Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore is an "interactive animated adventure" game created by Seth "Dopply" Fulkerson
note under the developer name Seedy Eye Software and published by Limited Run Games. It is a Spiritual Successor to the infamous Legend of Zelda CD-i Games, particularly Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, and features background artist Rob Dunlavey returning to do artwork, along with Jeffrey Rath and Bonnie Jean Wilbur (the voices of Link and Zelda) in the voice cast as (among other characters) the tutorial narrator and story narrator, respectively.
The Kingdom of Faramore has its ten years of peace disrupted by the return of the evil wizard Daimur, forcing Princess Arzette to pick up her sword and set out to defeat him.
Initially announced for a 2023 release, Arzette was released on February 14, 2024, and is available for your interactive multimedia systems — Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox, and PC via Steam. The reveal trailer can be viewed here.
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore contains examples of:
- Abdicate the Throne: During her coronation in the ending cutscene, Arzette thanks everyone for the various ways they helped her on her quest to defeat Daimur, and announces she's not accepting the position of Queen, and will instead be instilling democracy in Faramore.
- Abnormal Ammo: The Smart Gun Arzette can acquire uses souls as ammo.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Daimur's Lair resembles one and has bricks and piping, though it's filled with lava instead of sewage.
- Adaptational Villainy: Duke Onkled in the original Wand of Gamelon was rather ambiguous in his reasons for betraying the king to Ganon due to lack of exposition, with one viable interpretation being that he was threatened into reluctantly doing so out of self-preservation. Here, his stand-in Duke Nodelki is portrayed as completely evil, deliberately releasing Ganon's from imprisonment and later actively trying to kill Arzette, whereas Onkled quickly surrendered and cooperated when confronted by Zelda.
- All There in the Script: Many characters are not named in gameplay, so their names only appear in the credits. This can also make it difficult to match which actor voiced which character. Some are at least mentioned in completed quest descriptions, and their cutscene files are conveniently named after them.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: The sprites mirror their asymmetrical parts when they turn around. In the official artwork and cutscenes, Arzette is right-handed, but her sprites become left-handed when she faces left.
- Anachronism Stew: Played for Laughs. There are things like swimsuit calendars and Elvis impersonators in what is ostensibly a Heroic Fantasy setting.
- Art Shift:
- The prologue is done as a series of still images in colored pencil and features significantly more detailed coloring and shading.
- The beacon activation scene, as well as the scene after activating the first beacon, were animated by rotoscoping a 3D animation, and as a result, is more fluid than usual and has more consistent character models. The rest of the game cutscenes are more stylized like the old CD-i animations, with have lower frame rate and wackier character shapes and movement.
- Arc Words: Both Daimur and Duke Nodelki say “Power is all that matters” in the cutscene before their fights.
- As You Know: Wogram in the intro says "As you know, only the royal family can rekindle the beacons".
- Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: When Cornrad is defeated, a crow carries him off, prompting him to yell "Put me down! Put me down!" at the crow. Then the crow carries him over a cliff, and he begs "Wait, keep me up! Keep me up!" before getting dropped to his doom.
- Badass Adorable: Arzette herself, being that she is a warrior princess with a kind heart and a strong will, as well as having a cute design that stands out from the other characters.
- Barrier Warrior: Several enemies are shelled in coloured magic that can only be breached by magic of the same colour.
- Basilisk and Cockatrice: A common enemy type is a cockatrice-like creature called a Poulture.
- Bat Out of Hell: Daimur's face looks heavily like that of a spectral bat's.
- Beast Man:
- Daimur and many of his minions are humanoid animals, with Daimur being a bat, Klive being a horse, Apatu being a cat, and Beeves being a dragon.
- There are a few anthropomorphic animal NPCs that the player can meet as well, including Cypress (a wolf) and Frich (a frog).
- Big "NO!": Daimur cries "Noooo!" before dying.
- Bonus Level: Green scrolls throughout the various stages serve as this, providing minigames that earn Arzette extra Rubies.
- Bottomless Magazines: Completing Rudy's questline will award you with an upgrade that provides the Smart Gun with infinite ammo.
- Bottomless Pits: Sometimes falling offscreen will kill the player.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: The first kind of color magic Arzette can use is red magic, removing red blocks and enemies protected with red magic. The second kind is blue magic, which affects blue blocks and blue magically protected enemies. The third and last kind is purple, which as the combination of blue and red affects both types of blocks and protected enemies (as well as purple blocks).
