Review for Phoenix Tales
Adventurer's Guild Entertainment’s Phoenix Tales is an adventure / RPG hybrid that has much in common with Sierra On-Line’s seminal Quest for Glory series. They both use the role-playing elements of combat and skill-building to enhance their exploration and narrative elements, tasking players with solving the problems that arise when ridding a town of enemies. Though its simple story, lovely graphics, enjoyable yet unobtrusive music, and easily controlled combat make it an enjoyable experience; the two play styles don’t harmonize as well in Phoenix Tales as they did in its acclaimed genre-bending predecessor, and that incongruity might strike a sour note for some.
Phoenix Tales takes place in the kingdom of Rydanthia, a fantasy realm brought to life by beautiful photographic backgrounds and motion-captured animated characters. It’s shown using a third-person 2.5d perspective, its art reinforcing the feeling that Rydanthia is a real place with several beautiful locations. Most of the play time is divided among three of them: the town of Northern Cross; Wolfgang the blacksmith’s cabin, where the protagonist can practice his combat skills every five minutes to raise his experience by ten points each time; and the lovely Redwind River. The river scenes were my favorite, as I enjoyed the way the animated light glistened off them. Everything happens during the day, and the contrast between the backgrounds and interactive items makes the latter very easy to see. That's good because there’s no hotspot indicator, and you’ll need every item you find on your adventure.
The protagonist is a young man named Connor, whom you control using a two-button point-and-click interface. Right-clicking cycles the cursor through the actions of walking, speaking, and taking objects, which Connor stores in a backpack. Acquired items are represented using nicely depicted icons that can be accessed for use from the chest icon in the upper-left corner of the screen. Left-clicking on the screen executes the selected action, if possible. When Connor speaks to people, topics are selected via a context-sensitive menu.
Guitar strings strum pleasantly when Connor stops in Northern Cross looking for work, providing a sedate, restful melody as he strolls about. Like most towns, Northern Cross has an unsavory element. One of the first people Connor meets is a gambler named Elijah. For the paltry sum of five gold coins, the man offers Connor the chance to double his money by playing a version of Two Card Monte. All Connor needs to do is select the card with the O on it to double his money. If he selects the card with the X, he loses and surrenders his money. Connor can gamble as much as he likes, provided he has at least five gold coins. This minigame is optional, but easily won.
Besides the gambler, Northern Cross is nearly deserted. It resembles a typical medieval town with a mysteriously empty blacksmith’s shop (a note on the door says the blacksmith is at his cabin) and an inn where Connor can rest to heal himself and learn about a potion; gathering the needed ingredients will strengthen him in battle. A cobbler resides here as well, and a small boy for whom Connor must perform a task to gain a useful reward. Unfortunately, the characters don’t have much in the way of backstories, which would have deepened the narrative. Curious about the townspeople’s whereabouts, Connor inquires among those who remain, and ends up with a lengthy quest list for his troubles. It’s a good thing his journal keeps track of his tasks, accessible via an icon at the top right corner of the screen.
Among other objectives, a merchant named Fenwick engages Connor in a clever Quid Pro Quo. If Connor returns his chest, Fenwick will reveal what he knows about the situation. Finding it means venturing out and wandering around in a dangerous forest, where he’s bound to encounter enemies in the form of creatures in red robes. A red dot at the top of the screen means that a random encounter is possible. When the dot is green, Connor is safe. When confronted by a foe, he usually has two choices; fight or flee. It’s impossible to escape an encounter once it has begun, but if you’re careful combat can be avoided if Connor leaves the current screen without colliding with his opponent. Be prepared, however, as sometimes fighting is inevitable, like an encounter at the bridge in the heart of the forest.
When battle occurs, you will see a new combat interface which presents a side view of Connor and his adversary, on a trail in the woods confronting each other with weapons drawn. The music quickens to emphasize the danger. The upper-left corner of the screen contains information on your opponent’s health, stamina, combat speed and demeanor, which can vacillate between normal and fast and angry and furious, respectively. When a fight lasts longer, it increases the likelihood of an enemy becoming furious, which means that their next attack will be more powerful. Watching the stamina meters is important; both Connor and his opponent can only attack when these are full. Fortunately, fighting is easy to grasp.
