Code Zodiac

Code of Zodiac is a straightforward, fun, GBA style action game. With elements of Pokemon, Furi, and the original Legend of Zelda, this game establishes itself as a fresh, refined and heartwarming nod to the past of gaming. The difficulty level superseded my expectations. The writing is standard. Controls are excellent. Animations are pristine. The world is beautiful. I would love to see a sequel of this game.

Neat visuals, nice music, but the narrative is a bit too grand for the game's short runtime. It flies by too quickly to achieve much of an emotional impact. In terms of gameplay, it's mostly enjoyable, but way way too easy. Not every boss rush game has to be Furi, but for me the difficulty peaked at the very first encounter, with that high damage charge move sending me to the retry screen quite a few times, then dropped off a cliff. I only game overed maybe once for the entire rest of the game. Boss attack patterns aren't very demanding, and they deal so little damage and your heavy attack heals so much, that for many of the fights I found myself charging directly into the boss and spamming the heavy attack while simply tanking whatever they threw at me. I could easily outheal even the final boss, only resorting to the rather stiff dodge to get around some ranged attacks. There was no sense of figuring out or mastering an encounter, which I found somewhat disappointing. If the dodge mechanic was tightened up, that long wind-down after the heavy attack was reduced, and the bosses were made a lot more aggressive, I think this I would have enjoyed this game a lot more. As it is, tho…

It isn't great. I bought this game on sale, played through the first three bosses, and ended up refunding it. Here's why: 1. The story is mediocre. The dialogue is cheesy, the pacing is all over the place, and none of the characters stood out or gave me a reason to care about them. 2. The pacing is a mess. One minute you're hunting a bull, then you're in town celebrating a festival, then you're thrown into another fight, and suddenly you're leaving to help people against your mother's wishes. The game rushes from one event to the next without giving anything time to breathe. 3. The bosses are disappointing. For a game built around boss fights, the bosses are surprisingly dull. They attack slowly, have awkwardly long delays between moves, and rely on the same one or two attacks. I only played the first three bosses, so maybe they improve later, but the opening is supposed to sell the game... not make me hope it gets better. 4. The art styles clash. The gameplay uses heavily pixelated graphics, while the character portraits are high-resolution. The contrast is distracting and looks completely out of place. 5. The combat lacks depth. Combat boils down to button mashing and occasi…

c-tier game the bosses have like 3-4 moves which makes them predictable and lacking in depth, not to mention that they usually have one unreactable attack that's there to just punish your heavy attack end lag the player combat options feel like Furi but far stiffer with no movement while shooting no charged shot and no parry also the dash is way way too powerful, some cooldown would've evened it out the bike levels feel lacking in motion, the background either does not move or is so dark you can't even notice it, the movement of the bike is so floaty you feel like you're playing an old-school SHUMP, the changes in relative velocity could be better represented with braking and accelarating animations overall, yeah it's not the best but it all builds up a pretty enjoyable experience while accompanied by the art and story so in my opinion it's kinda good and i've finally understood all the writing abut quarter-Chopins and whatnot from Ferdydurke

Solid and fun game!

This is an excellent game! I love the story. Boss Battles are fun and engaging. The sound design is A++ If you are a fan of short adventures with good stories, definitely check this one out!