Tanzia is an action RPG in which you are tasked with discovering why your grandfather disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Learn more about this one in our Tanzia review!
Once you gain control of the protagonist a control set up screen pops up showing you how the controls work. You can use a combination of touch screen controls and buttons for a variety of things, and you also have the hotbar which is ten squares at the bottom of your screen where you can add stuff to be ready to go – playing on Portable or Tabletop mode is great since you can use the touchscreen for this. But if you’re playing with the game docked, or even when playing on the go, you can use the L and R buttons to move around the hotbar. The ZL button is for target locking, while the Y button is for melee attacks, and you can jump with the B button.
The game world has many totems which will replenish your health and also act as save points, but you can also manually save the good old-fashioned way if you want to. In order to access the map, your quest journal and everything else you need to hit the Plus button, which is not mentioned in the control set up screen – the Plus button also acts as the pause button. Your map will show you where you need to go by placing an X marker on your objective.
The magic you use in the game is known as Arcana. You will start off with just three arcana spells, but as you progress in the game you will get a chance to learn a lot more. Each spell you use on enemies will cost you some mana, which is shown just below your health bar, in blue. If you’re running low you can replenish your mana, and your health, at a totem. But if you’re not close to a totem you will need to use your melee attacks, which are helpful but definitely not as good as using spells.
You need to be careful when you go into battle since enemies that are passive will go agro as soon as you hit one of them. Making a bunch of enemies go agro at the wrong time could spell doom for you since they could quickly overwhelm you if there’s one too many attacking you at once. Every enemy you defeat will reward you with experience which, as expected, will allow you to improve your character.
The flow of the story is slightly on the slow side, but thankfully the game has a play, pause, fast-forward, and rewind feature, which is a huge plus since the game seems to switch screens for its comic book style cut-scenes a bit on the slow side. That’s the one complaint I have for the game’s story since, other than that, it is well-written and interesting. But who knows? You might feel that the story flow is just right.
The open world in Tanzia is bigger than you initially think it is, and you can see how the team certainly drew inspiration from the 3D entries in The Legend of Zelda series for this single-player release. There are plenty of areas to explore in the colorful and beautiful locations you will visit during your adventure, and you will get to search for some collectibles here and there which will extend your time with the game.
Tanzia is a good game on Nintendo Switch, with polished and colorful graphics, a solid story and plenty of content to enjoy. It pays homage to the open world design of games such as World of Warcraft, and the gameplay mechanics and feel of the 3D entries in The Legend of Zelda series (pre-Breath of the Wild), for a game that in the end does its own thing and that you should definitely check out on Nintendo Switch.
Disclaimer
This Tanzia review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Arcanity Inc.
