Zengeon

first time playthrough on easy and finish the game with the male hero .
first stage was fun. you can dodge , facing enemies horde. everything was fine. You thought this is good.
Until you got into second stage where the difficulties suddenly spiking high. You face laser-spitting-enemy with very quick frame startup and you realize that your dodge has a slow cooldown, your life has been drained by 70%. i'm starting wondering this game designed to kill you in the middle game

third final stage, enemies with bigger size will surround you and dealing ton damage. Your chance of survival was slim. dodge becomes useless. Well i chose to build my enhancement generally on health recovery when hitting enemies with skill from the start, so nothing is problem for me

all boss require patience. the pattern is easily understood. if you died when fighting boss, means you are not patient enough or probably you are overly confident on your build.

your recovery items has limitation usage.
you can only add the usage qty by sacrificing another item. 1 item equal to 1 usage

Really fun little action RPG.
Not a whole lot in terms of variety, but it's still a heck of a lot of fun to play!

Absolutely love the visuals and the anime-esque vibes.

This game is really hard, struggling to get far in it. Nice graphics, smooth gameplay. Hack and slash sort of game

This game has a very interesting premise
it's a shame the concept in it is not structured neatly so it makes players uncomfortable
like too few recovery items
and coop which backfires

Its is a fun game, but I got it to play with my friend, and then we found out that the online is complete TRASH! Constantly fails to create rooms, and joining each other's rooms would be near to impossible because the menu is so unintuitive. Devs clearly abandoned the game so theres no point in buying it. Dont give them money when they dont care to give you quality.

I get the feeling this game is a lot more fun in co-op, but in single player its a decent quality roguelike. Five characters, two difficulty settings, and it looks like lots of build options. Problem is that the dungeons are pretty uninteresting, there are only four or five basic enemies plus the bosses, and the controls are wonky - I believe most animations can't be cancelled, so if you swing and want to turn around or dodge you have to complete the swing animation before anything happens. This makes the controls just feel really terrible.

Apart from that issue it hits all the right notes of a short roguelike, but there are better roguelikes to play. Still, not a bad title to get on sale.

Really can't recommend the game.

Most of the game is good to be honest except one thing. How the core gameplay of a rougelite is handled.

I personally had no issues with controls or anything and the art, story, characters, etc were at least good. But the core gamplay loop was lackluster. Usually in this type of game it takes quite a few runs to even get through a boss since that's the nature of the genre but I fully beat the game on one character my first time through.

Now the 3 real issues with the gameplay:

1: The character progression is boring, grabbing whatever the upgrade stones are called let's you improve one of your abilities but unlike most games in the genre it doesn't give options to augment how they work, it's just a straight damage up until it hits the max allowed.

2: The Item/artifacts in the game are again boring, you have 4 types. % chance trigger on hit, % chance trigger when hit, % health healed when specific element/ability hits and % increased specific element damage. It's all always worth picking up but adds nothing to the actual gameplay of the game. Because the % chance to trigger on hit items deal their damage based off the move that triggered them you're better off just kiting and hitting with your strongest move when you can and hope for triggers. It works on everything in the game.

3: The permanent progression in game seems to be items you pick up over the course of playing a character (up to 4 it seems) and they are just boring small number increases like 3% chance to crit and that type of stuff)


And then according to some people on the forum the game seems to be abandoned so any hope it get's better seems iffy unfortunately. So I didn't expect it to be Hades or Children of Mortia levels but the core gameplay could have at least hit the same quality as the rest of the game (the artwork, characters, etc)

Fairly basic action RPG with rogue-like mechanism of permadeath and random upgrades. You have a choice of 5 different characters each with 4 unique skills, and mostly go around hacking and slashing monsters clearing area to the next one. There is a generic backstory about good vs evil in passable English translation consisting of a few lines of dialogue, which can be completed in a few hours of play. The levels look nice graphically and there is variety in the items and upgrades (the usual + hp %, crit %, damage %). However, I do wish the environment to be more destructible. There is also a co-op mode for friends to join in.

