Arvale: Journey of Illusion - PDAmill Game Studios
Arvale: Journey of Illusion is our award-winning, epic RPG (Role Playing Game) for iPhone!
Arvale: Journey of Illusion now features OpenFeint social network! This means 100 achivements, chat rooms and leaderboards!
The game contains over 20 hours of gameplay, 6 immense continents, several hyperboles, 280 maps, 200 monsters, hundreds of items (including wheelbarrows!), and thousands of laughs!
If you enjoy games such as Zelda, Pokemon, Dragon Quest or the Final Fantasy games, you will love this game! Featuring humor and story-telling similar to the classic Lucasarts adventure games such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and Sam & Max.
Features:
-Engage in an Epic Story involving Dragons, Magic and the Fate of the World
-Explore the vast World of Arvale by traveling to six different continents, packed with villages, castles, forests, deserts, swamps, snowfields, and many more locales
-Talk with any of the Hundreds of colorful Non-player Characters you meet to learn about the world
-Interact with tons of objects from treasure-filled chests and mysterious doors, to antique books and creepy coffins.
-Fight against 200 different Monsters and Enemies
-Rescue Fair Maidens, recover Lost Artifacts and Battle with Evil Villains
-View intriguing Cutscenes that unveil the alluring story
-Enjoy over 100 sound effects that accentuate battle hits and give ambiance to the environments.
-Venture on a multitude of Side-Quests (for the Overachieving Heroes)
-Vivid, Colorful Graphics, consisting of over 2000 Beautiful Graphical Elements
-Listen to an Amazing original Musical Score with over 45 minutes in a total of 17 Soundtracks
-Multiple Endings determined by your decisions in the game
Zelda and Pokemon are trademarks of Nintendo. Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are trademarks of Square-Enix. Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and Sam & Max are trademarks of Lucasarts. These trademark owners are not associated with PDAmill Game Studios or Nav N Go Kft.
2008
Arvale: Journey of Illusion reviewed by Users
On its way to being something great, but not there yet Played on: 16 gig I-pod Touch gen1 firmware 2.2 (did restart to conclude install) Game Version 1.0Overview:Arvale is an old school RPG that was originally designed and released for the PocketPC around 2001 to 2003. As such the graphics have a more homebrew PC feel to them. Your basic goal is that of any other RPG during the NES & SNES era. Be the unlikely hero to save the world form curtain destruction by an overlord. The game has your standard overhead perspective found in thousands of other 2D RPG’s. The battles are where this title strays from the normal formula in that they are side view based like Y’s 3, or Zelda 2. Your battling is turn based similar to the old school Dragon Warrior NES games, (or the remake of VAY for the Iphone/Touch if you have played that) Another stray from the norm is that your weapons wear out and need to be replaced. This does add some more strategy than is the norm to the overall gaming experience. The screen is broken up into 2 sections. Your game section and the action and buttons section. About ¾ of the screen is your gaming section and the last ¼ is for your directional and action interface buttons.Art and graphicsPro: As mentioned above the graphics have a very PC homebrew feel to them. They are colorful well laid out and similar in quality to the GBA remakes of the Final Fantasy games 1&2, though not as detailed. The artistic style has somewhat of a European feel to it in the Character design area and the writing an attempt at medieval speak (thou art feeling well to day sire, ex.). The animation, though limited serves its purpose. Con: Since this is a Port of an older PocketPC game the graphics engine has not been updated. As such the game is really beginning to show its age. The programmers should really try to spruce up the character detail, environments, and animation to better bring this title into 2009. Because of the unusual fonts chosen for the text (to look old) it can also be very difficult to read at times. I think the Battles suffer the most as they look, animate and feel very low budget. No more than 5 or 6 frames of animation throughout the entire battle sequences. Being sold at only $3.00 these problems are forgivable, however even Vay had some minor work done to the character sprites, character status screens and battle backgrounds to show off the colors the Iphone/Touch can display. These minor updates can really be the decider as to whether your title sells or sits. Music and Sound effects:Pro: The music for this game is well suited and pleasant to listen to. I would say it is on Par with the Lufia seriesCon: though the music for the most part is good, it comes out muffled, like it has been forced into Mono or something. Compared to other Iphone/Touch games it is very noticeable and takes a couple minutes of play to get used to. Sound effects are of standard fair, and not really memorable.Control and PrecisionPro: You are given 2 choices for the controls. Both are implemented at the same time so you can mix and match what feels comfortable to you. As mentioned above you are given ¼ of the screen (on the right in landscape) for movement and action buttons. You may also just tap where you want your hero to walk to and a green circle will appear where you tapped and the hero will begin walking to that point. Con: The buttons will bleep when tapped to confirm your tap but occasionally don’t actually do what they are supposed to do even when the bleep is heard. (little annoying) the buttons in the sub menus are somewhat tiny and could use an overhaul to update them for the Iphone/Touch screen layout. When using the tap to/ walk for the hero, you will notice (unlike Vay) he acts pretty stupid and will not go around people, bushes or other obstacles to reach the selected destination of your tap. This can become really annoying and in some parts of the game makes this feature somewhat broken.Conclusion: Though I have been somewhat negative about the whole game experience, I still enjoy this game now, just as I did when I had it on the PocketPC. Could it be improved upon? Of course. Especially to better take advantage of the touch interface that the Iphone/Touch has to offer and update the animation to better compete with other current titles being released. Is it worth the $3.00? Yes, but until some updates beef this guy up I would not pay any more for it in its current state.
