MLP: A Zephyr Heights Mystery Review

[Misty Shadow 7,636]

Recently finished the new MLP G5 game, you can now read my thoughts here and on DA.

https://www.deviantart.com/mistybrightshadow/art/MLP-A-Zephyr-Heights-Mystery-Review-1056010668

The newest official MLP game, A Zephyr Heights Mystery, is in every way a worthy follow-up to its predecessor, A Maretime Bay Adventure. It’s an excellent example of how a sequel to a game should be done, making major improvements to the original. The biggest flaws with A Maretime Bay Adventure were its lack of exploration with great limitations in what you could do in just one small part of G5’s world, short length, and lack of content. A Zephyr Heights Mystery fixes all of these flaws by allowing you to explore both Maretime Bay and Zephyr Heights at liberty, being able to teleport wherever you want, providing you with far more quests to do, including sidequests that you can do all around the world, and giving you new things to do with each member of the main cast of G5, all of them being made playable now, with new things you can only unlock once you have access to them and the unique abilities that each one of them possesses.

However, despite all these improvements, A Zephyr Heights Mystery does take some slight steps back in addition to the steps it takes forward. My biggest pet peeve with the game by far was awkward pacing in certain areas. Although the plot of the game (which will only be discussed in limited detail to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible) is good, the kind of thing I could honestly imagine being the plot of an episode of a G5 show, for the standards of an MLP game, something made for young kids, there are times when the way the gameplay and plot flow together feels bizarre and clunky.

For example, you do not get Misty in your team until you’re far past the game’s halfway point despite seeing her pretty early on in the game. I enjoyed the irony of Misty trying to catch Sparky for a good cause, a clever nod to how she used to try and catch Sparky for a bad cause, but soon after you get the game’s biggest plot twist, you are abruptly warped back to Maretime Bay for a fetch quest. It’s after you do this that you reappear in Queen Haven’s palace to get the obvious objective of having to tell her about the big reveal. This is an extremely perplexing design decision, something that makes me feel like the game designers decided at the last minute that there was something in Maretime Bay players “shouldn’t be missing”.

Every so often, you will also be made to play a minigame that’s meant to reflect something going on in the story. I liked all of the minigames, even as most of them are the same minigames from the first game. However, I found it silly having to play certain minigames repeatedly just to progress, like having to play Sunny’s Rollerblading Chase four times. Things like that just felt like a way to pad the game out. This game may still not be very long despite being more than twice as long as its predecessor, but if I wanted to get more out of the game, I’d do that by exploring the world and doing quests, not playing the same minigames over and over. Even though there’s a decent assortment of things in the game players can ignore their first time playing, I still stopped to collect everything I came across and always found myself entertained just doing my thing.

The game, being made for young kids, is unsurprisingly easy, just like the first game. At least unlike the first game, there actually were a few times where I had to retry a challenge, but absolutely nothing came close to making me feel “brick-walled”. I also scored the highest tier on every minigame on the first try. Easy games can be fun and this is one of them. As I mentioned before though, I was not a fan of being made to replay certain minigames just to progress. Something I definitely feel could be improved with the minigames to make them feel less repetitive is to give each character a different thing they can do in each minigame. A thing I found repetitive in the main game I’d definitely change is Sunny’s unskippable magic anomaly fixing cutscene. Seriously, it makes no sense how you’re provided the option to skip the cutscenes in the story but no option to skip something you are being shown over and over again.

My final gripe with the game ties in to one of my earlier complaints about the way Misty is incorporated into this game. Oddly enough, despite Misty being the most popular character of G5’s main cast, not only do you get to play as her the least, her special ability is…underwhelming compared to the abilities of all the other characters, only getting a tracking ability. Sunny, Pipp, and Zipp can all glide, Izzy can levitate and build things, Hitch, who has a tracking power of his own, can break objects with his strength, and all Misty gets is…the power of heart. I am not referencing the Nostalgia Critic joke despite the uncanny parallel, that’s what the game calls it, I am not kidding you. I’m sure a Bridlewood Forest game could rectify this goofiness, but still.

My final verdict on the game is easy to deliver. Not a winner for anyone outside of its target demographic who isn’t a G5 fan, but a huge winner for those who wanted more out of the first game despite enjoying it and longed for a sequel that would feel much more like a full-fledged video game. A Zephyr Heights Mystery may have glaring problems, but it’s in every way perfect for its intended audience and MLP fans who do not have exigent demands. That being said, I still feel inclined to be transparent about my thoughts on the parts of this game that need polish, knowing that constructive criticism is important. If they choose to improve the issues this game has the same way they chose to improve the flaws of the last game, I have no doubt whatsoever that a follow-up to this game will easily be the best official MLP game yet.  

[Steve Piranha 29,411]

6 hours ago, Misty Shadow said:

Recently finished the new MLP G5 game, you can now read my thoughts here and on DA.

https://www.deviantart.com/mistybrightshadow/art/MLP-A-Zephyr-Heights-Mystery-Review-1056010668

The newest official MLP game, A Zephyr Heights Mystery, is in every way a worthy follow-up to its predecessor, A Maretime Bay Adventure. It’s an excellent example of how a sequel to a game should be done, making major improvements to the original. The biggest flaws with A Maretime Bay Adventure were its lack of exploration with great limitations in what you could do in just one small part of G5’s world, short length, and lack of content. A Zephyr Heights Mystery fixes all of these flaws by allowing you to explore both Maretime Bay and Zephyr Heights at liberty, being able to teleport wherever you want, providing you with far more quests to do, including sidequests that you can do all around the world, and giving you new things to do with each member of the main cast of G5, all of them being made playable now, with new things you can only unlock once you have access to them and the unique abilities that each one of them possesses.