- Brick Joke: Alven says that the Sacred Oil is in a dungeon, guarded by an unbeatable wizard. The dungeon is in Fort Findula, one of the last levels in the game, and reaching the end of the dungeon shows that the wizard Alven talked about is long dead.
- Broad Strokes: The opening states that the battle against Daimur a decade ago included Dail and Arzette facing the demon king, sealing him in a book, and the King punishing a traitorous noble for betraying them by making him scrub all the floors in the kingdom. These events align with the game's inspiration (only with the Link and Zelda expies having their adventures simultaneously) implying similar events happened in the past.
- Bubblegloop Swamp: Norin Swamp comes complete with swampy terrain, bug hives, and a resident amphibian noble.
- Build Like an Egyptian: The Anju Desert region is filled with pyramids and internal structures reminiscent of Egyptian tombs.
- Camera Abuse: After talking with Arzette, the clumsy guard Univor stumbles once again, sending her helmet flying towards the screen and leaving a crack effect for the duration of the cinematic.
- Cast of Expies: Much of the cast has clear analogues in The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon.
- Central Theme: The general motif of the game's story is power, and using it for selfish or selfless reasons. Duke Nodelki summons Daimur because he wants power, and he's given it in exchange for his soul. Daimur's other minions also work for him in hopes of being given power of their own — the only one who lacks clear motivation is Klive. Arzette, meanwhile, is inherently in a position of power due to her title as princess but uses it to help others around her rather than herself. Duke Nodelki and Daimur even both say "Power is all that matters!" before facing Arzette. In the end, Arzette rejects the title of queen and instead distributes power equally among the people of Faramore.
- Challenge Run: There are two achievements (one normal, one secret) that demand the player do one of these: "No life, no problem" requires beating the game without picking up any health upgrades, while "Your Sword Is Enough" asks that you beat the game without acquiring the Smart Gun.
- Checkpoint: In longer screens, there are small purple flags that, once raised, will act as checkpoints.
- Cigar Chomper: King Rahklin smokes cigars, a nod to The King's Epic Adventure where King Harkinian does the same.
- Combat Haircomb: If the player doesn't have enough rubies, Mortar threatens them with a switchblade comb, which he also uses to fix some loose strands in his pompadour.
- Composite Character:
- Arzette combines elements of both Link in The Faces of Evil and Zelda in The Wand of Gamelon, having Link's haircut and Zelda's status as an Action Girl princess.
- Wogram mostly takes inspiration from Gwonam from The Faces of Evil, but also takes his color scheme from Impa's depiction in The Wand of Gamelon; the two had essentially interchangeable roles in the pair of games. His overall appearance also pulls heavily from Merlin of Merlin's Apprentice, another Animation Magic title on the CD-i.
- Duke Nodelki seems to be a combination of two The Wand of Gamelon characters: Duke Onkled, a traitor aristocrat who allied with the Big Bad and is condemned to scrub floors by the king, and Hektan, a wizard who can teleportnote and is killed by the female main character.
- Convection, Schmonvection: One character you find is a surfer lounging in a lava geyser as if it were a hot spring. Arzette seems concerned, but he seems fine enough.
- Cranium Ride: In levels with large bodies of water, Arzette will need to ride on the backs of hippo-turtle creatures to get across.
- Damned by Faint Praise: During the King's death scene, he has specific words of praise for his advisor Wogram and his daughter Arzette, while the most he can offer for Dail is "I'm glad you're here".
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: In Casual Mode and Normal Mode, and even in Hero Mode, Arzette doesn't lose anything upon death but progress on the current screen (unless a checkpoint flag was touched). Arzette even retains any Rubies she picked up before dying. You return to full health upon death, so dying on a new screen is essentially a free heal. The biggest inconvenience is that enemies respawn as well. This isn't the case with Classic Mode, which readopts the "continues" system from The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon where you'll only have two respawns upon death in a given area before being booted back to the map screen, nor with One-Shot Mode, which requires you to finish the game in a single sitting, with only a single life and no saving. You are granted the option to continue your run with your collected items, as well as toggling whether or not bosses remain defeated across attempts.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Arzette's sword makes enemies go boom. The same thing happens to her if she's defeated.
