Memes – that was the legacy of the infamous Nintendo licensed Zelda titles on the Philips CD-i. Not surprising, really, since both Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon were not very good games. But they did have bizarre and unconventional visual style, especially for their animated cutscenes, all of which became a popular source of the “YouTube poop” videos that used to be insanely popular in the late 2000s. So it’s interesting, how many people grew up knowing these titles, without ever playing them. Back in 2020 Seth Fulkerson (also known as Dopply) created unofficial remasters of both games running on GameMaker and featuring a lot of improvements that turned those titles into something that was at least playable and less frustrating. Those remasters, for legal reasons, are not available anymore so instead Dopply decided to create a game that would serve as a spiritual successor to those bizarre titles. And in doing so, managed to create a game that is genuinely enjoyable.
Since most people know the CD-i Zelda games only for their cutscenes, most do not know that the titles played as 2D side scrolling platformer action adventures. You usually have access to one or more locations you can run and jump around, killing enemies, and in those locations you might come around certain blockers. Some could require a use of an item one can buy from a shop with the currency dropped by killed enemies. Some require finding specific permanent upgrades. And some items are used as, essentially, quest items that NPCs on levels may want, who, in turn, provide progress. Due to this structure, the ability to “fully finish” the level isn’t guaranteed on your first visit and you would regularly need to go in and out of levels in search of the “correct” progression. Which is a fun concept for an exploration focused game if the main gameplay is good, but that’s where the CD-i games horribly failed as playing them was miserable.
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore takes the exact same approach with how it builds its progression, but on top of that makes the core gameplay actually fun. Not great by any means – this game cannot compete with any competent action platformers with its combat or character controls. But it makes everything “good enough” to be enjoyable, and let the process of exploring the world and doing quests for bizarre characters really fun.
Meeting said characters leads to the fantastically odd animated cutscenes in the style of the CD-i games. That still somewhat remind of the works of Robert Sahakyants, except done with Paint. And it’s glorious. Visual presentation in general manages to perfectly evoke the vibe of an strange cheap “plug and play” console with unlicensed games, but unlike those it manages to look good and not ugly, just slightly off in an endearing way. Same can be said about a very simple, yet really charming soundtrack that might not land into your casual playlist after playing, but fits the style of the game perfectly and is instantly hummable.
The game does have a few odd decisions and weaker levels that start reminding of its main inspirations in a bad way for a little bit. And it may have moments from time to time where it’s hard to remember or figure out what your next destination should be. The PC settings are also somewhat limited and I can only hope that this won’t lead to some potential issues with the future hardware. But in general the title is highly enjoyable and extremely fun to explore. If you like games that focus on exploration, you’ll probably like Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore. And if you’re here just for the memes, there is an easier difficulty that might be enough to get you through the game providing a good dose of laughter and smiles.