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Version 1.0
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Jan 2, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
beldandy561
the best If you played and loved Fate (any of them) or Zelda, you will love this as I did. I waffled because I have a ton of games and read some of the reviews that didn't laud the graphics, etc. I could not have been happier having bought, continuously played and finished this. I just wish I wasn't finished (though I will replay). Unlike zelda, but like Fate, you choose, as you level up, which attributes (strength, dexterity, knowledge) to improve. Along the way, you acquire quests to complete, and pick up items and gold as you defeat enemies. The characters are well-developed and there's a lot of humor throughout. I enjoyed that the battles were turn-based in that I didn't need to fidget with a series of motions that would be uncomfortable on an iPhone. Autosave is there but I would suggest manually creating a save point when you feel it's warranted to ensure you can really pick up where you want to. this provided just under 20 hours of the most enjoyable play so far on my iPhone (there is a walkthrough on the pdamill website if you need it...I used it to an extent and still played for 19 hours). The game had no flaws that would cause me to give it less than 5 stars and considering the price, I would give it 10, were it possible. Now, PDAmill, release the other Arvales I saw when I was perusing your site!!!
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Version 1.0
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Jan 24, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
krazyfingerzz
Excellent old-school RPG Arvale is a pretty good old-school RPG. While it has an 8-bit feel, it shows it's roots as a mobile game though the interface. Movement is touch to move, or you can use a D-pad-esque compass on the side of the screen. Combat is nicely turn-based and simplified, removing all of the unnecessary bells and whistles that RPGs have accumulated over the years which means that combat is something you do on occasion, and isn't the PURPOSE of the game, which is refreshing. One thing that has annoyed me about cRPGs in this style is that when you want to engage an NPC in conversation, sometimes you need to be dead-on pixel perfect, or else you're talking to dead air (especially NPCs in motion). In Arvale, if you're NEAR a usable object (NPC, chest, book, etc), the USE button lights up, and clicking it moves you into proper position before taking action. The story is fairly simplistic: You have to subdue a black dragon who has awakened, and threatens the land. You start off as a simple gardner, and that sets the stage for the remainder of the tounge-in-cheek narrative. It's not fall on the floor funny, but it can be quite amusing in some places...At least it's intentional, and not accidental, like poor Non-English to English translations. The few issues I have come across aren't deal-breakers. First, the in-gamer tutorial conversations reference a non-existant control scheme, which obviously means that this version was a direct port from another mobile platform. I assume that updates had to be made to engine to get it to run on the iPhone/Touch platform, so why this one section of instructional content was overlooked en masse confuses me. Again, not a deal breaker, because by the time you reach the point where you encounter these instructions, you've already taken the steps that the instructions outline (the mechanics aren't that complex, so FF fans who like micromanaging stats, this is not for you). Second, I found that there are some tight spaces, mostly around NPCs, that APPEAR to be wide enough for you to slip through, but in reality, stop you. After encountering this confusion maybe two times, I continued to plan for this oddity whenever I'm eyeing a passage that I think I should be able to make it through. I looked at a few other RPGs available in the App Store, and decide on Arvale mostly because of it's low price. So far, I'm not disappointed. It seems relatively bug free, quick to pick up, easy too play and overall very well done. It would be nice to see some care taken to fully "iPhone-ize" it, rather then leaving it with remenents of it's heritage as a ported title, but unless you're the type to nitpick every little nuance, then Arvale is a good buy.