- Dem Bones: Among the enemies are Sleepybones, flying skeletal ghosts wearing nightcaps, holding candles and brandishing one of their humeri as a club. There's also a friendly NPC called Skelvis, a skeleton who acts like Elvis Presley.
- Deranged Animation: The wonky animation of the cutscenes present in the original Zelda CD-i games are fully accounted for in Arzette's cutscenes, with a heaping helping of Off-Model, Your Size May Vary, and Gross-Up Close-Up, except this time it's all deliberate.
- Difficulty Levels: The game starts with two by default, with more that can be unlocked by clearing the previous level:
- Casual Mode: The easiest level, with weaker enemies, and the only mode where enemies drop hearts.
- Normal Mode: The standard level of difficulty. A fair challenge.
- Hero Mode: Unlocked by completing Normal Mode. All sources of damage to Arzette are doubled, and enemies that already took multiple hits to kill in Normal Mode are now even more durable.
- Classic Mode: Unlocked by completing Hero Mode. This mode brings back some more frustrating elements of the CD-i games: you can only open the pouch while you're crouching, the Smart Gun only works when your health is full, and you only get three lives in an area before you're booted back to the map screen.
- One-Shot Mode: The hardest level, unlocked by completing Classic Mode. True to its name, you get one life, and you can't save your progress. Clearing this mode unlocks cheats.
- Directionally Solid Platforms: The player can jump through the platforms from below. Some platforms are fully solid, however, to prevent skipping roadblocks with the Griffin Boots.
- Dismantled MacGuffin: The titular Jewel of Faramore begins the game broken into five pieces and Arzette must travel the land to reassemble it by defeating five bosses.
- Double Jump: The Griffin Boots grant Arzette a second jump, making platforming a lot easier.
- Dragon Hoard: Beeves, a dragon dressed like an 80s businessman, is fought in a room with piles of treasure lying around, where he blows fireballs at Arzette while clutching a big pile of gold coins.
- Edible Ammunition: Cornrad, an animate scarecrow, fires corncobs as projectiles.
- Evil Laugh: Daimur laughs an extremely bombastic one in the reveal trailer.
- A sinister laugh plays over the Book of Oakurin during The Stinger. The source is unknown, but as the voice sounds female it presumably isn't Daimur...
- Exposed to the Elements:
- Despite being in an ice cavern at the top of Chillinax Peak (and Arzette visibly shivering in her more modest outfit), Ciclena wears a dress with an exposed neck and shoulders and isn't bothered by the cold. It's implied that this is due to the Power Pendant she wears, which likewise protects Arzette against harmful elements once she obtains it.
- Downplayed with Apatu, who at first doesn't seem deterred by being sleeveless and barefoot at the top of a snowy mountain, but ends up frozen solid in her defeat cutscene while commenting that she "should have worn layers".
- Expy:
- Arzette and Dail roughly correspond to Zelda and Link, being a princess and a commoner who work together to defeat the ultimate evil and restore peace to their kingdom, though their paths diverge from the ending of the original story in the CD-i games; Arzette continues to train and becomes a Warrior Princess, while Dail retires in luxury and settles for being a Quirky Bard, sitting this adventure out.
- King Rahklin and his advisor Wogram correspond to King Harkinian and his advisor Gwonam, being a beloved and kindly king and an elderly magician who advises the royal family, ready to protect their kingdom and provide the hero with their support. Their names are even anagrams of their inspirations with a few letters removed and substituted. King Rahklin also has an affinity for cigars, referencing The King's Epic Adventure.
- Daimur is an expy of Ganon, being an Evil Overlord who returns after a noted time of peace; his animation during his Evil Laugh mimics Ganon's Deranged Animation when he says "or else you will die!" in The Faces of Evil. His name is also a pun on "Die more".
- Mortar is a blatant expy of Morshu from The Faces of Evil. He has a similar name and design, a baritone voice, and a shrewd personality. He also sells music scrolls in his shop, a reference to Morshu commonly being used in YouTube Poop Music Videos (to the extent that Google lists him as a musical artist).
- Lord Kari the town sheriff is dressed similarly to Lord Kiro from The Wand of Gamelon, and his name rhymes with "Fari", a nickname for Kiro popularized by YouTube Poops.
- Glubbert, one of the NPCs in Norin Swamp, seems to be based on Glutko from The Faces of Evil, as she's a fat, green-skinned ogre with a prominent, cyclops-like eye and a big-lipped mouth with fanged teeth. However, unlike the man-eating monster Glutko, she is kind and gentle woman who is only interested in gardening.
