Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore from Limited Run Games and Seedy Eye Software is a spiritual successor to the CD-i The Legend of Zelda games. Learn more in our Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore review!

 

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore from Limited Run Games and Seedy Eye Software is a spiritual successor to the CD-i The Legend of Zelda games. Odds are you’re not familiar with the Compact Disc-Interactive or the fact that the hardware had not one, not two, but THREE games in the beloved The Legend of Zelda series. These are Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, Link: The Faces of Evil, and Zelda’s Adventure.

The Compact Disc-Interactive is the name of the media that was used for the different pieces of hardware that were mainly manufactured by company Phillips. The CD-i were the same size as a regular CD, but they could store 744 MB vs the 700 MB of a standard CD. They could also store up to 72 minutes of full-motion video. It was graced with some games based on – but not developed by – Nintendo after the whole PlayStation add-on snafu between Nintendo and Sony. A CD add-on from Phillips for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but this was never released.

 

It’s now 2024, and we’re getting a new adventure that pays homage to the aforementioned games based on The Legend of Zelda while trying to remain faithful to the graphics and full-motion video of the era. For this one, the evil Daimur has returned after 10 years of peace. It’s up to the titular Princess Arzette of the Kingdom of Faramore to save the land before it’s too late! Along with the hand-painted background and sprite art, we also get a fully voice-acted quest.

You can play through this one either in Normal Mode or Casual Mode. Normal Mode offers the standard difficulty, and there will be no health drops. Casual Mode is the easy difficulty setting. By choosing to play in Casual Mode, you’ll be able to get health drops to heal your wound, and enemies will be weaker. Once you select your option, the main story cutscene will start to play. As you can see from the trailer and screens in this Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore review, the game certainly manages to match the full-motion video so-bad-it-is-good quality of its inspirations.

Once you gain control of Princess Arzette, you’ll move around with the left analog stick or the D-Pad, jumping with the X button and attacking with the sword with the Square button. You have a smart sword on you, which means it can be used to interact with items or characters or to attack enemies. Don’t worry because the sword will know who it needs to hurt! The item you’re holding can be used by pressing the Triangle button. This is useful if you, say, need to grab a bomb and then throw it at a wall that must be destroyed.

Pressing the Options button will open up your bag, from where you’ll be able to select the item you need to use for any particular scenario. You can also check any sidequests that you’re currently taking on. These include, for example, helping werewolf Cypress be accepted by the Town Mayor so that he can move into town. Help Cypress, and you’ll be rewarded with a lantern!

The rubies that you collect can be spent to purchase items to aid you on your adventure. You’ll find bombs to open up cracked walls, oil for your lantern so that you can see in dark places and even a rope that can instantly bring you out to the map. There are also many different collectibles for you to find during your time with this colorful adventure. As you light up more beacons to open up new areas, you’ll search for sacred candles, special Arzette coins, life upgrades, and more. And yes, that’s certainly tied to trophies!

Arzette: The Jewel of Paramore has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy waiting for you. The list has 7 Bronze trophies, 5 Silver trophies, and 8 Gold trophies for you to work on. The objectives to complete include finishing the tutorial, lighting each of the beacons you’ll find during your adventure, obtaining all power-ups, finding all life upgrades, collecting all special coins, collecting all 30 sacred candles, finishing the game with 100% completion, beating all bonus games, defeating Daimur, completing the game in Hero Mode, or completing the game in Classic Mode, to name some examples. If you need some extra help, you can check out this Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore Guide.

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore is a spiritual successor to the CD-i The Legend of Zelda games. This means it features a very specific look and feel, both for its 2D action segments as well as for the full-motion video cutscenes that play as the story progresses. While it offers some quality-of-life improvements that make it an easier adventure to take on compared to the games that inspired it, there’s a lot of backtracking as you obtain the items that will allow you to destroy the blocky barriers of different colors that will keep you from collecting everything in a single go, which is why this is not going to be for everyone. Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore is out on PlayStation 5 with a $19.99 price tag. There’s also a PlayStation 4 version of the game available for the same price as a separate purchase.

Disclaimer
This Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Limited Run Games.