Spoilers: I never did find out what a Zwei is.
“Zwei: The Arges Adventures,” called “Zwei!!” in Japan, was originally released in 2001 for PC, the PS2, the PSP in 2008. "Zwei!!" was later ported and localized in English for the 2018 PC release (the version played for this review).
Zwei was developed by Nihon Falcom, who is mostly known for their Ys and Legend of Heroes franchises. “Zwei!!” was published by Nihon Falcom and Taito for the PS2 and 2001 PC release, the latter being the original developer of Space Invaders.
Note: I got this game for free from a giveaway, which may impact my opinion.
A beautiful beginning
“Zwei: The Arges Adventures” opening is visually stunning, doing a great job of showcasing the adventure we're about to embark on. It feels drawn out but it only shows up once per playthrough, so it isn't a big deal.
The story is about Pokkle and Pipiro, who we can give custom names to. I named them Ace and Sakura respectively. However, I'll refer to them by their default names for this review.
They’re step-siblings that live in Puck Town on the floating continent of Arges. One day after class, they witness a mysterious man stealing their town’s idols. With Pokkle wanting to be a hero, and Pipiro wanting the $100,000 reward for retrieving the idols, they set out on their adventure throughout Arges
As they set out to the forest, the caverns, and for some reason a volcano, they’ll- OH MY GOD THIS GAME IS SO BEAUTIFUL!
The visuals hold up beautifully 20 years later. Puck Town, the dungeons, areas, and world map look gorgeous. I also love how the cutscenes have black bars to give a cinematic feel.
The music is amazing too, both the original and PSP arranged versions. The original has an acoustic feel that sounds cozy and nice, while the arranged version builds on a lot of the tracks by being longer and more in-dpeth
Puck Town (2001/2008), Floating Continent Arges (2001/2008), and Klopp Caverns (2001) are a couple of my favourites. Both the arranged and original can be switched at any time, a lovely option to have.
Good concepts but…
In "Zwei," Pokkle and Pipiro go through dungeon floors to find the staircase to progress. Along the way they fight enemies, find items, solve minor puzzles, and level up to become stronger.
Pipiro and Pokkle can both be played and switched between. Pokkle can do a distanced melee attack that homes in on the enemy when they’re close enough. Pokkle can also absorb magical projectiles to avoid damage, but only in a small spot in front of him.
Pipiro can shoot magic projectiles, giving her range. Pipiro is awful at first because of her slow projectile. However, that's where the Elemental Orbs come in. They give Pipiro new projectile types, such as a laser. Goes without saying, but this makes Pipiro extremely good and versatile.
The Elemental Orbs also let Pokkle shoot a projectile after absorbing a projectile, which gives him a ranged option. However, keep in mind that only one Elemental Orb can be equipped at a time.
Most enemies have elemental weaknesses and immunities. Even Pokkle and Pipiro can have elemental weaknesses depending on their stat-increasing equipment.
Both characters can also juggle enemies in the air and confuse enemies. Pokkle and Pipiro can also do critical hits, although I can’t tell if it depends on the luck stat or the bar right above the item bar at the bottom.
Pokkle and Pipiro also have a charged attack that does a lot of damage, and super moves such as Double Play and Triple Play (only if your pet is with you) that kill all enemies on-screen. They are activated when Pokkle has enough magic absorbed.
If you want, you can leave your pet at home where they go on wacky adventures like... Walking. But you can also make choices for them like... Which direction to walk?
Yeah, I’m not too big on the pet system. The time for choices are too short and can pop up at bad times, such as fighting a horde of enemies. The pet's adventures happen at the same time as Pokkle's and Pipiro's adventures outside of Puck Town.
On paper this most of this stuff sounds good, however "Zwei" doesn't execute its ideas well.
Enemies only require spamming attacks with the occasional magic absorption. Pipiro is actually too good with Elemental Orbs, leaving few enemies a chance to even pose a threat.
The same applies to bosses as well. There’s something seriously wrong when Diabolos, which means Devil in Greek, is a pushover.
Granted, healing items are limited to only those on the hot bar for boss fights, without warning the first time by the way, but it doesn’t make them less easy. The hot bar holds 12 items to quickly access, whether it’s items or equipment. Equipped equipment is put on the hot bar, meaning less room for healing items.