- One NPC at the tavern, Salvik, is a rotund drunk drinking two tankards of beer, giving Arzette advice about slashing at enemy projectiles. This trait is similar to Droolik, an NPC you encounter telling you how to deal with Glutko, even down to having a similar voice.
- Right next to Salvik is Brinda, a middle-aged woman who says her husband was turned into a monster and asks you to find her some jewelry in a way that makes Arzette a little uncomfortable — like Alora, who has a similar story and quest and seems to be interested in Link as well. She also mentions that she got the canteen she gives you from a hero, like Lady Alma.
- Dewey, the man stuck on the upper floor of the library, has a color scheme reminiscent of I. M. Meen. He speaks with a similarly high-pitched and condescending tone of voice and is very vocal about how he hates libraries.
- Payop, the old librarian who throws books in Dewey's face, calls to mind Ophelia Chill from Chill Manor, the sequel to I. M. Meen, and her name is an anagram of "Aypo" (with an extra "p"), which was the name of the reader who needs to be given the Book of Koridai in The Faces of Evil.
- The fairy that Arzette encounters is another blatant expy, this time of one of the two fairies encountered in both The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon. Not only does she offer to heal Arzette, which the Zelda fairies did by giving Link/Zelda some Water of Life, but she also has her light pink skin and hot pink hair, a pair of antennae sticking out of her head, her voice is similarly bright and cheery, and she also wields a wand.
- In the backstory, Duke Nodelki, like Duke Onkled, betrayed the King and was sentenced to labor for his crimes. Besides his name being an anagram of "I, Onkled," the opening cutscene shows him scrubbing floors, in case you didn't get the picture.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Upon his defeat, Duke Nodelki turns into stone and Arzette smashes his petrified body with her sword, even as the duke begs to not be killed as the petrification finishes. It's a shockingly dark death for an otherwise lighthearted game, especially compared to the other bosses.
- Fantastic Firearms: After bringing fairy dust to Motte, Arzette gets a soul-powered laser gun that can destroy magical barriers (and enemies).
- Feather Fingers:
- Alven is an anthropomorphic moose with hooves for hands. Despite this, he has no problem mixing drinks as a bartender. Or swinging a hammer as a blacksmith.
- Crowdee is a talking crow whose feathers function as fingers as he gestures.
- Fictional Currency: The currency in Faramore is Rubies. Unlike in the Zelda CD-i games, where this was a Malaproper of "Rupees", the monetary pieces in this game are actual rubies, specifically resembling red octahedrons (with higher denominations being different colors).
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The 100% ending shows many familiar symbols in the Book of Oakurin's pages, including the Seedy Eye logo and various references to CD-i games.
- Friendly Fireproof: Arzette's weapons are specifically referred to as "smart weapons" that can determine friend from foe, unable to harm the former. Arzette early on discusses this when Faramore's mayor proves uncooperative.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: It's stated that the smart sword won't harm anyone friendly, but using it on Mayor Covenplate only triggers a cutscene and doesn't hurt him, even though he's racist against monsters.
- Genre Throwback: To "interactive animated adventures" on the Phillips CD-i, specifically evoking the strange animation in the titles animated by Animation Magic, primarily modelling itself after Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon's story and gameplay (albeit significantly polished). The development team went so far as to get the map painter for those games, Rob Dunlavey, as well as Jeffrey Rath and Bonnie Jean Wilbur (the voices of Link and Zelda) as narrators.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: Daimur, unlike the rest of the bosses of the game, does not have a proper health bar. Instead, he flees from you while throwing projectiles at you. When you corner and attack him, the battle is over in one hit. This is very likely a nod to how Ganon dies with one hit of the Villain-Beating Artifact in the original Zelda CD-i games.
- Ghibli Hills: Durriden Forest fills this role, being the forested yet straightforward first level of the game.
- Go Out with a Smile: The king dies smiling, satisfied with the life he lived and proud of his friends and family.
- G-Rated Drug: When freed, the fairy from the Anju Desert gives Arzette some Fairy Dust as a reward. This would be normal for a fantasy-style setting... if not for the fact that the fairy in question speaks and acts as if she's high, prominently maintaining a wide-eyed, mile-long stare and toothy grin throughout her cutscene, which heavily implies that the Fairy Dust is a thinly-veiled drug (contained in a bottle that resembles a bong, no less). Arzette initially rejects the offer, but the fairy insists she take it, complete with spiralling eyes.
