History VideoGame / ZanZarahTheHiddenPortal

* MasterOfAll: It can be proven mathematically that a party consisting of a Light, an Energy, a Psi, an Ice, and a Dark fairy will have a game-theoretical advantage against ''all but one'' other combination of five different elements, with only Light/Energy/Psi/Ice/Chaos being able to go toe-to-toe with it (if only because Chaos and Dark fairies are mutually interchangeable in this particular match-up).

* MasterOfAll: It can be proven mathematically that a party consisting of a Light, an Energy, a Psi, an Ice, and a Dark fairy will have a game-theoretical advantage against ''all but one'' other combination of elements, with only Light/Energy/Psi/Ice/Chaos being able to go toe-to-toe with it (if only because Chaos and Dark fairies are mutually interchangeable in this particular match-up).

''[=ZanZarah=]: The Hidden Portal'' is an ActionAdventure game with ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''-style [[GottaCatchThemAll faery training/duelling]], {{Metroidvania}} and RPGElements, and a simple plot in the vein of ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourney''. It also features [[SceneryPorn beautiful visuals]], Awesome/{{music}}, funny pseudo-languages, and surprisingly tactical combat (once you [[GuideDangIt figure out how]] to ''shoot''[[note]]To shoot a spell while controlling a faery, you need to hold down the left mouse button for it to accumulate some charge. Don't hold it for too long, though. It backfires.[[/note]]). The game was developed by the German studio Funatics Development and released by THQ in 2002. They also tried to release an ExpansionPack, ''[=ZanZarah=]: The Lost Village'', but it was CutShort. After languishing in IP limbo for two years following [=THQ's=] closure, the publishing rights to the game had been picked up by Creator/DaedalicEntertainment, who rereleased it on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} in August 2015.

** NonLethalBottomlessPits: Can be used to abuse the game's CheckPoint system: if you don't want to jump all the way back after completing a jumping puzzle, you can just save your game and leap down into the abyss, only to respawn at the entrance to the location. The only penalty you get for that is that all switches you may have activated there will be reset.

* TheProphecy: Rafi firmly believes in an ancient prophesy of TheChosenOne--a human girl, to be precise--who'd become the greatest Faery Duelist of all times and deliver Zanzarah from evil.

* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: To access the Great Tree where the Elemental Card of Air is kept, you'll have to engage in one of the most loss-making [[ChainOfDeals deal chains]] in video game history: the only path to the Tree is [[BrokenBridge blocked by a tournament entrant]] who won't budge until you give him a Segbuzz faery--which cannot be found in the wild and must be traded for a Suane, which, at that point, can only be obtained from a miniquest in the Cloud Realm. In other words, you end up trading the most powerful Light faery in the entire game (that does not even exist in the wild), for a level ''0'' Worgot--a weakling Nature faery. [[spoiler:You do get the Segbuzz back after you beat its master in the tournament, but it's still hardly a replacement for Suane.]]

[[OnlyOneName Amy]] is an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent from London with a penchant for FantasyLiterature. One day, while left at home alone, she is surprised by a [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive sound coming from the attic]], where she finds a casket with a [[WarpWhistle stone tablet]] inside that suddenly transports her to a [[AnotherDimension colorful magical landscape]] populated by [[FairyCompanion faeries]], [[OurElvesAreBetter elves]], [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblins]], [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarves]], and [[FantasyKitchenSink the rest of the fantastic creatures]]. She is greeted by [[MrExposition a goblin named Rafi]], an adventurer extraordinaire, who managed to cross the barrier between his native [[TitleDrop Zanzarah]] ([[NotInKansasAnymore where Amy has just landed]]) and Amy's own [[RealLife Earth]]. He wasn't driven by scientific interest, though. Zanzarah is in grave peril: [[DarkIsEvil Dark Elves]] roam the landscape, wild faeries attack travelers, contact between settlements is lost due to unnatural obstructions, while the [[GuardianOfTheMultiverse White Druid]], who is supposed to protect the lands from evil, is helpless. But the legends also speak of a [[TheChosenOne saviour]] who will be [[SummonEverymanHero summoned from Earth]] to become the greatest Faery Duelist of all times and to SaveBothWorlds... for whatever is afflicting one world will inevitably echo in the other.

* OurElvesAreBetter: The Elves in Zanzarah are a peaceful, nature-loving homebirds who rarely venture outside Endeva and Tiralin. Their language sounds a bit like [[GratuitousFrench French]].

** NonLethalBottomlessPits: There is a way to abuse the game's CheckPoint system with this: if you don't want to jump all the way back after completing a jumping puzzle, you can just save your game and leap down into the abyss, only to respawn at the entrance to the location. The only penalty you get for that is that all switches you may have activated there will be reset.

* GuideDangIt: With a smidge of LostForever, this goes for certain faeries.

** There are only three stones of evolutionary magic for Nature fearies, two for Fire faeries, and one for Air faeries. Meanwhile, there are two Nature evolutions that require one, two Fire evolutions, and one Air evolution. Using Fire magic twice to get one particular evolution twice will make the other unobtainable and Nature magic barely gives more leeway.

* HeroicMime: Downplayed, as Amy does talk (mainly in cutscenes) but very rarely--and never in actual gameplay dialogue.

