Operencia: The Stolen Sun shouldn’t be skipped. What is here is a wonderful RPG that is welcoming to veterans and newcomers alike. Because this is on Microsoft Game Pass there is absolutely no reason to not give this game a shot. There is absolutely something for everyone who enjoys RPGs.
Excellent old school RPG with great visual design. I played and bought it on Xbox first and then bought for Switch.. Looks and plays great on Xbox. Such an excellent title. On caveat: the beginning of the game for the first 20 min is not as good as the rest of the game. I realize it is hard to onboard people and provide a exciting tutorial, but once the player gets to the actual dungeon the game shines. Reminds me of a 2020 version of Wizardry and Bards Tale in some ways and really hope Zen makes a sequel as we need more great DRPGs on Xbox.. Thank you for making this game!
If you grew up playing dungeon crawlers classics like Wizardry, MIght and Magic World of Xeen and the like then you are in for a treat. They accomplished just what they set out to do a modernized experience of this type of game. Good combat mechanics and plenty of character customization. Your characters have interactions and backgorund stories which is something that early dungeon crawlers were missing and it makes the experience way better. All in all Zen delivered a great throwback rpg and I hope it is a great success because I would love to see more like it.
Operencia is a great dungeon crawling experience that you shouldn’t sleep on, especially if you’re a fan of the genre. While some of the mechanics and presentation are a little hit-or-miss, that shouldn’t scare you away from the unique world, memorable characters, and excellent combat that Operencia has to offer.
Operencia: The Stolen Sun took me by surprise and I’m going to have to start thinking of Zen Studios as more than just a great Pinball developer. It packs a decent story, memorable characters, robust combat strategy and challenge, a huge world and plenty of playtime. Currently in Xbox Game Pass, you’re able to try it out right now if you’re a subscriber, but even if not, I wouldn’t feel any guilt recommending Operencia even at its full $38.99 CAD price tag if any of the above sounded appealing to you. While it won’t be for everyone and has its quirks, it’s a specific game meant for old school dungeon dwelling fans like myself that miss the genre.
Operencia: The Stolen Sun should appeal to a range of gamers: fans of well made, turn-based RPGs and anyone looking for a budget title that hasn’t compromised graphics or mechanics will also appreciate it. The game doesn’t take a lot of chances but there is plenty of depth and replayability in its character leveling and crafting systems and while it may seem easy in the first few hours, combat difficulty increases and the puzzles become challenging as the game progresses.
Operencia: The Stolen Sun is an extremely solid dungeon-crawler. Each labyrinth runs the gamut of ferocious monsters and confounding puzzles that fans of the genre crave. Fights tend to be repetitious and suffer from rough pacing, but the battle system is clearly thought-out and enjoyable to master. The array of options, from party-building to difficulty customization, allows for someone to carve out their own identity. It's also nice that the cast is quirky and endearing. Even the avatar will commentate on the situation, rather than stew in silence like so many other blank slates. This makes for an adventure that's amusing in every respect.
Luuthian's review sums it up perfectly, the game is a fun yet midly hard dungeon crawler.
I loved the secrets and key hunting as much as I loved everything you could do with each character. Each stat has a particular importance that you can't ignore, you have many possibilities of gameplay (be it counter-attack, double hit, tank, heavy hitter, bruiser, solo hitter, healer, buffer, control or striker) with each of the playable characters.
I spent over 150 hours in it, it never bored me as you have a lot to try out. The only bad parts may be the laggy maps like the Forest or Attila's tomb, the slow pace of the game and the annoyingly fast and heavy-hitting succubus on exploration parts. But every other part is purely based on the player taste
Perfect dungeon crawler throwback!
- The game has adjustable difficulty options and is far more accessible which, at least in my eyes, also makes it way more fun.
- Zen's done a great job of making the game extremely controller friendly.
- Character development's well thought out and there's a ton of combinations to explore.
- Story's weak and character/enemy names are a mouthful. Dialog is all skippable though. But I appreciated the cheesy banter between your characters as you explored the dungeons all the same. There's no pause, you can keep exploring as they talk which is genius.
- Combat's fun and straight forward. I appreciated that the combat was turn based, yet fast, and that there was no real time system where you constantly felt pressured as things attacked you
Honestly this isn't what I was expecting. This is a serious, solid effort. There’s some warts like the weak story, some generic 2D art, etc. But it doesn’t detract from the core gameplay. Apparently there's more to Zen than just being "the pinball company." It's pretty clear they've got talent for this. Hopefully we'll see this game on other platforms down the road so everyone gets a chance to see it.
Very good rpg game. It has a great story / plot. Exploration process is cool. Very limited movement. On the downside: the graphics are very weak, could improve a lot!
Operencia is a lot of fun exploration through a really creative world, but it sadly relegates itself to a "casual" game due to one broken mechanic--it's too easy to rest and recharge your characters. All you need to recharge all hit points and mana of your party is a piece of "firewood", and the game throws the stuff at you. Once you realize that, it kinda breaks the game. There's no reason to not just spam your biggest spells in every fight, and even worse, there's no real reason to resort to melee combat at all, which does far less damage. This game was obviously aiming to be a friendlier version of Grimrock, but they went too far and drained it of all tension or sense of survival. What's left is nice scenery, and combat that feels like you're using a cheat code. I played on "normal" difficulty, and there was no way to switch mid-game, so maybe I missed the real challenge. But in any case, normal difficulty shouldn't feel like you've enabled a bunch of cheat codes.
Voici un jeu indé qui veut surfer sur la vague nostalgique des vieux débris de jadis... tels que les Might and Magic si ma mémoire est bonne ! il s'agissait d'un bien malheureux mélange entre un FPS et... des combats au tour par tour, le tout mâtiné de jeu de rôle évidemment.
Sauf qu'à l'époque, on avait choisi cette présentation par souci d'économie mais aussi pour des impératifs techniques... et sans doute une fainéantise certaine. En effet, en vue subjective, on s'épargne bien du boulot en termes de modélisation et de graphismes puisque les personnages ne sont pas là mais simplement résumés à leurs portraits.
Quoi qu'il en soit, du tour par tour en vue subjective, c'est aussi captivant que faire des réussites au Solitaire : c'est antinomique et complètement con. En dehors des combats, le chemin est bien balisé lorsqu'on se déplace sur les cases comme jadis, bien balisé et scripté. Les décors ne sont pas vilains même si l'aspect général reste trop lisse. Ce qui est très vilain par contre, c'est les "cinématiques", des petites animations flash en 2D et 3 couleurs au goût douteux.
L'interface est globalement perfectible mais c'est surtout le déplacement qui pose problème : tout se fait par à-coups, car la manette est mal calibrée : la zone neutre est énorme et l'accélération trop élevée. C'est juste horrible !
Enfin, dès le début du jeu, on vous casse les pieds (pour ne pas dire autre chose) avec des miroirs à aligner... putain mais avec une telle "maniabilité", c'est simplement insupportable ! et ça m'a soûlé direct.
Cette daube est tombée directement dans le Game Pass et on comprend pourquoi... Normalement ça coûte 30 boules quand même. Encore un indé foiré, du classique en somme.
SummaryZen Studios’ modern homage to classic first-person dungeon-crawlers takes you to the land of Operencia, an unconventional fantasy world inspired by a faraway land referenced in countless Central European folktales.