up, which in turn lets you spend points on improving your skills and attributes.

The one key difference now is that your hero is one of four embarking on the quest, so you can choose which one to play at the outset. Yet while this grants you a slightly different perspective and fighting style, the core mission to retrieve some mystical crystals remains the same.

And unfortunately, so does the primitive mission design. Characters continue to send you on arbitrary fetch quests, tasking you with slaying a set number of enemies or collecting certain items.

This repetitive format was forgivable in the first Zenonia, which proved to be a refreshing return to RPG staples. It’s less so the second time around, which should have been an opportunity for Gamevil to push the formula into new territory.

It's a similar case when it comes to the graphics. While the game possesses Gamevil’s trademark anime-inflected art style – as attractive as ever – it also shares the first game’s fuzzy lo-res look, which is even more noticeable on larger, sharper screens.

Indeed, technical performance was strangely sub-optimal on my Samsung Galaxy S, with the game pausing during the action at certain points. The fact that it didn’t run flawlessly is another sign that Zenonia 2 is a less than stellar port of a less than stellar port of a fine game (the iPhone version was itself a conversion).

Still, whichever way you cut it, Zenonia 2 remains a compelling action-RPG, especially on Android, which lacks such indepth titles.

And it isn’t without improvements, with subtly streamlined menu and control systems, and a new PvP multiplayer facility.

So make no mistake - old-school RPG fans (and particularly those who couldn’t get enough of the first game) will lap up Zenonia 2. The fact that it offers up more of the same is a double-edged sword, though, and Zenonia 3 would do well to offer something a bit different.