Like most people in the know, I've heard about the unholy triforce, the three Legend of Zelda games that wasn't made by Nintendo, but contracted out to Philips in a deal for when Nintendo looked for a CD-add on for the Super Nintendo that first lead to the creation of the Sony Playstation that would become their biggest rival and then the Philips CD-I, which pretty much went out and died as a game console. I think I saw the AVGN episodes on the CD-I first, then PeanutButterGamer, then Game Grumps (which I still watch from time to time) and then Pro Jared play through it. Why bring all this up? Because Arzette is a game that tries to recapture the feelings from those game. 2D action platformer with animated cutscenes. What I've seen Arzette is actually a much higher quality, both in graphics and gameplay.
Story is that 10 years earlier Arzette and her friend stopped Daiumur the evil demon lord, and trapped him in a book with the jewel of Faramore. Now, the traitourus Duke have gathered the Jewel and released Daimur and plunged the world in darkness. Arzette sets out once again to protect her kingdom and fight Daimur. And then you go around finding beacons to uncover new lands, find bosses that carry the pieces of the Jewel and helping people to boost your stats and such. Took less than 4 hours to finish the whole game (including 100%). Also finished Hero Mode which as I suspected was a bit frustrating, but it at least forced me to do things in right order since you just couldn't tank the damage or luck out on some kills. You pretty much needed the edge to finish certain parts of the games. That of course unlocks even harder modes and I think I will stop here since I play to have fun.
Overall it's kinda fun, both to see the nods to not only the Zelda-games, but also the Hotel Mario game with the bonus room where you close doors and such. It pretty much alludes to that Arzette is supposed to be Zelda, and her bard friend would be Link. Daimur is obviously Ganon, greenskin and all as well as references to his capture in the book like in the CD-I games. You also got the original voice actors for Zelda and Link from the CD-I games and they do a pretty decent job. I enjoyed playing it, never got difficult, but that could also be for me playing with health restores since I just couldn't be bothered. 100% also gives you a short little cutscene at the end with the book flipping the pages while a woman hysterically laughs. I assume a new enemy since Daimur got killed off. The end credits even spelled out that Arzette will return so I've got something to look forward to.