Double Play and Triple Play are obsolete since there’s no use for them for easy enemies. They don’t even work on bosses; they just recover all damage Double Play and Triple Play deal and they never die from the attack. This is likely for balancing, but still, WHY?!
Dungeons are usually beatable with only one Elemental Orb as most elemental immunities rarely pose a challenge. All the enemies feel the same despite having different weaknesses and immunities.
Although, it’s a different story if you try to get gold/platinum medals in the dungeons. Which means defeating all enemies, breaking all the pots, and taking minimal/no damage. Under these circumstances, the dungeons are extremely tough.
Going for the gold/platinum medals and reporting back to the fairy in Puck Town by dropping something in her area of the pond gives Pokkle and Pipiro a piece of new equipment when they get a gold/platinum.
It’s a nice reward and a good way to anger a fairy if that’s on your bucket list. Although, it’s not enough incentive to gold/platinum all the dungeons.
Besides, it doesn’t solve repeating certain dungeons over and over. Sometimes to grind, most of the time to get to other dungeons.
For example, to reach the dungeons deeper in the Pavel Garden, you must play through the level one dungeon again. However, you go to the Pavel Garden dungeons past the level one dungeon many, many times.
Unless you backtrack to do the other dungeons, which you shouldn't because of limited inventory spaces, you'll get sick of that dungeon like I did. The dungeon layouts, enemies, puzzles, and so on never change with each revisit. It makes the dungeons tedious and beyond boring.
The puzzles are simple but become egregious when you just want to get the dungeon done and over with. Nope, instead I must go through the same gate six times to progress because that’s good puzzle design?
The game even makes you do fetch quests which means leaving the dungeon, doing/getting the quest objective, then going all the way back through the dungeons again with respawned enemies. These are mandatory.
Furthermore, all because the enemies and bosses are easy, doesn’t mean the game can be breezed through. The level up system prevents that. Without being the proper level, some dungeons can annihilate you if your defence or attack isn't high enough.
Unlike other RPGs, Pokkle and Pipiro level up by eating food, a.k.a. Healing items. Each healing item has a set number of experience points when eating it. If ten of one type of healing item is collected, they can be traded for a healing item that gives more experience.
However, healing items aren’t found often enough. Dungeons in the beginning are so small, there simply isn’t enough food to get/hoard to get the good food items to level up efficiently.
Which means grinding or going into dungeons under leveled, my fffaaavvvoouurrriiittteee…
It’s a choose your poison scenario: either do repetitive and boring grinding or go under leveled which risks having a harder/unfair time in the game, which the game actively tells you not to do. Neither of these are fun.
Sometimes enemies drop money with massive balancing issues. You get too little to buy anything useful outside of bombs, but after you do buy all of the useful stuff by around level 10, there's nothing else to spend it on.
So, I just ended up hoarding the money with nothing to do with it. By the end of the game, my overall money was over the promised $100,000 reward.
They really could’ve killed two birds with one stone by letting the player buy food items. It solves not having to grind while letting players buy the food they need to naturally progress.
These are all great/fine concepts, but they're executed poorly. They just make “Zwei: The Arges Adventures” boring. The combat, dungeons, level up system, enemies, bosses, almost everything with its gameplay, it's all dull.
It also dampens any fun new game+ would have since, by the time I beat the game, I was sick of the gameplay. Why on Earth would I do all of these boring dungeons again?
While you keep your level and whatnot so you don’t have to grind, with other differences. I just see no reason to bother as someone who finds the gameplay dull.
I don’t want power; I want to be happy.
The weird part is that the final three dungeons are the best parts of the game. They're well-balanced with large experience-giving foods being frequent, enemies having elemental immunities that pose a challenge, dungeon repeating is rare, and grinding is never necessary if you explore.
The final boss is also the best part of the game. Unlike other bosses, Pokkle can only attack the boss with the projectiles he gets from absorbing magic with limited space to dodge. The fight can also be fought with Pipiro but she can't absorb magic.
Everything about this boss is perfect: the atmosphere, visuals, challenge, mechanics, strategy, and most of all, one of the best final boss themes I’ve ever heard and easily my favourite song in the original soundtrack. This might be one of my favourite final bosses in a video game, no joke.
The last fifth of the game leaves a very good last note, but the rest of my notes say, “game bad.” One amazing fifth doesn't erase the other lackluster four fifths of the game.
