Phoenotopia: Awakening

 Switch
User Score
8.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 31 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 31
  3. Negative: 2 out of 31

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  1. MachineNociel
    Aug 22, 2020
    8
    So far I'm having a great time playing this with a few hours clocked in so here's my impressions so far. This definitely isn't an easy game as the very first boss took me over 10 tries to beat. The opening areas of the game had me in a bit of a jam with not having enough money to get quest items and essential equipment so a slow grind ended up happening. But soon after that the game reallySo far I'm having a great time playing this with a few hours clocked in so here's my impressions so far. This definitely isn't an easy game as the very first boss took me over 10 tries to beat. The opening areas of the game had me in a bit of a jam with not having enough money to get quest items and essential equipment so a slow grind ended up happening. But soon after that the game really picked up for me and money isn't too much of an issue now.

    This game has a lot of love put into it. Music is very good and the characters and their dialogue are well done too. Gameplay is challenging but feels rewarding once you get the hang of it. I realized this wasn't a hand-holding experience and that I needed to be careful during fights and managing recovery items or I'd get destroyed. Overall I'm happy I bought this.    … Expand
  2. pigoid
    Aug 24, 2020
    9
    I'm having a blast playing this game, despite knowing that it would be a challenging experience. It was super satisfying beating an obstacle/ boss that was giving me trouble. However I can see the complaint about how money is scarce in the game to be a legitimate pitfall of the game forcing you to grind a bit, but I felt it was not that detrimental to my overall experience with what theI'm having a blast playing this game, despite knowing that it would be a challenging experience. It was super satisfying beating an obstacle/ boss that was giving me trouble. However I can see the complaint about how money is scarce in the game to be a legitimate pitfall of the game forcing you to grind a bit, but I felt it was not that detrimental to my overall experience with what the rest of the game had to offer. But if you're up for a fun, but challenging, game with great art and music than I would definitely recommend this game to others.… Expand
  3. BananaPudding
    Sep 1, 2020
    10
    I first played the flash game, 'Phoenotopia', when I was around thirteen. After almost eight years of faithfully following the games development, 'Phoenotopia: Awakening' has been released! I'm only at the beginning of the game right now, but I can already tell this is an great expansion of the flash game! I love the expanded pixel art animation for the characters, the ability to see moreI first played the flash game, 'Phoenotopia', when I was around thirteen. After almost eight years of faithfully following the games development, 'Phoenotopia: Awakening' has been released! I'm only at the beginning of the game right now, but I can already tell this is an great expansion of the flash game! I love the expanded pixel art animation for the characters, the ability to see more of Panselo and the way traveling in the game is handled. The level of detail and colors in the game are very colorful and help create a more real atmosphere to the game. I love how certain NPC's, like the male guard, has such a funny dialogue. The game mechanics are good, although I have not been able to cook the 'Mystery Meat' without failing(-.-), I have successfully cooked more than enough frog legs. So far, the mechanics/controls of the game are easy to adapt to. The only thing I had a slight problem doing was using the gear ring, but I caught on quickly enough to what you are supposed to do, which is move the right side directional arrow/stick and then, with a tool or item, like 'Frog Legs', press down on the controller/stick. I kept clicking 'A' at first, but then I got it.

