Perhaps its most blanket achievement is its aesthetic and world, which is one of the most inviting and adventurous on Nintendo Switch. A World Worth Exploringįrom a macro standpoint, Phoenotopia does a lot right.

It’s a compelling quest that succeeds in broad strokes, but falters on its finer mechanical points, resulting in an experience that somewhat misses the mark. To that point, Phoenotopia Awakening is a side-scrolling adventure title with a top-down overworld – one replete with secrets, puzzles, combat, and exploration in equal part. That is exactly what Cape Cosmic’s newest title, Phoenotopia: Awakening does. What’s far less expected is to see inspiration taken from the franchise’s black sheep, The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. In the realm of these experiences, inspiration is usually drawn from the likes of A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. We all have a few under our belt games that feel staggeringly similar to Link’s exploits while remaining compelling by merit of borrowing from Nintendo’s formula so well. While not as common, there are many instances of developers drawing explicit inspiration from this franchise, creating – reductively speaking – Zelda clones. It’s just as likely to see Zelda’s DNA implicitly inform modern game design in more subtle ways. Often, this manifests itself in Zelda’s inventions that have become staples, such as Z-Targeting being absorbed into other games. It is very easy to feel and see the ways in which the Legend of Zelda’s influence has reverberated through the industry.

Phoenotopia awakening selling items