Connor’s combat menu is located at the lower left-hand corner of the screen. It contains information on his health, stamina, and the actions he may undertake. These include attacking (which damages the enemy), Bolstering Call (which temporarily bolster’s Connor’s defense), Hero’s Fury (a special attack which uses Connor’s stamina, to increase his attack power), and finally, the option to drink a healing potion, if available. It will restore a third of Connor’s total health points. If his stamina depletes, he won’t be able to attack. The lower-right corner of the screen contains a damage meter which conveys the result of actions during combat. If a skull appears by the shield block button, your adversary is about to launch an attack; press it quickly to block enemy attacks. If you lose, Connor will die, and the game ends.
Combat is a frequent occurrence, so it's important to stock up on healing potions. They are available from Fenwick for 25 gold pieces per potion. Connor starts the game with two of them, and if he is observant, he may find more. The bridge south of town is a good place to look. If you win during combat, Connor automatically searches the body. If he is injured, you can direct him to drink water from his waterskin to heal himself. He even keeps track of how many times he can use this before it needs a refill. He can refill it at any source of clean water.
It takes two or three successful encounters for Connor to level up. You can also do this more slowly by training with the dummy at Wolfgang’s cabin. When he gains a level, you have the choice of whether you want to increase his health, attack power, or defense power by one. His statistics can be accessed using the stats button at the upper-left corner of the screen. This shows his current health stats and how long it will take him to reach the next level. Increasing stats helps prepare for the final confrontation at the climax of the story. I chose to spread the points out among the three options. The fights were manageable if I had healing potions. As Connor's skills increase, his fights become easier.
Exploration reveals that Fenwick’s chest was captured by Goblins. They’re too numerous to fight, but a conversation with Philip the fisherman reveals what is needed to deal with them. After doing Philip a favor, Connor might be able to prevail upon the fisherman’s expertise to help him solve the problem. Fishing is accomplished through a minigame in which the left mouse button must be clicked at the proper time. It’s easy to tell when that time has arrived, and like real fishing it takes a small bit of reflexes. Connor never loses his bait, so he can keep fishing until he’s successful, and you can do so as much as you like. If Connor needs money, Philip will buy his catch for one gold coin per fish. I thought fishing was very frustrating because of my lower-than-average manual dexterity.
Fenwick’s chest quest is typical of the kind you’ll undertake in Phoenix Tales. The objectives are logical and fit the plot as you begin to learn why Northern Cross is deserted and attempt to stop the responsible party. Voice acting isn’t present, but if the text is read carefully – a task made slightly more complicated by the cursive-like font – the solution will present itself. Once Connor returns Fenwick’s chest, Fenwick sends him to the forest, where there are no sounds of birds or other animals, and I missed their presence. This sets off another fetch quest to find skulls, which involves purchasing a map and reforging Connor’s sword with the help of Wolfgang, the blacksmith, whose cabin is a short way outside of town.
The second skull reveals a message that compels Connor to partner with Wolfgang, who then becomes a second playable character. During combat, Wolfgang has his own set of skills: Agility Attack, which damages the opponent, severing strike, which causes less damage but uses less stamina, Berserk Assault, which uses stamina to increase his attack strength, and Perry, which uses stamina to strengthen his defense. I enjoyed the dialog between the two men, which became more familiar over time and gave me the feeling that their partnership was growing through their shared experiences. Eventually, after collecting a third skull, they learn about the origin of the creatures, who are called the Mindless Ones, and devise a plan to defeat their leader, Magnus, in combat. Connor and Wolfgang take turns fighting him and two of his magically empowered servants, one at a time, with Connor and Wolfgang splitting the two servants between them. Connor fights the first servant, and Wolfgang takes the other. After vanquishing them, Connor duels Magnus in an epic finale. Be sure to save some healing potions for Magnus since he’s stronger than his servants.
Unfortunately, Phoenix Tales doesn’t weave its adventure and role-playing elements together as well as Quest for Glory. Both are necessary to complete the game, but only because Connor needs to be at level four or above to use his repaired sword to complete a puzzle. No further abilities are acquired or improved through anything but combat, and Connor’s skills don’t affect the other challenges he faces en route to the end. This is disappointing because it limits the replayability and customization that were strengths of its progenitor. If you like games where combat, graphics and sound bolster a simple story, Phoenix Tales will be a fun game to play and well worth the eight or so hours it’ll take to finish.