- Gratuitous French: Motte, the inventor in Creece Canyon, speaks in a mixture of English and deliberately stilted French. While her pronunciation is correct on account of being voiced by an actual French speaker (the game's official French translator, at that), the grammar is notably off. Gendered words are mismatched ("mon princesse" instead of "ma princesse"), French grammar rules are ignored ("Le Intelligente Gun" instead of "Le Pistolet Intelligent"), and some words are made up from English words instead of using their French equivalents ("colour magique" instead of "magie de couleur"; "terrifique", which sounds like "terrific" but isn't an actual French word).
- Green and Mean: The evil Daimur's skin is a pale green, Duke Nodelki's skin is turned green once he relinquishes his soul to Daimur in exchange for power, and Beeves is a green dragon who acts as one of Daimur's trusted servants.
- Hard Truth Aesop:
- While being honorable and showing mercy is usually a good thing, focusing on Honor Before Reason can end in disaster. King Rahklin not executing Duke Nodelki for his treason but sentencing him to hard labour might have been more honorable, but it just meant that Nodelki was free to release Daimur from his prison. Arzette takes this lesson to heart, and instead of showing mercy to Nodelki or simply sealing Daimur again, she kills them both to end the threat for good.
- It's good to hear people's words to avoid conflict, but remember that not everyone can be reasoned with. Arzette listens to Cornrad's wishes and offers him a chance to learn magic so he won't have to serve Daimur to get what he wants, but Cornrad rejects her anyway. When she confronts Daimur to ask why he chose his path, he simply states that he has no reason for being evil other than power.
- Heart Container: Large purple hearts will increase the amount of maximum health upon being collected.
- Hearts Are Health: Arzette's health is represented by the heart symbols.
- Hurricane of Puns: Klive does so unintentionally before his boss battle, causing Arzette to laugh and Klive to become infuriated.
- Implied Death Threat:
- The mayor refuses to allow Cypress, a Wolf Man, to live in Faramore Town just because he's a wolf. Arzette notes that her Smart Sword doesn't hurt friendly people, and points it at the mayor's face while telling him that he is "not being very friendly" right now. He instantly grants Cypress citizenship.
- If the player tries to buy something without enough rubies in Mortar's shop, he pulls out a switchblade comb and says "You'll pay, one way or the other."
- Incurable Cough of Death: The king starts coughing as his death draws near.
- Iris Out: The cutscene of Daimur being defeated transitions to the Faramore castle cutscene with the enclosing circle effect.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Dail, despite refusing to lift a finger today and lobbing the odd teasing remark at Arzette, does genuinely care about the royal family and helped save the kingdom from Daimur before. He just realised that he was getting in over his head and retired after the first time. He's right there with the rest of the cast to mourn the death of King Rahklin, and maintains nothing but respect for the moment as well.
- King on His Deathbed: After lighting the second beacon, Arzette returns to the castle and learns of her father's worsening health. After lighting the third, he's on his deathbed and tells Arzette he loves her before passing away.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: If you talk to Joe after finishing up Sprigum Volcano, he'll tell Arzette that he can predict the future. He predicts that, in a distant land, a powerful oval-shaped object will be created which can hold all the world's information, but will fall into the wrong hands and many "faces of evil". When Arzette questions if a hero will come along to save the land, Joe says no, because "MISTAKES WERE MADE"note . Naturally, he is referring to the creation and commercial failure of the Philips CD-i.
- Lethal Lava Land: Sprigum Volcano is active and has tons of lava to avoid. Daimur's lair is full of it too.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Faramore is the home of both humans (with pointy ears) and anthropomorphic animals, but nobody seems to have an issue with it. The only exception is the mayor refusing to give citizenship to Cypress for being a wolf man.
- Made of Iron: Sprigum Volcano has a guy named Joe sitting waist-deep in a lava pit while he's using it as a makeshift hot tub, and seems to be in absolutely no pain whatsoever even when he sinks further into it while talking to Arzette.
- Mercy Invincibility: Arzette and some enemies are invulnerable for a brief period after getting hit.
- Money Spider: Most of the enemies drop currency.
- Mook Maker: Mosquito nests frequently spawn enemies.