However, despite all these improvements, A Zephyr Heights Mystery does take some slight steps back in addition to the steps it takes forward. My biggest pet peeve with the game by far was awkward pacing in certain areas. Although the plot of the game (which will only be discussed in limited detail to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible) is good, the kind of thing I could honestly imagine being the plot of an episode of a G5 show, for the standards of an MLP game, something made for young kids, there are times when the way the gameplay and plot flow together feels bizarre and clunky.

For example, you do not get Misty in your team until you’re far past the game’s halfway point despite seeing her pretty early on in the game. I enjoyed the irony of Misty trying to catch Sparky for a good cause, a clever nod to how she used to try and catch Sparky for a bad cause, but soon after you get the game’s biggest plot twist, you are abruptly warped back to Maretime Bay for a fetch quest. It’s after you do this that you reappear in Queen Haven’s palace to get the obvious objective of having to tell her about the big reveal. This is an extremely perplexing design decision, something that makes me feel like the game designers decided at the last minute that there was something in Maretime Bay players “shouldn’t be missing”.

Every so often, you will also be made to play a minigame that’s meant to reflect something going on in the story. I liked all of the minigames, even as most of them are the same minigames from the first game. However, I found it silly having to play certain minigames repeatedly just to progress, like having to play Sunny’s Rollerblading Chase four times. Things like that just felt like a way to pad the game out. This game may still not be very long despite being more than twice as long as its predecessor, but if I wanted to get more out of the game, I’d do that by exploring the world and doing quests, not playing the same minigames over and over. Even though there’s a decent assortment of things in the game players can ignore their first time playing, I still stopped to collect everything I came across and always found myself entertained just doing my thing.

The game, being made for young kids, is unsurprisingly easy, just like the first game. At least unlike the first game, there actually were a few times where I had to retry a challenge, but absolutely nothing came close to making me feel “brick-walled”. I also scored the highest tier on every minigame on the first try. Easy games can be fun and this is one of them. As I mentioned before though, I was not a fan of being made to replay certain minigames just to progress. Something I definitely feel could be improved with the minigames to make them feel less repetitive is to give each character a different thing they can do in each minigame. A thing I found repetitive in the main game I’d definitely change is Sunny’s unskippable magic anomaly fixing cutscene. Seriously, it makes no sense how you’re provided the option to skip the cutscenes in the story but no option to skip something you are being shown over and over again.

My final gripe with the game ties in to one of my earlier complaints about the way Misty is incorporated into this game. Oddly enough, despite Misty being the most popular character of G5’s main cast, not only do you get to play as her the least, her special ability is…underwhelming compared to the abilities of all the other characters, only getting a tracking ability. Sunny, Pipp, and Zipp can all glide, Izzy can levitate and build things, Hitch, who has a tracking power of his own, can break objects with his strength, and all Misty gets is…the power of heart. I am not referencing the Nostalgia Critic joke despite the uncanny parallel, that’s what the game calls it, I am not kidding you. I’m sure a Bridlewood Forest game could rectify this goofiness, but still.

My final verdict on the game is easy to deliver. Not a winner for anyone outside of its target demographic who isn’t a G5 fan, but a huge winner for those who wanted more out of the first game despite enjoying it and longed for a sequel that would feel much more like a full-fledged video game. A Zephyr Heights Mystery may have glaring problems, but it’s in every way perfect for its intended audience and MLP fans who do not have exigent demands. That being said, I still feel inclined to be transparent about my thoughts on the parts of this game that need polish, knowing that constructive criticism is important. If they choose to improve the issues this game has the same way they chose to improve the flaws of the last game, I have no doubt whatsoever that a follow-up to this game will easily be the best official MLP game yet.  

Good it improved from the last game. It’s still a game I’m not too enthusiastic about unless I find it under 20$. :sign: and I still don’t have G5 merch that I’d like . Guess I’ll wait for some Chinese chibi blind boxes  (which doesn’t have best poneh )

[Iforgotmybrain 4,873]

Definitely agree with the review! Pacing was for sure a bit awkward at times, the Maretime Bay warp levels always felt a bit out of place even though I liked the change of scenery.

It is a really good kids game. Better than most licensed games I played as a kid lol. As you said unless you’re a big G5 fan you’re probably not going to get a ton out of it. I still would recommend it on sale, especially if it ever gets down to like $10, I think it’s an easy buy.

[Finding_Marty 609]

I would love to check it but spending $40 for a short game is a bit excessive and I havn't seen any discount yet... 

[Sparklefan1234 167,266]

I liked the "A Maretime Bay Adventure" video game more than "A Zephyr Heights Mystery".

 

- A Zephyr Heights Mystery's story took a long time to finish, the story was boring and the gameplay was repetitive.

I tried to replay Zephyr Heights and pretty much gave up before I started because I remembered all of the annoying stuff I didn't like.

 

+Being able to play as Pipp and Izzy was fun and the settings of Zephyr Heights and Maretime Bay looked amazing!