Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden FREE Review
PROS
- Vivid, varied dungeons and puzzles.
- Fun boss battles; challenging without being impossible.
CONS
- Random, jerky pauses to load new areas mid-level.
- Combat lacks life; straight brawling with little impact or tactics.
- Did you really need a fairy guide? No. You didn't. *smacks nose with rolled up newspaper*
VERDICT
Fans of dungeon-exploring adventure titles will get a kick out of Sacred Odyssey, but it lacks the spark of vitality of its source material.
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If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck. Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden is exactly what it sets out to be, a Zelda-like; and to perfectly frank, it doesn't do a bad job of it either. Despite walking a line that straddles originality and shameless parody, Gameloft's latest title remains engaging despite some questionable flaws.
Jumping in to the game is relatively simple, especially for those familiar with similar 3rd person action titles on the App Store. A camera lazily chases behind your character while you control the movement with a virtual stick and switch between weapons, block and attack with buttons and touch menus. Much like any Zelda-like you'll collect new items in each major dungeon, granting you access to new skills that unlock additional areas. You'll get plenty of practice with your new item thanks to boss fights based around its specific mechanic, though this often involves selecting the weapon, tapping targets on screen and activating it for an effect.
The game's simple visuals are tempered by flashy special effects that don't go so far as to cover the limited animations in the game. This kills a lot of the fun of fighting enemies as you slide around the screen and perform strikes that lack any weight. Furthermore, without the ability to lock on or effectively block/dodge after performing a combination attack, battles turn in to repetitive brawls that test your ability to spam the attack button instead of your tactical skill or reactions. Combat aside, the dungeons do a great job of tying the game together, with multiple puzzles to solve in each one and incentives to explore side-paths for bonus collectable items.
Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden is far from a masterpiece, but it's still a hard game to put down once you've started on the quest. If you don't mind a bumpy ride and you're after a solid action adventure title, this is for you.
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