Illusia In-Depth Review

Sadly, the fact that the player’s onscreen avatar can only make use of one regular attack combination means that clearing waves of ordinary foes wears thin quickly. Angela’s and Arez’s skill trees alleviate the monotony because offensive skills require some strategy to use effectively, but new spells and sword skills become available just a tad slower than needed to keep combat consistently spicy. An ability to switch between the characters on-the-fly could have mixed things up nicely, but Illusia forces the player to stick with one or the other. By far the brightest spots in Illusia‘s combat are area boss battles, which feature enemy attack patterns sure to keep the player on his or her toes.

Illusia incorporates several challenge modes that can be accessed by speaking with a certain NPC in towns. Some of these require that the player have a ticket item on hand for the purpose. “Rush Mode” lets the player face off against wave after wave of attackers without all the niceties of complex environments getting in the way of the action; an Internet-enabled “Mission Mode” offers variations on this theme, tasking the player with racking up a certain number of attack combos or surviving as long as possible against an endless stream of foes. The most interesting distraction from the main game is the town auction house, which lets players put rare items they’ve collected up for sale and trade online in an eBay-style setup.

My temptation to plead for extra player actions aside, Illusia‘s user interface is, in a word, perfect. Not only is it brilliantly suited to platforming, but in terms of reliability Illusia‘s large semitransparent virtual buttons leave most overhead Action RPG interfaces in the dust of iOS history. Not to mention, each virtual button’s placement on the touchscreen can be moved to the player’s liking via the options menu. Shrewd level design and enemy placement complement Illusia‘s interface by keeping action toward the center of the touchscreen and away from the corners the buttons occupy by default. Instances in which this ideal circumstance breaks down are few and far between; once the player character strolls out of the touchscreen corner the virtual D-pad covers, it’s usually smooth sailing.

If Illusia has one Achilles’ heel that could possibly turn swaths of gamers off, it’ll be the cutesy aesthetic. Generous dollops of charm are laid on so heavily in every possible respect that some will no doubt find the game sickeningly sweet. Still, fans of Gamevil’s Zenonia franchise should be sufficiently inoculated and even seasoned gamers will appreciate the overall lushness of Illusia‘s environments, not to mention how fluidly animated all its characters and enemies are. Fans of evolving player character appearance will find themselves in some kind of heaven here as long as they don’t mind obsessing over miniature animal costumes and pieces of armor that might be one or two sizes too large for the heroic little’uns.

Illusia sports environmentally thematic tunes that might just grow on a lot of players over time. One can also silence the in-game music from the start menu and keep iTunes tracks playing, and given that a single track plays per village area in-game, Illusia is one of the rare titles for which this option really complements the onscreen action. The game’s sound effects work is of truly standout quality; moody interjections accompany the player character’s dialogue and purchases from village vendors are completed to the satisfying jingle of loose change.

In-App Purchases will strike the player as a bit nefarious given Illusia‘s mid-level Appstore price, but at least these are fairly nonintrusive, relegated to items available at “phone booths” that stick out like sore thumbs against each town’s medieval backdrop. A few paid content items can even be picked up from defeated foes in-game. The most noticeable use of In-App Purchases comes into play with the possibility of auto-reviving the player character should he or she be knocked out by an enemy attack. The character can also be revived at an experience point and gold penalty, but I say go with Choice C — just re-start the game manually, since its auto-save feature has proven extremely reliable in my experience. Doing so will most often cost the player just a few steps of progress with the exception of boss battles, during which game saves are disabled altogether.

iFanzine Verdict: Its combat mechanics could still be developed further for greater variation in battling run-of-the-mill foes, but Illusia‘s strengths clearly outweigh its few shortcomings. Its satisfying complexity in both the platforming and RPG arenas should appeal to fans of both genres — provided they’re willing to get in touch with their inner child.

Given its fuzzy wuzzy aesthetic, iOS-savvy parents might wonder whether Illusia is an obvious go-to title for little’uns who can hold an iDevice. Go for it, with the caveats that Illusiacontains mild cartoon violence and requires basic math skills, an appreciation for complex mazelike level structure, and quick reflexes. Do be forewarned about the possibility of accidentally triggering In-App Purchases at the game’s village phone booths.

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