- No Fair Cheating: If you start the race against Rudy in Durridin Forest and try to use the shortcut, it will be blocked off by an invisible wall.
- Notice This:
- Bombable surfaces have prominent cracks and sparkles to draw your attention.
- Red exclamation marks appear over map locations where you have the means to advance a quest. As of version 1.1.0, they also appear over specific characters when you have the item they're looking for.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Daimur makes this remark after hearing that Arzette didn't bring the Book of Oakurin with her, assuming she just slaughtered his minions for fun. Arzette has different plans however.
- Overly Long Gag: When you finally complete the Chain of Deals, you get to witness Alven forge a weapon for the first time in ages. The cutscene consists mostly of him hammering at the sword with a labored grunt in each swing, broken up by a few shots of Arzette looking around as her patience thins, a brief pause when Alven tells her it'll take a little longer, and another when he almost tires out, but shakes it off and powers through. All this adds up to roughly a minute of repetition, but his work pays off in the end, and he rewards you with the Smart Chainsword. The cherry on top? This is the one cutscene you can't skip.
- Parody Assistance:
- From the original The Legend of Zelda CD-i Games, Rob Dunlavey, Jeffrey Rath, and Bonnie Jean Wilburnote are all part of the team, and in the case of Rath and Wilbur, provide voicework for the game (Jean Wilbur provides the opening narration and voices the woman in the bar who serves as an Expy to Alora from Link: The Faces of Evil, whereas Rath provides the tutorial narration and voices Skelvis, a skeleton from the graveyard).
- From the YouTube Poop angle, much of the official artwork and character designs were done by Geibuchan, known for The King's Epic Adventure and other videos featuring the CD-i cast. Walrusguy and Jimmy Davis, two other prominent YouTube Poopers, worked on art and animation for the game.
- Pillar of Light: The Sacred Beacons, which are required to progress through the game, emit a beam of yellow light into the sky, dispelling Daimur's dark fog and allowing Arzette to access new areas.
- Prepare to Die: Daimur and his minions, much like Ganon's, usually say something like this when you confront them.
- Purple Is Powerful: Purple is the highest tier of magic, replacing both red and blue after acquired. It can take down enemies and dispel barriers of both previous colors, plus those of its own.
- Rat Men: Rudy is a white-furred rat man found behind a bombable wall on the right side of Faramore Town. Apart from him, there's also the Rodai, sickle-carrying rats in red reaper robes who act as one of the most common enemies in the game.
- Retraux: Despite being made 30 years later, Arzette mimics the style of the Zelda CD-i games to a T, featuring 16-bit sprites over hand-painted backgrounds, as well as pixelated animation for the cutscenes. The music evokes '90s Red Book soundtracks by using old synthesizers like the Roland Sound Canvas, and even the marketing is written in a period style, such as referring to the game as an "interactive animated adventure" for your "interactive multimedia system".
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Arzette and the rest of the Rahklin Royal Family. When Daimur first attacked, the four of them personally spearheaded the charge against him.
- Scary Scarecrows: One of the bosses, Cornrad, is a scarecrow that teleports around the stage firing corncobs at Arzette.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: In the backstory of the game, Daimur was sealed in the book, only to be freed by Nodelki at the start of the game. This trope gets deconstructed, as Arzette points out that sealing Daimur in the book is repeating that past and someone could easily free him again. Instead, Arzette merges the jewels with her sword and kills Daimur, defeating him for good.
- Sequel Hook: The credits end with a message that "Arzette will return," and attaining 100% item collection reveals a hidden cutscene where an unknown force laughs while the Book of Oakurin rapidly flips through its pages.
- Sequence Breaking:
- In Durriden Forest, by hopping from the branch where the area's coin is to the nearby treetop, you can get into the area with the Sword Wave well before you're intended to. This not only gives you a ranged attack early, but because the Sword Wave also destroys magical barriers, you can skip getting the Smart Gun. There's even an achievement for beating the game this way.
- The exit to the shack in Norin Swamp that houses the Griffin Boots, unlike the front door, isn't locked. Since the only obstacle inside is a red color magic barrier, which you have to have acquired a method of destroying to even gain access to Norin Swamp, this means you can sneak in via the back way and snag the Boots early, which opens up the game significantly.
- Shout-Out:
- Seedy Eye Software's production logo, which is a parody of the Philips Interactive Media logo seen at the beginning of most CD-i games.
