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Chronicles of Inotia Wanderer of Luone iPhone Review
Submitted by yorkcountyflyer on Wed, 03/17/2010 - 14:10
Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Feanor was the first RPG game I bought from the App Store. While the first iteration in the Inotia series pales in comparison to some of the other big hits of 2009, it made a case that RPG's had a future on the iPhone platform. In late 2009,
Com2uS delivered the 2nd in the series with Wanderer of Luone. Not only does the new installment make up for all that the 1st version lacked, it offers the best and most complete RPG experience on the iPhone.
Graphics
I think most people will appreciate the old school charm of the 2D style graphics. There is a lot of nice visual details and variations in character appearances and polished interfaces. There is less depth, however, to the character animations but still good enough to enjoy smooth combat sequences and watching your party members execute special moves.
Audio
Perhaps the weakest part of the game is the soundtrack with forgettable background music, enivornmental, and monster noises. Fortunately, it doesn't detract from the overall gameplay or quality of the game and you have the ability to listen to music from your own playlist.
Gameplay
STORY MODE
The game begins by choosing 1 of 5 classes and rolling for your character's initial stats. You can reroll as often as you like to build the ideal character to start the game. I really enjoyed experimenting with each of the classes and the unique experiences that comes with managing each type.
The defining feature of the game has to be the ability to hire additional mercenaries and manage 3 members in party simultaneously. Hiring mercenaries is quite easy and begins by obtaining a warrior's seal and going to the Inn Keeper in any of the towns. If you don't end up liking the class of the mercenary you hire, you can easily discharge the member from your party. There are ways to resurrect a fallen party member. Even if the entire party is annihilated, you can resurrect everyone but at a 5% cost to gold and experience points.
Leveling progresses fairly quickly without a need to spend time grinding on any one particular area. As you level up, you earn skill points for each of your characters, which you can assign to any of the available active or passive skills. While you get to completely manage and customize your chosen character's abilities, you are limited to only leveling certain skills for your party members. This seemed somewhat limiting but actually makes perfect sense because it forces you to choose carefully the character you want to play at the beginning of the game.
Beyond managing a skill tree, you can buff your characters' weapons and armors with enchantments to increase damage and/or defense. There is a useful tutorial on enchantments from Com2uS. Upgrading your equipment is an ongoing process as you obtain better quest items or purchase equipment in towns. There is a also cool "World Ranking" feature that allows you to compare your enchantments against others in the world.
The alchemy or item-combinining feature is another brilliant inclusion in the game. As you obtain "combination recipes" and pick up various items along your journey, you can go into the General Store in any town to use the item-combining tool. For instance, to create 5 small healing potions, you would need 10 Leaves of Life. You simply select on the Leaf of Life from one of your inventory bags and select the quanity and then click "Move". Then click on the "combine" button to make the potion, which you then need to move over to your inventory bag.
With over 200 quests and extensive functionality, the storyline of the Evil Lord Gorgon gets diluted and becomes somewhat of an afterthought during the game. But with everything I just described above, there's no reason to put off buying the Inotia 2. Although some of the quests can get boring and somewhat tedious to collect quest items, there are some great boss battles that will certainly test your skills.
MATCHUP MODE
Com2uS provides the ability to go head-to-head with others around the world in an arena-style matchup mode. When you enter the arena, your profile is saved to the server so you end up playing the "ghost" of another player's profile that is AI controlled. It actually works quite well but the key to success is having a full party and having done a sufficient job leveling and buffing your characters equipment in Story Mode.
Controls
There are 2 main control settings to choose from. I preferred using the Touch Control feature, which simply allows you touch anywhere on the screen to move around. The virtual D-pad works fine but seemed to consume to much screen real-estate for my tastes.
The interfaces are very polished in this game. In particular, managing your inventory is among the best of any RPG game I've played on the iPhone. I only wish I could more easily compare unequiped item abilities with those already equiped on my characters.
I love the fact that combat is not reduced to just button mashing. If you manually control your party members, there is actually quite a bit of skill involved. Executing special moves for each player at the right time and deciding which character you want to lead with in battle requires a little practice. If you prefer, you can adjust settings to determine how much control the AI has over members of your party. You should be mindful of what shortcut keys you have assigned to your main character to maximize playing efficiency and having quick access to things like healing potions.
Targeting monsters is intuitive with just a single tap directly on the monster or just in the vicinity to initiate combat. Another nice feature is being able to choose any member of your party to lead with and having the rest follow by either attacking or retreating together. Navigating in the game is quite easy with the inclusion of a high-level world map or a low-level village map. I do wish there was a way to fast-travel in the game even at the cost of gold. It's not an essential feature but would add a little more motivation to do the side-quests.
Generally, the controls are very user-friendly and intuitive. You should be aware, however, that it's possible for your party members to become separated. I'm not sure what specifically causes this except possibly getting hung-up around some obstacle but it can be a real pain when it happens.
Lastability
With over 200 single player quests and online matchups, the game is seemingly endless. A new Ranger class is underway and should be available in early 2010 along with some possible in-app purchases. Alternating between classes is a great way to experiment and enjoy the game from a different perspective. There's plenty of motivation to continously play through the Story Mode and level up your party characters especially if you engage in Matchup Mode often.
Value
This game is beyond exceptional in value. There is little chance for disappointment even at the current full-price of $7.99 (USD). You won't likely find more playable content for the money anywhere else in the App Store.
Presentation
Inotia 2 is a game that definitely reflects a determined effort to offer a sophisticated, well-polished, and thorugh RPG experience. We've come to expect this from Com2uS. With even a slightly better story plot, the game could have been nearly perfect. Still, Chronicles of Inotia: A Wanderer of Luone should be among your first choice if you are in the market for a new RPG game.