This game reminds me of a watered down version of Hades (an excellent RPG based on Greek mythology with rich story) based on Oriental theme. Overall, Zengeon feels like it could have been much more than it is, if given more details and depth. I will give it a yes, as it is hard for me to find a real fault with this game, but get it only if you are feeling bored and happen to find this game on sale.

Graphics are very cute and beautiful. but the control system is so bad, there is a delay after attack, I can't dodge the attack from a distance except or can't run out of range of the enemy's self-explosion after death after the character finishes the attack attack for a period of time. i have been playing this game for more than 2 hours and still can't get through stage 2 with easy mode.

Unfortunately, I can't fully support picking up this game. I picked this game up right around it's release date, and while it seemed to have it's mix of bugs and translation issues, It was overall a fun game. However I picked it up today, and the game still seems to have the same bugs and issues that it had during it's initial release. I think the game is very interesting, I liked the art style and the different abilities of each character, but during my most recent playthrough my controller input just suddenly dropped and I wiped instantly. This is not the first time this has happened in this game, and while i played multiple other times with no issues, for that to happen especially in this type of game, can really ruin the experience. I 100% think the game can be very fun, but it's also not a game I would recommend b/c of potential bugs and it's price which still remains even though it's been out for quite a while now.

If Hades is a 9-9.5/10 this game is a solid 7-8/10 depending if you like anime style roguelikes. The graphics are charming, combat feels smooth enough, plenty of characters to play. There seems to be some customization locked behind some grind tho, and the story is pretty basic.

This is one of the better games in the genre, but far from the best.

All that being said, it is $10 full price, and probably less on deal, so keep that in mind as well.

Zengeon is an isometric action roguelike game with anime aesthetics. Kinda reminds me of Hades, but not as hectic, it is probably because I went through it on easy mode for my first 3 hours.

You will play as one of five characters with different skills and playstyle, I am not invested enough to remember their names, but first two characters that is unlocked by default are your standard sword wielding melee character and a ranged one. The other three must be unlocked by progression.

As with any other roguelike games, your characters growth throughout the stages will always be different because of the procedurally generated maps and item drops. The core gameplay is simple, play through increasingly difficult stages, kill all enemies to earn xp and gold, spend the gold to buy item chests that contains two random items--you can only pick one, the other will disappear--or buy experience chests instead. At earlier stages you probably gonna get enough gold to buy item and exp chests, but later as you progress it is more like a choice--do you prioritize buying item in exchange for being underleveled, or vice versa. The level difference is about 3-4 levels when I reached the first stage of final boss, with me picking more of item chests than exp chests. Still manageable, but still it was probably because I was playing on easy mode.

The combat is fun,--tight, fast paced action with very good and smooth animations and visual effects that is enjoyable to look at. Like I said before it kinda reminds me of Hades, but Hades is a lot more tighter and really demands your concentration. Just watch the trailer and you'll get the idea of how combat flows in game.

Enemy varieties is kinda lacking, most of the time it is like the same enemy but different skins. It is still fun though, but there's one enemy that I find very inconsistent---any spider enemies are like very odd, most of the time their attack's damage connects before the animation does, so it's kinda frustrating. They also hit quite hard.

Bosses are not that hard but still challenging. If there's anything that I can recommend playing this game is to ALWAYS PICK ITEM THAT INCREASE MOVEMENT SPEED because it is very crucial for some boss fights.
I think some items are only available when you play as certain characters but movement speed increase is totally important.

When it comes to graphics, if any of you are familiar with Honkai Impact 3 this game is kinda like that game in graphics department, but with lower overall quality. Or maybe it is more like Elsword Online, but with slightly better graphics. I can't come up with better comparison, sorry.

