
It takes some going to stand out among the Switch's throng of superb Metroidvanias. When your competition includes the likes of Hollow Knight and Iconoclasts, you know it's going to be a rough ride. But Phoenotopia: Awakening somehow manages to stand out, and it does so by being a little more... low key. That may sound a bit like a direct contradiction, but the more sedate, thoughtful pacing on offer here gives it a relaxed and cerebral feel that results in something truly important; an identity.
Based on a Newgrounds browser game, the adventures of young orphan Gale, on a quest to find out what happened to her home, take the form of a 2D action-adventure with a Zelda II-esque overworld map, a slick inventory system and plenty of secrets to find.
The controls are largely traditional - move, jump and attack - but there's also an enjoyably challenging sprinting system, where you tap and hold ZL to begin running and have to release and tap again to keep your speed up when landing from a jump. You can use this to cover ground faster, obviously, or leap larger gaps with ease. It will also let you dash into a roll to quickly pass under hazards, which never gets old. You'll need to master this system quickly; the "tutorial" room for the sprint is itself very demanding, but this is by design as Phoenotopia: Awakening is not messing around in terms of difficulty.

From the moment you first leave the safety of your village, the game is difficult to the point of being punishing; your attacks are a short range swipe and a slightly broader charged attack, but all have a windup before your swing that you'll need to account for. Apologies for evoking the journalistic crutch that is the Dark Souls comparison, but you also have a little green stamina bar that lessens the more you swing your weapon, meaning you can't just put up a wall of pain for enemies to leap or fly into - you have to measure your attacks carefully. It's a demanding system, particularly as even the basic wildlife here isn't docile, but it fits the thoughtful tone of the rest of the game.
It's all about exploration, but it's a different kind of discovery to most other titles of its genre that we've seen. For one thing, there's no map; this could be seen as an oversight by some players, but we felt that it complimented the pacing of the game; a map means you're essentially filling in squares rather than truly exploring uncharted territory, and makes everything seem that much more oppressive and dangerous. Unlike a lot of genre titles, every room in Phoenotopia: Awakening feels like it matters; there are puzzles to solve that require you to pay attention to room layouts, remember what you're able to do, and apply it intelligently. In fact, intelligent is a good word to describe the game as a whole - it's a methodically-designed, carefully constructed world that won't hesitate to kill you if you rush in blindly. It's up to you to figure this game out, not some pop-up text box that tells you exactly where to go and what to do.

There's a nice little cooking system here, too; simple but engaging. Plants and meat can be found, hunted, harvested, and devoured raw if you please. But locating some flint and starting a fire will allow you to roast your meals to your liking, conferring additional benefits; rather like Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Initiating the cooking minigame begins a brief, challenging sequence where you have to hit buttons as they swing back and forth above your head. It's fun, cute and another way Phoenotopia engages you in its world.
And it's a pretty world; at first glimpse we weren't too impressed with the graphics - the characters' big dot eyes don't seem too expressive - but as soon as we got stuck in, things quickly picked up. The locations are beautifully colourful and evocative, and the backgrounds are tremendous. There's a real lushness to the greenery and the ancient ruins are suitably moody. There are also a lot of neat touches - there are small lizards crawling on the walls in certain areas which seem like a nice, aesthetic bit of flavour until you realise you can shoot them down with your slingshot and consume their bodies, making them into a more traditional bit of flavour. Chatting to the locals and exploring the villages will yield further treasures. It's all beautifully and cleverly designed stuff.
Conclusion
Lots of care has gone into the creation of this game, and it shows with the gorgeous graphics and atmospheric soundtrack. It's a game that feels vast, and a slow burn experience for the patient gamer. It's possible that its difficulty will take some time to get used to, but it's worth persevering with this truly rewarding and excellent game. Phoenotopia: Awakening is a thoughtful, coherent game which, if you click with it, doesn't lose a step. A marvellous surprise.
Comments 48
I will definitely be picking this up!
For anyone who might be wondering, Phoenotopia: Awakening is out on Switch tomorrow (20th Aug) in North America, but the European launch has been pushed back by a few weeks. Expect it to appear on the eShop at a later date.
More details here. 🙂
Oh nice. I was really hoping this one would be good because it looked really nice. I might not buy it straight away as I'm in the middle of a few other games but I'll need to grab some US eShop credit to pick this up if it doesn't make its way to the Australian eShop before I'm ready to play it.
Sold. Would probably have bought it anyway.
Might want to do something about my backlog...
Glad this turned out well.
Con- too hard for some.
Ridiculous negative as could be applied to soooo many games.
Was on my radar so Will look into getting this when it hits UK
Adding it to the wishlist, which is getting to be like the Energizer bunny.
Preordered this two days ago. The trailer on the eshop hooked me. Happy to see my gamble has “probably” paid off. Can’t wait to fire it up this weekend.
Now this is a blast from the past. I used to go on Newgrounds so much back when I had a crap PC and couldn’t play full games. Cool to see this getting some recognition.
Thanks, review. Now I have to buy this and Iconoclasts, which I passed up. My wallet and I don't thank you.
Sounds like another quality addition to the Switch eShop.
The "punishing difficulty" is off putting a tad as I have to be a big fan of the game to want to persist with it nowadays (especially with a "healthy" backlog of other high scoring revw games).
Still, MAY look it up eventually....
Yes planning to get this and Inmost this week.
Another one I will wait until is on at least 50% sale. It is not a must have but a if I am really bored kind of game.