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Version 1.0
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Dec 28, 2008
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
Scopique
Oh my! best rpg game ever! But.. Ok people who want a sequal they already have 1 just not 4 iphone :/ (sadly) and two!! This is for PDAmill ok get this i was on a walkthrew review thing and it turns out even up to today (mar 22 09) that a lot of people freeze after the water dragon the cut scence freezes and we cant get out of it!!! Plz help!! Fix that please!!! Ok i fixed it i just restarted the iphone but still anyway PDAmill plz put arvale II on the iphone 2 its so much fun
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Version 1.1
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Mar 23, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
Flo dude
Very good RPG I haven't gotten far in this game but it is fun and amusing. Combat is easy to do choosing which weapon every turn. There is plenty of money to get so despite weapons have a number of uses, you'll always have enough money to buy more. Some monsters you can see, some randomly pop up like in Pokemon but not too often. You can get around easily. Overall, if you like RPG's but aren't sure about Vay or Inotia, try this one. It has a nice story and plenty of content and I look forward to completing this game.I thought I should write more just to start off the reviews. : )
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Version 1.0
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Jan 2, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
GummySergeant
Absolutely Amazing!!! I can honestly say that a good chunk of my waking hours is spent 'wasted' on video games in various forms. Arvale (I finally beat it) is better than some Wii games I have seen that cost up to $50. That alone speaks volumes.
Anyone looking for an RPG for the iPhone/ iPod Touch need look no more: Arvale is it. The graphics are retro without looking cheese-ball, the storyline is believable (assuming you believe in dragons and green soap), and the soundtrack is clean (though I found myself turning it off 10 hours into it).
The only improvement I would suggest would be a more difficult ending (no, I won't tell you) and to fix the minor mistakes within the game (ERRORRuby Armor, anyone?).
Anybody looking for help can check the Net; the developer has posted a walk-through. Yes, I have found it. No, I'm not him. Just a gamer giving credit where credit is due. And yes, the game IS funny...I want my airship in the sequel.
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Version 1.2
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Apr 13, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
RiterByNite
Wth Same freaken thing with me. Ruined the whole game
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Version 1.1
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Mar 22, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
Sweet ap
Great, but BROKEN! A great game until the massive, game-killing crash bug near the end of the game, making it impossible to complete. Do not buy Version 1.1!!!
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Version 1.1
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Mar 19, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
MattDC73
Fix the quests!!!! You used to be able to see all the quests you've aquired, now you only see 2? Updates are supposed to make the game better, not more frustrating. Bring the quests back please!! And I'll give this a five rating. I mean I've been trying to get this stupid old man soap for the better part of a week!!! If I had other quests I could come back to it later.
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Version 1.1
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Feb 27, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
Carey2585
By far the best and I can't wait for "Arvale II: Oceans of Time"! I had mixed feelings when I purchased "Arvale: Journey of Illusion". This genre on the iPhone/iPod Touch was underwhelming to say the least.At the time of my purchase I thought that "Vay" was the best in the RPG category for the iPhone/iPod Touch but after playing and finishing "Arvale I: Journey of Illusion" I was blown away. Jason Surguine (the creator) and pdamill (the publisher) have definitely raised the bar on rpg games in the AppStore.I am eagerly awaiting "Arvale II: Ocean of Time" and hopefully "Arvale: Short Tales" will be ported as well.Thank you Jason and pdamill for porting these games. To support pdamills, and to thank them for their support of the iPhone/iPod Touch platform, I just purchased (from the AppStore):Bowling for BurgersFun FactoryGameBox AsiaGameBox ClassicsGameBox GemsGameBox SolitaireGameBox Solitaire IIGameBox SodokuGlyphos: Visual PuzzlesMelonchi MinecartsSnails ReloadedThe CorsairAll these games plus Arvale cost $20.87 USD. When you consider that Arvale for Windows PocketPC and other Windows smart phones (chuckle) is $14.95 it is easy to see that this is an awesome deal.I encourage all iPhone and iPod Touch users to purchase all of pdamill's. Quality developers should be supported!
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Version 1.0
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Feb 13, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
Kreshwolf
The Best RPG Ever! This is by far the most fun and addicting games on my itouch. Its a must buy. Cant wait for the sequal i read about on the site. Ill buy it as soon as it comes out.
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Version 1.0
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Feb 2, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
Mike254
Great game This is the best rpg currently available at app store. Great gameplay, sound, music, story, humor... Everything that I expected from a good rpg is here. Can't wait for a sequel!!!