The Fun
It would be a lie to say "Zwei" is devoid of fun. It’s very fun to interact with other characters and things, not because said characters and things are interesting, but because of the protagonists themselves.
Pokkle tells a bunch of puns while Pipiro has no manners. They're hilarious and loveable. However, they know when to be serious, they know to help each other, and so on. There’s a genuine bond between them.
They don’t even take Colbert, one of the antagonists, seriously at all. It feels like I’m watching an abridged series, and I mean that in the best way.
A shame the rest of the story is boring and predictable. I was even able to figure out the Mysterious Man’s identity early on. However, Pokkle and Pipiro are major highlights in an otherwise lame story.
Pokkle and Pipiro even take notes of their opinions on events in the game in their journal with their own scribbles and it’s adorable. This journal provides useful hints on what to do next actually.
Although, I wish they included hints like where to go at the beginning. It's easy to get lost.
Not every joke of their's lands unfortunately, such as Pipiro telling Pokkle to “so calm your tits, bro” during a serious moment. It’s encouragement in her own way but kills the tone. Brutally.
Another element I enjoy is the world. The game even gives a explanation for the Venture Wings, an item that lets the player fast travel to a location/escape dungeons.
The world is a mix of modern day and fantasy. There is magic and potions, but also planes and arcade cabinets. The arcade cabinets even net three minigames with multiple difficulties.
"Typing of the Ys," a reference to Falcom’s "Ys" Series, has the player typing what enemies say to defeat them and progress. It’s cool and fun, the game even messes with you with grammar, like apostrophes or tYpInG lIkE tHiS.
"Mona Mona" has Mona Mona trying to reach the top of the stage by climbing blocks that drop down. The player's role is to guide the blocks to help Mona Mona reach the top.
However, combining four of the same block type together breaks them. If Mona Mona falls to the bottom of the screen or gets crushed, they lose a life.
Suddenly, combos are a bad thing. While it’s extremely frustrating and I lost a part of my soul beating it on hard, it’s very well-designed and unique.
Mona Mona themselves is a selectable pet in the new game+. I think the reason he's a selectable pet might be because I beat Mona Mona on hard mode, but I can't confirm that. It’s funny that a bunny meows nonetheless.
Finally, there’s "Zwei!! Shooting," the only one that requires in-game money to play. It’s a shoot em’up where the player controls a plane to get to the end. Unlike the other two arcade games, "Zwei!! Shooting" has limited lives.
The plane can shoot normal projectiles but also its propeller, which blocks projectiles and damages enemies.
It’s alright. It's short, but nothing special. The hard mode only increases the enemy’s health, making bosses/enemies bullet sponges that take too long to defeat.
Miscellaneous
As for some of the miscellaneous things included in the game, Pokke's and Pipiro's house has banks for both money and items to keep for safekeeping. There are also useful memo books to keep track of items, characters, dungeon scores, and enemies. These can be taken with you into dungeons, but take an inventory slot each.
By sleeping in Pipiro's and "Pokke's" house, they restore all of their health. Health is also restorable by walking into the pouring water of statues in the dungeon safe areas.
One interesting thing I found in dungeons is that by moving at a diagonal angle on a wall, Pokkle and Pipiro move faster. It speeds up dungeons quite a bit, especially with the narrow pathways.
There’s also the Superi R. Labyrinth where you pay money to explore three dungeon courses on a time-limit, with collectable money inside. It's neat, but not helpful as money is rarely a concern.
There are also a couple of side-quests, such as getting the pet and fixing Miles’s plane. Both of which give amazing rewards, who can turn down a cat that fights enemies? Although, I wish there more were in the game, but it's possible more exist in new game+.
Finally, saving is done by talking to Pokkle or Pipiro (depending on who you’re controlling) next to a red table in a dungeon safe area or in their home.
Conclusion (D-)
“Zwei: The Arges Adventures” is a game that has a lot of great ideas, but poor execution.
Despite a wonderful soundtrack and visual presentation, some fun moments, a fantastic final boss, and memorable protagonists; the game suffers from poor balancing, boring combat, and enemies, grinding, repetition that ruins most dungeons, a by the books story, and mostly uninteresting characters.
For a game made in 2001, the presentation holds up beautifully, but it's gameplay and story show its age. I don’t regret playing it, but I won’t play it again.
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