@Patendo It's unusually demanding and difficult from the start compared to its genre contemporaries. Front loaded difficulty can put people off games, hence my marking it out as a potential con.
@Patendo It is a con listed on many games. It's ridiculous of you to think something couldn't be a con just because it's something that a number of other games do. Bad controls are a con and yet a lot of games do it. Bad graphics. Bad story. Bad music. Bad gameplay. Is there some threshold where it no longer counts if enough games have something? What a preposterous thought.
Similarly, a game being too easy could be listed as a con.
I saw this on the eShop and was immediately turned off by the visual style. Everything being small and cutesy doesn't really do it for me. But the game sounds like it could be a lot more than the sum of its parts. Might just have to check it out.
This sounds great. Reading about the lack of a map and the punishing exploration makes me think back to NES games growing up. I'm playing through Xenoblade Chron, Def. Ed. right now or I'd probably pick this up day one... I might do that anyway.
This looks cool- I may end up picking it up eventually. Hard being a con though makes me weary... I don’t mind a game being hard (Hollow Knight, Celeste) but sometimes it can put me off a game altogether (Cuphead). I’ll let it marinate some - my backlog is large as it is.
Not sure I like the thought of the game being punishing as opposed to challenging. Still want to give it a go but for now it's one for the wishlist.
I've heard nothing about this until today, which makes it that much more of a delightful surprise. I'll definitely be picking this up.
@Patendo why not buy it from the US eshop ?! It'll be cheaper for a start !
@StuartGipp now that you worded it like that it makes more sense, the way it was written wasn't as clear to me so thanks for clarifying
@Deltath thanks but the author has cleared it up for me now.
This has been sitting on my wishlist ever since it graced the eShop pre purchase. Now I'm sure to buy it
Never understood the reasoning of making a game 'punishingly difficult'. I don't mind some challenge occasionally (3000th Duel my limit), but I play games for enjoyment, not stress. Apparently the developers and publishers of these overly difficult games aren't concerned about lost sales. I'm sure some gamers like the difficulty, but have to think that it is a small percentage.
@MindfulGamer Everyone thinks that the number of people with different tastes than theirs is a small percentage. They're all wrong.
@JimmySpades I didn't say anything about different tastes, which can be a lot of things (graphics, genre, etc.), just punishing difficulty. We'll never know, but I'm sure the people who need to make money on this game's sales hope that you are right.
@Patendo It's all good
@MindfulGamer Simply look at the combined sales of the Soulsborne series and you have a pretty good estimate how big that percentage of people liking punishingly hard games is.
(Hint: May 2020 = 27million)
There definitely is a big chunk of players who don't mind or even prefer punishing games.
If there's an overlap with people enjoying an artstyle like that remains to be seen though.
I love games but I'm old, I need an easy mode for any game I play due to my slower reflexes.
Comparing this to Hollow Knight immediately turns me off. That game wasn't difficult, it was crappy controls reclassified as difficulty. I quit after hours of having to do an oh so precise set of dashes with tiny places to land, pretty early on. I was fighting the controls more than I was the briars. Lots of people have told me it gets way better after first three or four hours, to which I say, "That doesn't sound like a game worthy of all the 9 and 10 ratings, you know that right?" So in short, I won't be picking this one up until it's below ten bucks. Perhaps five. Not worth another game I wanna slam my head against a wall for spending the cash on. :-/
Will keep my eye out for a physical.
@Dizavid I absolutely love Hollow Knight and found the controls were very intuitive but my large hands on the tiny controllers made it difficult. I have recently got the Hori large pads which have made playing so much better. If like me you have big hands it might be worth exploring larger controllers as I now find it easier and certain games far more enjoyable.
@Dizavid I had the same experience with Hollow Knight. The controls just felt a bit off to me, compared to other similar games. Great art style, atmosphere, but I put it down after a couple hours.
Man I'm torn about Phoenotopia. The visuals / videos did not give me the impression of a game that punches you in the face. Hmm.
@Dizavid You weren't using the pro controller were you? With the dpad? Or using a setup with a lot of latency? Or using analog sticks?
The controls on Hollow Knight are Mega-Man-style razor sharp precision in my experience. I needed to fix my pro controller dpad (and have used other controllers with a good dpad).
Based on the eshop screenshots alone, I would not have given this game a second glance. Now, because of this review, onto the wishlist it goes.
@Dizavid @aaronsullivan My brother, my friend, and myself had no issues with using joy-con on Hollow Knight. And we all completed it 100%. It's crazy how different our experiences can be.
well, dig deep enough and find it all.
ive changed my mind on this one for sure now.
just watched a completely honest review of this game.
blow after blow it sounds like a nuisance.
Should You Buy Phoenotopia Awakening? An Ambitious But Frustrating Indie Zelda:
"perhaps too hard for some"...that's a direct warning meant for me
I'm interested. How long is the game?
@Jake_homs
as i figured heres a f****** patch being worked on for this game, not that im interested anymore, but i figured id show the ones that are:
https://www.reddit.com/r/phoenotopia/
Legend of Celeste
Why can't I find the game on the European eShop?
I've been wanting to play the game, but heard about all the little mechanic-type complaints. Looks like by mid-September, there's gonna be some kind of easier/tweaked mode. Yay!
https://twitter.com/Phoenotopia/status/1298366718088077312
@Moshugan According to the same link I posted above, EU comes out September 3rd.
Will download someday.
I got this when it was on sale last week. It's soo good.
This is probably the best 2D game I ever played.
After spending some time with it, it's definitely closer to a 6-7 out of 10.
A shame because Zelda 2 is one of my favorites.
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