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Version 1.0
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Jan 25, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
Zavulon
Perfection This game is absolutely perfect. I would recommend this game to everyone the gameplay is fantastic, the jokes are really quite funny and the storyline is great. Kudos to everyone who participated in makig this game. It is THE BEST game in the App store. Anyone reading this review and is thinking of buying this game go ahead and click the "buy now" button, this game is absolutly worth its price, I would say it's worth a lot more. Everyone who helped make this game keep up the good work!
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Version 1.0
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Jan 23, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
Dominique Haftmann
Addictive and simple. Nice progression. I have played many role playing games ("RPG"), including several for the iPhone. Arvale is a nice simple, RPG. I haven't finished the game, but I have been playing for four hours (25% of the way through according to the author). Overall: Four stars! It needs a little polishing, and at times you need to hit a key multiple times in order for the key to work. Very addictive, and the progression is nicely choreographed. No long swatches of mindless battles looking to increase in level. Central theme: There are at least two main paths you can take. Which one you choose effects the interaction later in the game. Quests: It has a nice array of quests – some simple, some more difficult; some require a simple trip to point A, some require patience. All are built around the central themes of the game, but not all are necessary. There are good choices and evil choices (do you save the cute girl in prison or leave her to rot). Dialogue: Nicely written with several options per non-player controlled character. Happily, choosing one option doesn't mean you can't speak with them again and see what the other choices were. For some this may be disappointing, but I personally like to see all my choices. Monsters: Increasingly challenging with both routine and boss types. Once you clear an area they don’t repopulate (which I personally like), but there are random encounters. Weapons/Magic: Interesting development technique. You don't develop strength in one type (sword, club or spear; water, fire, or earth), but rather one type is strong against a different type: sword is best against a spear wielder, water against a fire mage. Best remember to have ALL with use. Armor: Your armor wears out, so you need to carry multiple items. Fortunately, your gold supply seems sufficient to keep you reasonably well stocked. Combat Interface: Nicely presented. You can scroll through you inventory looking to see which is best against your current foe or gulp a potion which gives your opponent a free shot. You fight one monster at a time, though multiple monsters may be back-to-back.Non-combat Interface: You have two choices: touch-screen movement or arrow keys. Sometimes it is easier to use one over the other. Also helps when selecting dialogue options. Glad it has both. Occasionally, you need to hit the buttons twice or three times before the game recognizes the choices. Quest Journal: Interestingly, not all quests are put in the "journal." I recommend this be changed in future patch. Again, nicely done. Enjoyable, simple game. Hope to see more like this.
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Version 1.0
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Dec 28, 2008
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
rodneymjones
Surrealness Googlysquash, sazzle frazz and an Ecuador rug.
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Version 1.0
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Dec 31, 2008
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
Drewbagurdonuts
Where? Which soldier will give you their sword?the one in the dungeon won't even talk to me!
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Version 1.2
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Apr 21, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
Penguin686
Um best app ever Wow this is amazing I can't wait for a seqeul or addon but I'll still play this for hours a day
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Version 1.2
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Apr 19, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
DanRich
Excellent RPG Absolutely the best RPG i've tried. Great fun, can't put it down. Not annoyingly tedious like some other games(Inotia - this means you). You will not be disappointed in this one. A must buy for sure. Please hurry with Arvale 2!!
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Version 1.2
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Apr 19, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
Jackets #1
GREAT RPG!!! One of (if not THE) the best iPhone games available. Not just hours of fun, but days!
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Version 1.2
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Apr 13, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
OkieJThomas
Great time waster *updated* Looks like a pointless game with crappy graphics, right? Pretty much. But it grows on you after the first few hours, and it's definitely a challenge, if a bit simple in concept. Play it if u have at least 1 hr a day spare time for the next few weeks or so.
*strength is spelled "strenght" in the stats menu*
*bad button placement, i missed the final cutscene :( because there is no "are you sure?" popup for skip cutscene, and the skip button is right on top of the entry button. Could you create a cutscene archive in a later version?*
*on the button note, please integrate a button clicking animation, I kept hitting the wrong button and you don't even know it until the wrong menu comes up.*
*Also, i beat all the quests in 18:57.22 so maybe rethink the 20+ hrs claim. I'm not a huge RPGer either.*
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Version 1.2
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Apr 12, 2009
- Arvale: Journey of Illusion review by
The Cookie of Sorrow
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