The Girl from Arkanya

A soft spot in my gaming life is Zelda-likes. More so ones based on the Game Boy games of the 90s and early 2000s. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap will forever be my favourite, with its cel-shaded golden visuals and fun mechanics like the Kingstones. So every time I see an indie developer trying to replicate these types of games, it sends me into some kind of hyperfixated trance, knowing that I’ll need to get my hands on it as soon as I can. 

The latest is The Girl from Arkanya, heavily inspired by Oracle of Seasons; it sets out to take you back to that time in gaming history but washes away the land of Holodrum and Subrosia and replaces it with Amazonia, a jungle setting filled with palm trees, temples and crazy, pebble-throwing monkeys. I reached out to the developers Arkanya Games, as I needed to know more information on how they settled on this location. Thankfully, lead designer Harrison Withrow very kindly responded and had this to say:

“I knew I wanted the setting to be in a jungle, and at the time I was really obsessed with a prog rock album called Kernunna (by a band of the same name), which was all about Brazilian folklore. Many elements of the game were inspired by songs from that album, such as Curupira’s Maze. The name “The Girl from Arkanya” was based on a Brazilian bossa nova song called “The Girl from Ipanema”, by Antonio Carlos Jobim, and it was decided early on that the fictional city of Arkanya would exist at the location of Ipanema Beach.”

Amazonia is home to the town of Arkanya, a thriving city filled with peace-loving inhabitants who live their lives as kindly and quietly as possible. There was once a time when this was not the case, as it was once ruled by evil demons led by the most evil of them all, Quetzalcoatl. It took a group of powerful priestesses to capture the demon and banish them all to another dimension. 

Years later and peace is threatened once more by a mad priest by the name of Xolotl who is destroying the sacred stones and kidnapping the current priestesses that were set out to keep Quetzalcoatl trapped in a bid to free Quetzalcoatl and bring back the golden age of Amazonia. It’s when Xoloti attempts the kidnapping of one of these priestesses, Ari, that he comes face to face with the main protagonist of the game, Marisa (the greatest treasure hunter ever!). She ends up setting out to save her friend and, on the way, gets involved in not only attempting to rescue Ari but Amazonia itself. 

It was the work that was put into the backstory of this world, its narrative and characterisation that impressed me the most during my playthrough. It made itself stand out from previous 2D Zelda-like attempts and set an expectation that never disappointed. I was always entertained by the conversations between characters, and the developers successfully portrayed likeable personalities for Marisa and the main cast. What made me come to this realisation was the fact that even after finishing the game, many of the characters have stayed with me; such is the strength of the personalities on show. 

This strong personality carries on into the visual presentation, with lovingly crafted pixelated representations of the world of Amazonia and the gorgeously created character models. Arkanya Games have masterfully recreated the 2D Zelda graphic style that would have been at home on a Game Boy but brought it all to life with modern-day touches that didn’t impede on the retro look they were aiming for but just helped it to feel a little fresher. Everything shone, from the palm trees to the temples, and as I travelled around, it just kept getting better and better, especially with the game’s jungle theme. 

The Girl from Arkanya doesn’t stray too much from the Zelda formula either, as Marisa, with the help of Kapi, a talking capybara – who has much more going on than expected – has to travel around the land and help restore the crumpled sacred stones left by Xoloti by freeing the imprisoned priestesses. These usually involve dungeons or temples that need to be conquered by solving puzzles, finding a big key, defeating a boss creature and not only freeing the priestess but also usually gaining a new item to use and a health upgrade. All sound familiar? 

Thankfully, though, there are plenty of surprises, as some of the theming of the temples went in directions that I didn’t expect. In the early game, you’re treated to one based in a pirate camp, which certainly was a welcome departure from brick walls and candlelight. The items themselves had their moments too, but mostly they were the standard fare, with the grappling hook being the first to arrive, but more welcomed original equipment was mixed in further into the game, which brought some interesting elements to some of the puzzles and traversal. 

With Arkanya Games’ attempts to make this more original than its source inspirations, they also added dances to the mix. Gained from each priestess, these had varying effects throughout the game. The first dance helped in activating fast travel portals, and others helped with other elemental parts, including creating tornadoes to activate wind-powered switches and having the power to emit lightning to damage enemies. With the various options this gave me, they did become some of my favourite mechanics to use in its gameplay. 

The other main mechanic was the pairing of Marisa and Kapi, as you can swap between them at any time. Kapi can bring different powers for attacking that Marisa can’t produce that I found helpful in some of the boss battles. The biggest way this was used, though, was in the temple puzzles, with some needing you to swap between them multiple times to solve it. The commands themselves did need some pondering though, as in some instances one character needed to stay on a switch while the other moved to the next section, but the commands were not as intuitive as they could have been. I had instances where I thought I was in control of Marisa but was in fact controlling Kapi, and sometimes I thought I had told Kapi to stay but I had actually told Marisa and so on. It may just be my old man brain, but I feel others might also struggle. 

Otherwise, there’s plenty more going on in the game to keep you busy with side quests to complete, books to find and add to Arkanya’s library, and helping Marisa’s granddad to fill Arkanya’s museum by finding Amazonian treasures and sending them back to him. Treasure hunting is also a feature – Marisa is the best treasure hunter, after all – which can be sold to fund upgrades to Marisa’s satchel so she can buy more health packs, which come in the shape of beer, rum and cheese!

I would be doing an injustice if I didn’t mention the game’s soundtrack too. It is pretty incredible, with fitting pieces that I found myself foot tapping too as I explored. The composer Robby Siva has done an excellent job throughout the soundtrack capturing the jungle and tribe vibes perfectly. Two tracks in particular have become some of my favourite video game music that I will be listening to for some time to come. 

Not everything is rosy in The Girl from Arkanya, though, and it mostly came from the lack of a temple map or a quest log. I was craving a map in the temples, as there can be some backtracking involved, and I did find myself lost on some occasions. It was the source of my biggest frustration with the game, and it was sorely missed. Quest logs also would have been handy, as I did get distracted occasionally and forgot where or what I was supposed to do. The developers did include a small feature on the overworld map, with your next destination marked, but sometimes this didn’t appear, or as the map showed the whole overworld, it wasn’t as clear as it could have been.  

One other point of frustration came from the game’s respawn feature. When Marisa dies, she reawakens in a safe house which could be some distance from where you died. This meant having to travel paths you’d already taken, with fresh respawned enemies slowing you down while you try and get back to the point you died at. I feel this was not the strongest decision; I can see what the developers were trying to do, but it just didn’t work for me. I would have much preferred to have respawned outside the temple I died in, at the last save point or fast travel statue.

But such is the strength everywhere else in the game that I ended up enduring the frustration, as all I wanted to do was explore, to complete the well-designed temples, to appreciate the fabulous visuals and sound design and to help Marisa find and save Ari and Amazonia. The worldbuilding is also worth a mention, as it was much more than I was expecting, and although some may get lost in the info dump at the beginning, some, like me, will find its impressive scope intriguing and only helped to connect me to this familiar but unique world.