    I'm so glad I can play this game. I hope others can also play and enjoy this game as much as I have and I already look forward to the next Phoenotopia!    … Expand
  4. Namajamaa
    Sep 11, 2020
    9
    Phoenotopia had its hooks in me despite a lot of its flaws, and I think it's the core that's great and the bogies protruding off of it that are more the issues. Despite that, we have an adventure-platformer a la Zelda II with a difficulty like Dark Souls and a charm like EarthBound crossed with Kirby with engaging writing and music. Not for the feint of heart despite how cute it can look.
  5. Daisuk
    Nov 12, 2020
    8
    Great game, this. It kept me hooked for a long while - I got about 32 hours in - felt the endgame became a bit stale, the story didn't really engage me at all, so never actually completed it - but the gameplay is solid, the graphics are really good, and the combat and exploration are solid as well. There are a few QoL niggles and a few odd design decisions, but overall, if you likeGreat game, this. It kept me hooked for a long while - I got about 32 hours in - felt the endgame became a bit stale, the story didn't really engage me at all, so never actually completed it - but the gameplay is solid, the graphics are really good, and the combat and exploration are solid as well. There are a few QoL niggles and a few odd design decisions, but overall, if you like metroidvanias with a bit of difficulty, you'll enjoy this.… Expand
  6. TastyCactus444
    Oct 24, 2020
    10
    This is a great game. The graphics are cute with smooth animations. The gameplay is exploration focused, with some combat as well. The world-building and story is really well done, and the amount of content is INSANE, with over 50 hours for completionists. There were some issues with difficulty at release, but they have been fixed in recent patches. An easy 10/10.
  7. wjomlex
    Aug 30, 2020
    10
    Basically a perfect blend of Zelda games (in a Zelda II shell) with a touch of Metroid and a very charming aesthetic. Bought this randomly on the Switch store and didn’t expect the amount of substance, or the level of attention to detail.
  8. Xs
    Aug 25, 2020
    5
    I wanted so bad to like this game. I have 10 hours logged. In that 10 hours I have played one dungeon that had a hard but fun boss. I thought, cool I like this game. That was the first hour. Since then I have been wandering from town to town talking to NPC's. Im not being sarcastic. That has taken 9 hours. That is the way the game is designed. I'm now at a point i had to buy something toI wanted so bad to like this game. I have 10 hours logged. In that 10 hours I have played one dungeon that had a hard but fun boss. I thought, cool I like this game. That was the first hour. Since then I have been wandering from town to town talking to NPC's. Im not being sarcastic. That has taken 9 hours. That is the way the game is designed. I'm now at a point i had to buy something to continue but don't have the money. I have been trying to grind for the money for about an hour and im still no where close. I decided to give you guys a heads up. Im not saying I'm giving up but the game has been extremely hard and boring up until now.… Expand
  9. Vash0125
    Aug 21, 2020
    5
    Do not buy until developers release a patch to improve gameplay. Do not be fooled by the games charming retro presentation this game is a **** of fustrating game design decisions.You have a stamina bar that runs out too quick and drags out fights with even the most basic enemies, Then there is the fact that money is so hard to come by and you need a lot of it to progress , theres the lackDo not buy until developers release a patch to improve gameplay. Do not be fooled by the games charming retro presentation this game is a **** of fustrating game design decisions.You have a stamina bar that runs out too quick and drags out fights with even the most basic enemies, Then there is the fact that money is so hard to come by and you need a lot of it to progress , theres the lack of invincibility frames where you can find yourself being smacked around like a pinball between enemies. This is another retro styled game that doesnt undesrtand how videogames have evolved and become more accessible since the nintendo years we need to stop milking the past and stary looking forward.… Expand
  10. he110me
    Oct 3, 2021
    10
    I can't believe I slept on this game. Phoenotopia has an abundance of soul and polish, but it does not hold your hand. Talking to NPCs has an actual effect on your adventure: sometimes they give you directions or hint at places to check out, other times they will offer a whole minigame or side challenge to complete. There are no navigation markers, no quest journals, and no Navi to tellI can't believe I slept on this game. Phoenotopia has an abundance of soul and polish, but it does not hold your hand. Talking to NPCs has an actual effect on your adventure: sometimes they give you directions or hint at places to check out, other times they will offer a whole minigame or side challenge to complete. There are no navigation markers, no quest journals, and no Navi to tell you what to do next. You have to actually talk to NPCs to get the lay of the land, and thankfully information is not hard to come by. This makes the world feel very alive, as you are actually interacting with the world instead of chasing a yellow exclamation point until it tells you to stop. The dungeons and combat can be punishing, but save points are plentiful, and none of the challenges seem unfair. The game definitely takes the Dark Souls approach to difficulty, and asks you to git gud in several places. I have died alot in this game, but every one of them I knew what I could have done differently to survive. As of now, there are difficulty options you can set to make things easier, but they will gut mechanics that the encounters were designed around, so I don't recommend it.

    Overall, this game is on par with the likes of Hollow Knight and Super Metroid, improving on the much overlooked Zelda II formula in pretty much every way.    … Expand
  11. MetaPolice
    Jun 1, 2021
    9
    I have a blast with this game. The game has a mix between tools ,dungeons and puzzles of Zelda, lore deepness, biomes, and combat of Dark Soul, characters and enemies design of Kirby mix with Mario and Zelda. No glitchs and errors during my game play. The only down side is the step combat learning curve, grinding and the lack of weapon at the first 5-7hrs may push some players away. Must try !
  12. Rollmop
    Sep 29, 2020
    10
    Enchanting backgrounds, satisfying puzzles (especially musical ones), vast exploration, appealing replayability, variety of items, tentacular, yet original lore and narrative... I could go on forever about all the neat things that make this game so much more than the eternal classics it probably took its inspiration from. Gunnm, Asimov's Robots, Metroid, and of course, Zelda 2!

