Zenonia 3 Review: Classic RPG Gameplay on Android

Zenonia 3 is the third installment in Gamevil's retro RPG series. The story follows Chael (the son of the original Zenonia hero) and his fairy friend Runa as they find themselves caught in an "epic" battle between angels and demons in the middle realm of Midgard.

In Zenonia 3 you can find everything you'd expect in a typical role-playing game, including tedious quests, in-depth character customization, and a rather detailed--if somewhat clichéd--storyline.

Like other RPGs, it initially asks you to choose a character class. You can be a balanced melee fighter, a slower but more powerful melee fighter, a ranger, or a spellcaster. You start out with random character stats, but throughout the game you can upgrade and customize your character. In addition to improving various skills and stats, you can upgrade your equipment.

Gameplay is simple. You use three on-screen buttons: a virtual joypad, an action button, and a "switch" button for cycling through your quick-inventory slots. You can move the transparent buttons around the screen to suit your personal preferences, too; although that flexibility is nice, the joypad is still a little too large and occasionally gets in the way.

Battling enemies in Zenonia 3 is extremely easy and requires little to no actual skill. Much of fighting involves turning your character in the approximate direction of your enemy (sometimes you don't even have to do that) and tapping the action button repeatedly. Although this makes the game a bit smoother--needing too much accuracy or skill can be a downer in mobile RPGs--it does make gameplay somewhat boring.

Many of your enemies will drop items, such as weapons, armor, and potions. You can equip weapons and armor, and put other items in your quick-inventory slots for easy access.

Zenonia 3 is a free, ad-supported game for Android, and (thankfully) no ads are visible during gameplay. The only real issue I have with Zenonia 3 is the storyline: It's drawn out and unimaginative, and the cutscenes are frequent and an absolute pain to click through. Multiple cutscenes play in a row, and you'll need to press the Skip button each time to get through them. Not a huge deal, you might think--but it's definitely an issue considering that the game is otherwise very well done.