Character designs are fine, I always dig fantasy themed games with modern or urban settings. I'm gonna skip the male character just because.
The 4 girls are like:
1. An introvert version of Chiaki from Danganronpa 2; this one is the default ranged character you get from the beginning;
2. Your usual, loli looking witch girl with twintails; haven't played this character so I can't comment yet;
3. Your typical bob haired genki girl; most of her attacks are slow but have a wide arc, up to 360 degrees.
4. The sexy onee-san type. Haven't unlocked her so I can't comment.
Aaaand I still dig the character design though. For the time being, every character has 4 different skins, with one as a default skin. You can get the summer costumes for free, so grab them while still available.

The thing that I also found lacking is voice acting. This game will be much better if they add more voice acting other than when the character dodges or gets hit.
Music department is about the same. The music is okay but it doesn't loop, so it's like the music just end, some brief silence after and the music just repeats from the start.

English translation is still kinda rough on the edges. Story is negligible, there's not much to it. Or maybe I never actually paid attention, but still story is negligible. Maybe if they add more CG cutscenes or voice acting it would add some meat to it. Also, If you want better English translation, someone actually made a mod for it.

The game is playable with single player mode or co-op multiplayer mode. Haven't played the co-op mode but it seems that you can't play with random players. But then again this game is kind of hidden, obscure game so I don't think the playerbase is high enough to justify random player matchmaking.

All in all, you get what you see, it's a solid fun game worth the price. Recommended if you have some spare time to kill, aaand yeah you can quit mid-game and resume it later so it's perfect.

Zengeon is a small title by independent Chinese developers. However, its quality shines through its imperfections.
It's a very particular hack and slash game which uses more MOBA-like controls and systems (such as cool-downs on special moves) and adds a rogue-lite formula in which you will have to start over upon death, but some special items called "Story Props" will remain with you throughout the runs.
The game is small, with not many levels that aren't quite big; but it compensates for it with huge amounts of fun. Combat is fast, enemies are varied and plentiful, and there are many abilities and items to use. Even though cool-downs are in place, these are pretty short, and combined with the huge amount of enemies this results in a really high paced combat that keeps you on the edge from very early levels.
Aesthetically, it's a really colourful game with anime style characters and a clear influence from their national aesthetic in terms of architecture as well as item and enemy designs, which always have a Chinese folklore aura to them.
It's not perfect though, as music is lacking and the English translation is poor; but this does not take much at all away from the enjoyment.
Overall, the game is a blast to play. And being able to play it with friends just multiplies the fun.

Zengeon is a game that feels like it could have been a lot more than what it actually was, the premise is there, the characters and enemies look great, the abilities and items are all fun but the game is a mixture of too easy on the base difficulty and too hard to do on your own on hard yet still too easy on hard even with just one extra player dood.

The story is one scene at the beginning, a few lines here and there as you walk but you barely notice them as you are typically fighting a small horde and then a couple of scenes at the end, the story being called bare bones would be a rather large understatement, especially seeing as the variation between each character is pretty much void really as it pertains to the exact same thing each time dood.

Other than that the game is fun enough, it could use more abilities to add some extra combat variety and they could either make item/relic skills limited in number but usable always or make them infinite use but somewhat difficult to charge to 100%, maybe with a cooldown too, the rest of the items are perfect, they do what it says on the label and have some fun variety and uses to them dood.

To end things all I can say is it's not a bad priced game for what you're getting, maybe that's why it's so short, it's a fun game with decent visual flair that will keep you entertained for a short while, I hope to see the devs do more games like these but maybe put more into them overall next time, this feels more like a single roguelike stage in what should have been 5 - 6 with story arcs in each one, fun for a casual run with a friend for sure dood.

To be clear, this is a Roguelike: permadeath, no saves, no checkpoints, random/generated levels, etc. The advancement/drops are somewhat ARPG-like: you don't get new weapons/moves but rather just upgrade the ones you start with, and add some passives; but that's it re RPG aspects.