- One of the bonus stage types plays exactly like Hotel Mario, with Arzette having to travel to different floors by using elevators to shut all the doors.
- The Stock Sound Effect that plays when characters teleport is the same as when Mario enters a pipe in one Hotel Mario cutscene. Another sound effect that plays commonly (for example, when clearing a bonus round) is the dinner bell that rings before King Harkinian says "I wonder what's for dinner?" in Wand of Gamelon.
- Rudy, when telling Arzette about hidden objects in the walls, mentions that one adventurer once found a fully-cooked turkey leg inside a wall.
- Cypress is a Wolf Man that bears a close resemblance to Stuart K Reilly, retired YouTube Pooper and creator of YouTube Poop News. Cypress' overworld sprite even has him wearing a plaid shirt, just like Stuart's character.
- Count Denny the vampire has a knack for cooking breakfast, which the restaurant chain Denny's is known for. He even calls his breakfast a grand slam, referencing their Grand Slam combo.
- A few of the game's Steam achievements reference quotes from the CD-i games. "You'd better get going!" and "You won!", for example, directly reference some of Link's dialogue from Link: The Faces Of Evil, and the achievement for getting 100% completion is titled "You're the best player ever!" (which is a quote said by Mario, Luigi and the princess at the end of Hotel Mario).
- Sprigum Volcano alludes to Spurgam Volcano, a name that appears on the pencil sketch for the map in Faces of Evil.
- Fleetus, a crocodile-like Mascot with Attitude obsessed with speed, needs a pair of shoes to protect his feet from hot sand. In return, he rewards Arzette with a pair of Speedy Shoes that increase her speed, telling her "Gotta go fast!" and then running past a signpost that causes him to teleport somewhere else.
- The game's unlockable hard mode is named "Hero Mode", which is also the name used for various Zelda games' hard modes. Considering Arzette's inspirations, this was almost certainly intentional.
- Spikes of Doom: Spikes make an appearance as a hazard.
- Spiking the Camera: Zig-zagged. Many NPCs who are supposed to be talking to Arzette in cutscenes will be facing directly at the camera, implying a First-Person Perspective. However, Arzette will occasionally be shown standing in a completely different spot, making the NPC look like they were talking to you.
- Suspiciously Cracked Wall: There are objects that have cracks in them. In town, there is an actual wall. Blowing them up opens up new areas.
- Stylistic Suck: The game's animated cutscenes lovingly emulate the infamously odd style of Animation Magic; they feature strange and jerky movement, and character designs that change from shot to shot.
- Sword and Gun: Alongside her trusty sword Arzette can obtain a magic gun which she uses in her offhand through an optional sidequest.
- Sword Beam: One of your sword's upgrades is being able to launch a wave of magical energy.
- Throw the Book at Them: Daimur attacks with projectile books. Likely an act of spite after being sealed in one for ten years.
- Token Heroic Orc: Zazie is a demon girl who is found in Daimur's Lair and deeply admires him, implying that she is one of his minions. However, the Smart Sword can't harm her, proving she is not evil. She is also a crucial step in the Chain of Deals needed to get the game's ultimate weapon.
- Trailers Always Lie: Downplayed; the reveal trailer features a clip of Bonnie Jean Wilbur saying "Good!", one of her memetic lines as Zelda from The Wand of Gamelon. While Wilbur does have dialogue in the game, she never says "Good!"
- Treasure Is Bigger in Fiction: Rubies are the size of Arzette's head.
- Uncommon Time: Anju Desert theme's time signature is in 5/4.
- Visual Pun: When Arzette goes stargazing in Odie's observatory, she says "Puts it all into perspective, huh?" As she says this, she's drawn in perspective; specifically, a top-down view.
- We Can Rule Together: Nodelki and Daimur make this offer when Arzette confronts them. Neither one convinces her.
- Writing Around Trademarks:
- The games' marketing never refers to the Zelda CD-i games by name, only calling them "an infamous pair of adventure games" whenever they are brought up.
- Based on the intro, the game is written as a direct sequel to the CD-i games, albeit a Broad Strokes version that combines the events of both. Most of the characters involved share at least part of their names with a CD-i character, and the events being described clearly invoke the events of the CD-i games.
- You Fool!: Daimur utters this stock phrase after he's defeated.
- Your Size May Vary: The crow is almost as tall as Arzette in the game world but significantly smaller during cutscenes.
