The impressive length, multiple character classes, and moral choices will keep me coming back for a long time to come.
The gameplay resembles Zelda, but there is also plenty of inspiration from MMORPGs. At the beginning, you choose one of three different character classes. The action takes place in real time. Fighting enemies seems like button mashing at first, But once a couple of areas are cleared out, the need for timing your attacks become apparent. When you strike an enemy, they usually get knocked back a bit. If you attack again before they are close enough for the strike to connect, you are left vulnerable. Much like an MMO, when you kill an enemy, they reappear after a short while. I personally felt that the respawn rate of your foes was too short for my liking. If you get into a fight with four or more monsters in the same spot, the first one killed is usually reappearing before you have time to kill the last. This is a minor gripe, and the quick respawn actually does help when you want to revisit an area to grind out a couple of levels. Enemies level numbers are color-coded so that you can quickly decide if the fight will be too tough. The enemy types also don't repeat too often and I was always running into a new monster to fight. Each time you level, you receive points to spend on your stats and a single point to put into an ability tree unique to your class. The ability tree has enough different paths to take that even playing through as the same character class a second time can be completely different.
Several towns serve as you base camps throughout the adventure. Each town has a weapon and armor shop with a vast supply of armaments. An item shop can provide you with nearly any useful object; anything from healing supplies to scrolls that return you to your home town. There is a blacksmith that can repair your damaged items. On top of all this, there are plenty quests available from the wandering citizens. Many console RPGs don't have this much content in their towns, so having it in an iPhone title is amazing.
The game contains an astounding amount of items. Your character can use one weapon type and wear four different pieces of armor; hands, feet, chest, and head. Each of these objects can have an enhancement item attached to them to further improve your stats. Two items can also be combined to create a single more powerful one. Zenonia is a rare RPG where ther is actually a use for the weapon and armor shops. In other games, all the best items are usually found in the field. More often than not in this game, I found myself killing monsters to earn enough gold so I could buy something in town. At no point did I ever feel like I ran out of things to find or new items to save up for.
Quests are handled quite well, both when finding and executing them. Anyone familiar with World of Warcraft will instantly recognize the yellow question marks over the heads of characters. These people will most often provide you with some kind of simple quest that can be completed nearby; usually something along the line of 'kill seven skeletons' or 'gather ten pieces of crab meat'. Each main quest eventually leads you into a dungeon of some sort that includes some light puzzle elements to help spice up the gameplay. Inside your quest log, there is a map button that points out exactly where your destination is, so you will never get lost. My only problem with the quest log is that it is limited to one main and five side quests. This is incredibly limiting when you consider that some towns have ten or more quests available.
There isn't much to say about the story since it is fairly generic. You play as the lively young kid with a mysterious past. The main conflict takes place between the Dragon Clan and the Holy Knights. The game contains moral choices as to which side you want to be on and whether you want your character to be good or evil. There are a few interesting plot twists here and there, but nothing unpredictable. Overall, the story just serves as backup to leveling up and gaining items.
The graphics won't win any awards, but they are vibrant and look great. Character and monster images are sharp and varied. The best way to explain them would be the Final Fantasy V or VI era. The on screen controls never get in the way and are responsive enough to not usually cause trouble. Occasionally, I would run the wrong direction because I was moving around too quickly, but it usually wasn't an big issue.
Zenonia is easily the best RPG available for the iPhone. I've actually found myself wanting to play this over anything I have on consoles or PC. The impressive length, multiple character classes, and moral choices will keep me coming back for a long time to come.