All in all, it's a fun romp. The graphics are well-done, and the manhua style is a refreshing change from the usual japanese and western styles. The basic play loop is extremely straightforward (go to next room, clear it out, repeat), but the gameplay keeps it from feeling too repetitious. Though the controls can be a bit flaky (definitely use a controller if you can), nevertheless the combat design is also well-done: each of the characters plays very differently, each character supports a variety of tactics/styles, and you can do some nice mixups. Indeed, even though there's only a small variety of individual enemies, there's a lot of variation in the mobs, so you'll often find yourself switching between a handful of tactics depending on what the mob is like. Plus, they support OSX; which is a big deal for me.

The biggest cons are:
- Keyboard controls can be flaky. Definitely not the worst I've encountered, but enough to be annoying whenever some rando mob manages to stunlock you to death
- the English translation is extremely rough. It's the standard grammatical mistakes for Chinese speakers, so if you're used to talking with Chinese folks then it won't be a problem. But it makes me sad since I know how off-putting that is for most English speakers. (Fwiw, other than the intro there's not much text; so it's no impediment to playing.) (Also fwiw, if the developers are willing to reach out to me, I enjoy the game enough that I'd volunteer some improved translations :)

Writing this review from an almost 2 hour session and after finishing a single story run in an online party. Did a few single-player runs before that but the game is pretty basic that I feel confident enough to write a description/review of the game in it's current state.

I would start with a list of pros but most if not all of my points are very subjective and I can't really pinpoint any one pro that the game may have regardless of personal opinion; it's that kind of game.

Cons:
- Controls feel clunky and in some places not even functional, would advice using a controller as it doesn't seem optimized for Mouse and Keyboard.
- Combat feels a bit floaty if not flimsy and there seems to be a very short stutter in the movement/animation even when you're playing on single-player.
- Engrish at it's finest with some weird big spaces in between words that use apostrophes; for the most part understandable but it could definitely use some work if not polish.
- UI and navigation feel a bit simplistic with little options to customize your graphic or game settings.

It's a rogue-like so if you're familiar with the genre and like it, you'll most likely find yourself at home. The best game I could think of to compare it to would be Risk of Rain, you pick a character who comes with 4 abilities; typically an auto-attack move, a mobility/avoid move and then 2 cooldown skills for AoE or heavy duty; and that's all you get. You progress through the game by killing mobs from map to map with a boss battle at the end of a map theme which is usually after 3-4 maps. Along the way you collect XP to gain levels, and gold to open shrines/chests which reward you a choice of two items which give you passive direct buffs for your character or special effects that trigger on your attacks/skills. Items can drop from certain mobs besides bosses with a few secrets to be found here and there. And those are essentially your lifeline to survival and godhood like in most rogue-likes.

From my first impressions, single-player seems to be a big kite-fest cause your survivability early on is rather dreadful without the necessary items. Online co-op definitely seems to a lot more enjoyable, but because of the mass spam of AoE/skills and the ability to revive others it hardly becomes a challenge at all. On that note, Steam achievements all seem to be for single-player if anyone cares for that.

* Overall the game looks decent if you're into this kind of art-style, with solid animations and effects.
* Music consists of one track per map theme, played on a loop with a different track for the boss.

I'm sure there's a lot more to this game if you care to explore and are not too bothered by some of it's questionable features. But I would emphasize the fact that it is a rogue-like and not an aRPG. If that's what people are looking for, it can definitely serve for some good hours of fun. My personal overall impression on how the game currents plays and feels, it comes across a bit 'cheap' in terms of quality and one could probably get better rogue-likes for a similar price-tag but it's definitely nothing too unreasonable if the devs give the game more care and polish as they said they would.

I may pick it up again in a later state after some improvements and update this review accordingly but for I'll leave it on a positive note in saying that it's decently fun if you're into it's core genre.

I just cannot believe this one has so many positive reviews, so misleading.

