Time to Play: Elements of Arkandia

I thought of Dragon Quest and nostalgia'd hard.

Elements of Arkandia, released just YESTERDAY, is by a little online game publisher known as Armor Games. You may have heard of them, or at least one of their games:  Achievement Unlocked 1 & 2, Crush the Castle, and Portal (the Flash version.)  All of their games are free-to-play on their website.



Their newest game (EoA) is pretty damn good.  It's as if someone took Puzzle Quest, mixed it with a hint of Diner Dash, and then boxed in a big box of books about learning to be debt-free. It's fun to play and has a pretty original concept.  Although the story line seems to be a bit.... off.

To start off, you're a kid whose father is a powerful wizard, and he's going away on a trip.  While he's out, he wants you to run his store!  Yes, you help run a wizard's store.  In order to stock your store, you need to go on adventures and kill different monsters/people/things.

That's where the combat comes in.  It's a bit like Puzzle Quest, where you match gems Bejeweled-style and whichever gems you match are added to your mana, money, or treasure.  If you match three "Rage" icons, it fills your "Rage" sword-thing and you click it to attack the enemy.  Simple enough, right?

They also have little witty one-liners.

You also have magic attacks which use up your "mana."  I call it mana, but it's a bit like elements that you collect:  ice, fire, poison, and electricity.  After you use a combination of regular attacks and magic, you can lower the opponent's HP to zero and claim victory!  Now, if you have collected enough treasure chests you get a magic item, depending on what the level says.

A winner is you!

You can either equip these items or sell them in your shop.  After selling them, you can buy more items, spells, and upgrades.  But that's not all there is to the game.

You also have to pay off your debt.  Why do you have a debt? They don't really explain, but I guess you had to take out a loan to open up your store.  So, hopefully you'll have enough money to break even.

I wonder if they'll repossess it?

Overall, the game is really fun and really addicting, but there's a bit too much going on at one time.  If it was spread out evenly, and there was a better story line besides you running the store, it'd be a much better play.
I give it 2.5 out of 4 mushrooms.

I was in no way compensated for this review.  I decided to do it on my own free will during my free time.  To play this and other games by Armor Games, visit their website at www.ArmorGames.com.