    Beyond    Enchanting backgrounds, satisfying puzzles (especially musical ones), vast exploration, appealing replayability, variety of items, tentacular, yet original lore and narrative... I could go on forever about all the neat things that make this game so much more than the eternal classics it probably took its inspiration from. Gunnm, Asimov's Robots, Metroid, and of course, Zelda 2!

    Beyond the satisfaction of finding these familiar references in the game, my craving for a proper classic action-adventure game, that's not a roguelite or a metroidvania, has been satisfied, which I didn't even expect anymore at this point, to be honest. At last, some good news in 2020. Let's hope for a sequel!    … Expand
  13. HarryMason
    Oct 4, 2020
    8
    As much as I'd love to give this game a great score, the action and combat are way too frustrating and painful at times. Every other RPG element about Phoenotopia deserves a 9 or 10, but the combat mechanics is a 5 or 6. I never once enjoyed combat and it was acceptable at best. The monster design and bosses are actually fine, but facing them with **** mechanics is maddening. TheAs much as I'd love to give this game a great score, the action and combat are way too frustrating and painful at times. Every other RPG element about Phoenotopia deserves a 9 or 10, but the combat mechanics is a 5 or 6. I never once enjoyed combat and it was acceptable at best. The monster design and bosses are actually fine, but facing them with **** mechanics is maddening. The protagonist is way too wonky. I think the developers have mistaken challenging with irritating. They even managed to make running and rolling difficult. The rest of this game is amazing, which is the only reason I've managed to finish it (that and the patches, or else I would never have managed to get through). It's sad that they couldn't keep the mechanics simple, but had to complicate them with what they figured to be innovation.… Expand
  14. Nikopro245
    Aug 15, 2022
    9
    Probably an 8.5/10. Great amount of content and a good challenge with beautiful pixel art and music. The attack button and main weapon a bit simplistic and doesn’t feel great. OtherwIse there are plenty of expansion tools and things to explore/find. Great value for money and a must buy for metroidvania fans.
  15. Anhilare
    Jan 14, 2022
    10
    Don't bother with the C-ratings by the critics—those are pre-patch and don't reflect the real current state of the game. Most of their complaints talked about combat difficulties, which difficulties and more have been greatly helped by the difficulty options patched in as a response.

    Review starts here. Phoenotopia: Awakening is a rare gem of a geme. Originally a flash game released in    Don't bother with the C-ratings by the critics—those are pre-patch and don't reflect the real current state of the game. Most of their complaints talked about combat difficulties, which difficulties and more have been greatly helped by the difficulty options patched in as a response.

    Review starts here. Phoenotopia: Awakening is a rare gem of a geme. Originally a flash game released in 2014 (already recognized at the time as excellent), Cape Cosmic had been hard at work remaking it for six years, culminating in this release. This game is already super good, but with this as their debut title? Now I'm really looking forward to their next offering.

    You begin playing as Gail, a pink-haired villager from the village of Panselo, who wields a bat as her main weapon. Not as flashy as a light-saber or a katana, but what do you expect from a farming village? It's believable, just like most of the characters and settings in the game: they all make sense in the context of the game's world. The Kingdom of Castella as a geopolitical entity has real goals implied, the characters all have their motivations (talk to everyone twice! the NPC dialog is so well-written!), and the whole setting of the game is so well-crafted and immersive. For instance, there are these spiky steel crawlers appearing from the very beginning of the game that serve as a kind of moving obstacle to Gail from a gameplay standpoint, but in-world, they have an entirely different purpose, compellingly explained near the end-game.

    PhoA's combat is not super fast-paced like most games. More akin to a Zelda game, enemies must be defeated via patience and observation. For example, in the early game, there are these toads that jump around to damage Gail. They always jump the same distance, though, so the strategy is to anticipate where they're going to land, stand right in front, wait, and pummel them! It takes a bit of getting used to, but soon enough, you develop a muscle memory where you're instantly able to stand in the right spot, and toads become a cinch. Alternatively, if you're not in the mood to battle, you can just run past them, since enemies don't damage Gail unless they're attacking, which is nice.

    Under the default settings, normal attacks take a little bit of stamina, and there's a little cooldown before it begins recharging. This is to encourage that patient style of combat in PhoA. If you don't like that, though, you can always press "-" and change the difficulty options to disable these. I know I like the default settings, but my sister's style is more of a "smack all enemies really fast" kind of thing, so she keeps those options on to better suit her experience. There are various other options, too, that all help to tailor your experience to the way you like it.