The game DOES have promise, but in its current state, its nearly unplayable. The controls are VERY awkward and ignoring the weird laggy/stutter effect and yanky controls, it makes the game difficult. A simple 'common' control setup with k/b+m would have been simple to implement (IE: left click to move or basic attack, shift click = attack without moving, r-click and 1-4/qwerasdf for skills, etc) but the left click for skill and right click to move was just.. weird. If that was the ONLY thing i'd be fine, tbh, but added to the rest just makes this a pass.

The 2nd huge issue, that is sort of a 'other side of coin' for the above, is the fact the 'controller' option does not work, regardless what I do, this game simply does not even detect any input from the controller. (But controller DOES work, as it is able to open steam big picture, and works, as expected, in overlay and in every other game tested.) If the controller DID work, the above 'issue' would be all but moot.

The other issue, that I mentioned above, is that it always feels like its 'laggy' when its not, skills slow to execute, character seems to 'glitch' and get locked in place for a few seconds, skills misfire or simply do not work, etc.

I will re-review this game in a while, but for now I uninstalled and will wait for a few months to see if its updated much.

Will say that the 'look' of the game (not considering kinda mugish translating, which is to be expected) is really nice, and good to see an anime contender in this game style.

Sort of wish that progress was saved too, considering you level up and collect gear, I sort of expected this to have a diablo/torchlight vibe to it with persistent characters, but having to 'restart' the story each time is sort of a bleh thing.

For now I cannot recommend this (when issues are fixed and a little more dev work has been done, it may be. I hope it is, because I really wanted to enjoy this one.)

In general, it is a solid arpg / hack&slash / roguelike game, consider it's early access state.

Took me several rounds to understand how the game works.
Once you have free control of a character, the game starts to be very fun.
So try all of the characters first, until you find the handy one for yourself, then keep playing that charcter.
There is a long term growth of the character besides every single round growth.
And please try multiplayer co-op mode, you'll see how emersive the game is.

For sure the game needs more polish since it's not finished yet.
I definately want to see more updates on the game,
And I would love to see "revive prop" in the game if it's possible. XD

YES IT SUPPORTS GAMEPADS
Pick a character, start the level, and then click the gear icon in the top right. On that screen, you can select " joystick " in the bottom right. Analogue stick moves you, RB is action, A, B, X, Y are your skill keys. Works perfectly.

Now with that out of the way, here's how it plays -

You have a selection of characters to choose from, they all have different strengths and weaknesses, it details them on th eleft when you select them - for instance, the lolita girl uses dark magic, is strong, but has poor range. The Umbrella girl uses her umbrella for melee attacks, so she has no long range, etc.

I tried out a couple of them, and it's pretty fun so far. Plays like a rogue lite should, ranodm levels, map in the top corner - random powerups ( you find yinyang boxes in levels, you can select which powerup from them you wish to use )
You can also get powwerups from enemy drops.

Is the English perfect? NOPE! but it hardly matters when the meat of the game plays this well. The skills are easy to understand, it's just the story elements that suffer from the poor English translation ( but you won't care about that )

The visuals are nice , one thing I noticed when looking at the video file is the music seems to stop very quickly? Maybe it doesn't, but keep in mind this is an Early-Access title - so some things may be place-holders.

It's fun, very pretty, and it's got 4 anime waifus for you to play as ( and one guy, but eh.. he won't be used )

^^b recommended if you want an anime styled roguelite game that has tons of mobs to beat on :3

Actually a surprisingly good game. There are some things I'd consider as faulty, but that's expected given it's early access.

There are currently 5 characters you can choose from (4 females, 1 male), each one has 4 base abilities on which you then engage in a roguelike top down hack & slay. If you enjoyed HeroWarz (or Diablo III and anime style), this game surely is its money worth.

The only notable faults I encountered in my very limited playtime was the kinda off translation (but you still get the gist) and the fact that if you get caught by a single monster, you'll probably die because you get stunlocked by several more.

But in conclusion, give the game a shot, it's neat.