Phantom of Zana

I could pull my usual nonsense where I write something ridiculously long, get sidetracked into a conversation with myself about how E.T. for the Atari 2600 was the only perfect video game ever made, and the world just didn't get it, but I won't because this developer did us all a solid, and gave us a seriously great game for free! There's something very unselfish, sweet, and even... dare I say "noble" about that. The one thing I understand about making games, is that if you're putting any effort, or care into it (even with a team of people), these things take forever to make! And this looks like quite a bit of thought went into it, so we're looking at 2-3 years (minimum) of someone's hard work, and they're like "here friend, this one's on the house"... as someone who despises most of humanity, I gotta tell ya, this almost makes me believe that we really could make the switch to a world where we don't live, kill, and die over silly green paper (if you're in the U.S. that is), and people like this will help us get there. Thanks... whatever your name is! I hope you continue making games with this level of quality, and get the recognition that you deserve!

Phantom of Zana é um jogo de aventura ao estilo antigo bem divertido... e grátis =X Seguem os pontos positivos e negativos: + Boa quantidade de fases; + Sistema de skills para melhorar seus status de preferência; + Variedade de fases e habilitades; + Música boa, estilo antigo (anos 80 talvez); + Bons controles, razoavelmente bem responsivos; + Grátis; + Divertido; - Embora tenha muitos monstros, o jeito que eles atacam não muda muito; - O boss final é.... estranho; - A história é bem tosca, embora seja levemente engraçadinha; No todo, é um bom jogo, muito superior a outros concorrentes pagos. RECOMENDO.

Very good platformer with pretty intense pacing. Humor is fun and story is intriquing, making you wonder what will happen on sequel. P.S.: Just in case you wonder about my playtime (why that much): I've set myself some tough challenges on my second and third runs.

☀️

Soooo.... eventually I get to write this. In the first moment Phantom of Zana feels like meeting an old childhood friend after you suffered from amnesia; everything feels natural and right but you cannot remember... it's like muscle memory without memory but in a pleasant way. So, you enjoy your time together until something begins to prickle in the back of your head. Some unpleasant feelings. You begin to press the wrong buttons or miss the right timing... but it's not that noticeable. Slowly you begin to understand how this game tricks and tortures you. How the difficulty of the platforming becomes frustrating and you lose all your money again and again while trying to master it; but by then it is already too late, 'cause you've fallen in love with this piece of pixels and numbers. <Congratulations>, you think to yourself, <you're now in a toxic relationship with this game!> You're addicted. You cannot stop playing and failing until you eventually will beat this level then the next. Every time you make it to the boss, you feel relieved as they're not stealing your money and are a lot easier than the platforming - thank goodness! So the hours pass and you suddenly realise, it's not torturing you at all - it's more of a mentor to you and that you are growing and improving your skills, getting better with (almost) each try! At this point you fall even more in love with it; if this is even possible and feel excited and sad at the same time when the credits start to roll.... In conclusion: Graphics're not excellent but not bad either. I loved the little versions of all characters but with the "big ones" I think Fania could be made better. So space for improvement :) . Also button mapping _is_ quite off imho. So often I took a potion instead of shooting and shoot instead of hooking... Loved it nonetheless <3 PLAY THIS GAME! IT'S FREE & IT'S FUN, IT SHOULD COST MORE :D Edit: After a second Playthrough: still great! The font inside the game / when credits roll became worse to read though. And it shows 0/3 playthroughs in steam :/ but still a good game!!! :D

Played through the first level. Surprised how fun this free game is. Well made so far, I appreciate the gameplay design. Looking forward to continuing it.