    That's what this game is: an experience. The small loredump at the beginning and the plot-kicker about an hour or two into the game are enough to sustain you when the plot gets a little bit slow as you explore Castella and get a sense of the land, helping people along the way. But partway through the game, there's just a massive loredump that has so much you can sink your teeth into. The amount of analysis this game has the potential to receive is simply astounding—the lore is that juicy, and the world is that cohesive.

    Now, performance: on Switch, it runs smoothly on handheld and docked—I have never noticed any blips or drops, and the number of times my Switch has made angry fan noises is much smaller than what other games make it do. No complaints here.

    Overall, PhoA is truly a great game, one of my all-time favorites. There's so much the game has to offer, without feeling overstuffed. I have hours on this game, and I just can't get enough: I need to scratch my Phoenotopia itch. My next endeavor is to get all 33 achievements on one save file!    … Expand
  16. SolidNotLiquid
    May 14, 2022
    10
    This game felt like a breath of fresh air and a reboot to my repeat gaming cycle. (I played this game and beat it on Nintendo Switch) (And this game has a soundtrack better than doom's.. yes I actually said that.) (This review contains light spoilers on the names of key areas and bosses though I don't spoil the actual attacks or any plot-twists not that I'm saying there are any)
    I played    This game felt like a breath of fresh air and a reboot to my repeat gaming cycle. (I played this game and beat it on Nintendo Switch) (And this game has a soundtrack better than doom's.. yes I actually said that.) (This review contains light spoilers on the names of key areas and bosses though I don't spoil the actual attacks or any plot-twists not that I'm saying there are any)
    I played the original Phoenotopia on flash, on the site "Freewebarcade" and it holds a ton of nostalgia and charm if you have played at least 60% of the original. if I had never seen this game or heard of it before it would still hit around 9 but with the throwbacks and inside dev-to-player jokes it just adds that little extra charm and enjoyability. Using the first session or two as a small example; You start out with only one tool and a weak weapon after a little prologue you head through a basic forest tutorial area with dialogue that feels refreshing to read somehow, but maybe it's just that games from the last few years haven't been very original and focus on unique idea rather than execution. The follow up is a dungeon that very well shows how the game functions and lets players see items they can't quite reach yet whether it be a lack of key items or a lack of experience, and this is something adventure games never do enough of or, disappointingly, it's the entire game. It's important to make the player set goals and get excited for something inside the game… and not by releasing the "EPIC SEASON PASS". I almost gave this game a 9 due to some of it's more frustrating sections such as The White Towers that drag on for a bit too long (Their theme however is a throw-back that left me shocked and shaking with excitement when I first heard it), Katash's fight is absurdly difficult until you find out you can climb up on the platform with him, the Mul Caves have an infuriating amount of things that tackle you when you try to platform though this part of the game isn't too long, and the entirety of E.D.E.N excluding Phalanx just straight up sucks. But then I thought about how this game actually changed my life and realized it fits right into the category of the perfect game for me. This game is inspiring and has such unique ideas inside of it that just playing it could lead someone young to create worlds of their own. I grew up playing this game 4 times over trying to beat it and being shocked and amazed by the epic and creepy Scorchlands every time I made it there. You can go ahead and read other reviews and some of the low ones were one the game developers read and were resolved (the difficulty settings) Pretty much everyone who has played this game loves it to death. I just wish more people knew about it!    … Expand
  17. zeldagaming
    Nov 27, 2022
    10
    Fantastic, beautiful, fun, cute, inspiring, challenging

    Sadly this masterpiece hasnt got the attention it deserves. Its definitely one of the best games i've ever played. I cant think of anything I missed. absolutely exceptional

Awards & Rankings

70
#70 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. IGN Japan
    Mar 5, 2021
    70
    Phoenotopia: Awakening aspires to be a retro 2D action adventure, and it succeeds in many ways. The cute sprites and soundtrack are appealing, and there’s lots of great exploration and puzzle gameplay. That being said, some elements bring along unnecessary stress, making the experience as a whole feel like a juicy durian that can only be cracked open with your bare hands.
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  2. Pure Nintendo
    Sep 29, 2020
    65
    Phoenotopia: Awakening has a highly inviting look, but the gameplay can’t match the tone. Some ill-fitting decisions work against it, and the emphasis isn’t always where it should be. It’s still an ambitious, impressive indie adventure that demonstrates real passion, but one reflecting growing pains.
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  3. Impulsegamer
    Sep 22, 2020
    82
    Overall Phoenotopia is a very beautiful looking game that does well at hiding its punishing difficulty, whilst people who are looking for a Zelda 2 style game may be attracted to this title, the more causal amongst us will find it very difficult to enjoy the later aspects of the game where in truth the game gets easier.
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