First let me say that until now I had been a feverish supporter and huge fan of the Zenonia series and Gamevil�� This has ENTIRELY changed since Gamevil absolutely BUTCHERED Zenonia 4. With a largely disabled freemium cash-grab ZEN currency and ZEN purchase-only items which you WILL NEED to actually play and enjoy this game. The graphics are superb and look AMAZING on 2x zoom on my IPad 2. I'm sure the story (should I had played it any further than level 16) would likely be comparable in quality to the other Zenonia games. The problems, however, make this game a throwaway unless you intend on spending VAST sums of MONEY to fight through this largely disabled freemium cash grab.�� The game's "real money" currency, ZEN, is VERY expensive and THOROUGHLY forced on the player; with NO way to earn ZEN currency by playing. Furthermore the game's difficulty and penalties for dying make the game largely unplayable (and horribly unfair to play), UNLESS you fork out BIG money to pay for penalty-free revival scrolls. On top of all this ridiculousness, Gamevil also PENALIZES the player by forcing you to PAY (in ZEN) to buy identify scrolls (which is the ONLY way to identify all those unidentified items you will collect as you proceed through the game).�� It is with GREAT REGRET and FRUSTRATION that I CANNOT recommend this game as it stands, in it's horribly cash-grab freemium state, TO ANYONE.�� WAKE UP Gamevil!! DON'T tarnish your franchise and your good name! At the VERY LEAST give us a chance to enjoy your game SOMEWHAT by at least letting the players acquire and purchase those MUCH NEEDED identify scrolls!!! Honestly, I would have paid $6-10 for an UNCRIPPLED Zenonia 4. Too, GamevilCOULD EASILY (and slightly) change this for the better: tone down the ridiculous difficulty, the horrible identify scroll issue and lastly make the penalty for dying MUCH easier to swallow.
Not to be a smartass, but Gamevil is the one who made the game and switched to this crappy IAP model. Chillingo is a different company.
Lol. So furious I lost sight of company name. Yes, it is INdEED Gamevil. My apologies!! And thanks for setting me straight!
All reports I've read so far except for this one indicates Zenonia 4 is VERY playable without spending a real-world dollar. Since no one I've spoken to has finished it yet, they cannot speak for the whole length of the game, but Zenonia 4 is reputedly perfectly enjoyable far past level 16. What say the rest of ye here? I'm only at the early stages of the game, and no Zen purchases have been even advertised to me, much less forced upon me, and the game plays just like the premium versions of earlier Zenonia games. The identify scroll thingie does seem bothersome (are they truly not attainable without Zen?), but not like an absolute barrier. Will I run into problems as I progress further without spending real-world currency?
Simply buy and download Zenonia 3 to see how you USED to be able to proceed through the game using identify scrolls and ABSOLUTE lack of ZEN currency purchasing. I am only submitting my feelings and experiences.
I actually read that Zenonia 3 was a huge money-eater and required a cringe-worthy amount of IAPs (never actually played through that one since I found the sprites too small and the story unappealing). I have yet to be presented with a need for IAPs, but I'm not too far into the game. If the difficulty doesn't curve too steeply upward from here, with some grinding I think I should be fine...
Zenonia 3 was a great game and does NOT REQUIRE you to buy ZEN to be able to finish the game. Try it and get back to me. I've spent more than 300 hours playing that game to death.