** There are only three stones of evolutionary magic for Nature fearies, two for Fire faeries, and one for Air faeries. Meanwhile, there are two Nature evolutions that require one, two Fire evolutions, and one Air evolution. Using Fire magic twice to get one particular evolution will make the other unobtainable and Nature magic barely gives more leeway.

** Several faery lines have easy to find second forms, but hard to find first forms. (And third forms rarely occur in the wild) Notably hard to find ones are Grem and Beltaur. Grem can only reliably be found in two spawn points, even though Gremor is a common faery. A way to avoid searching for Grem is picking him as starter faery, although you'd have to never let it evolve to Gremor, thereby making it a poor choice of starter. Beltaur is an uncommon find exclusive to the second Dark Cave, while its evolution Mentaur is a regular in both Dark Caves.

** Several faery lines have easy to find second forms, but very hard to find first forms. (And third forms rarely occur in the wild) Notably hard to find ones are Grem and Beltaur. Grem can only reliably be found in two spawn points, even though Gremor is a common faery. A way to avoid searching for Grem is picking him as starter faery, although you'd have to never let it evolve to Gremor, thereby making it a poor choice of starter. Beltaur is an uncommon find exclusive to the second Dark Cave, while its evolution Mentaur is a regular in both Dark Caves.

''[=ZanZarah=]: The Hidden Portal'' is an ActionAdventure game with ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''-style [[GottaCatchThemAll faery training/duelling]], {{Metroidvania}} and RPGElements, and a simple plot in the vein of ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourney''. It also features [[SceneryPorn beautiful visuals]], Awesome/{{music}}, funny pseudo-languages, and surprisingly tactical combat (once you [[GuideDangIt figure out how]] to ''shoot''[[note]]To shoot a spell while controlling a faery, you need to hold down the left mouse button for it to accumulate some charge. Don't hold it for too long, though. It backfires.[[/note]]).

The game was developed by the German studio Funatics Development and released by THQ in 2002. They also tried to release an ExpansionPack, ''[=ZanZarah=]: The Lost Village'', but it was CutShort. After languishing in IP limbo for two years following [=THQ's=] closure, the publishing rights to the game had been picked up by Creator/DaedalicEntertainment, who rereleased it on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} in August 2015.

* FairyCompanion: The whole game revolves around training them. Additionally, one constantly accompanies Amy during her travels. Many of the female (humanoid looking) faeries are particularly FairySexy, especially the Nature Faeries.

* FemaleAngelMaleDemon: Light faeries are universally feminine and angelic (as well as FairySexy), while most Dark faeries appear masculine and demonic.
* GottaCatchThemAll: There are 77 faery species in the game, all with unique appearance, attributes, and spell preferences. Capturing or otherwise obtaining all of them without cheating is [[BraggingRightsReward quite a feat, but not necessary to win the game]].

* MookBouncer: The wild Psi faeries have a lot of nasty abilities that can bring about a TotalPartyKill faster than you can switch out your faeries. Luckily, they only live in a few caves up in the mountains.
* MrExposition: Rafi at first, but the [[TheOwlKnowingOne Owls]] are actually a much better example, as the sole purpose of them being scattered all across Zanzarah is to provide advice to Amy.

* SceneryPorn: The screenshots of the game, ''especially'' the Cloud Ream, look like they've been taken from a landscape art exhibition.

* EscapeBattleTechnique: Garlic Atomizer scares away any attacking wild faeries, but you have to buy it beforehand and it only works in the short time between being attacked and the FightWoosh. During a faery duel, making your way to the miniature sun at the center of the area allows you to escape random encounters (but not boss battles). In a particular bit of cruelty, the wild faeries can use it, too, if they are losing badly, robbing you of the XP you earned in blood (that is, in faery hit points).

* EscapeBattleTechnique: The game had the Garlic Atomizer that scares away any attacking wild faeries but you have to buy it beforehand and it only works in the short time between being attacked and the FightWoosh. During a faery duel, making your way to the miniature sun at the center of the area allows you to escape random encounters (but not boss battles). In a particular bit of cruelty, the wild faeries can use it, too, if they are losing badly, robbing you of the XP you earned in blood (that is, in faery hit points).

* GottaCatchThemAll: There are 77 faery species in the game, all with unique appearance, attributes, and spell preferences. Capturing or otherwise obtaining all of them without cheating is [[SelfImposedChallenge quite a feat, but not necessary to win the game]].

* HandsOffParenting: [[FridgeLogic Apparently]], the shopping trip that Amy's mom embarks on in the opening cutscene is so epic, she never actually checks up on her house in many weeks, during which her daughter is nowhere to be found most of the time, while said house becomes gradually overrun by bizarre fey creatures.

* HumansAreBastards: The White Druid (despite himself being a human) came to believe this after witnessing the {{Witch Hunt}}s in our world that forced the magical creatures to escape to Zanzarah. He is therefore not thrilled to find that another human has found her way to his realm, but he grudgingly accepts Amy's help in rooting out the Dark Elves. [[spoiler:It turns out that he is actually the BigBad of the game, driven to villainy by his paranoia of humanity.]]

* PhantomZone: The Faery Duel Arenas are pocket dimensions with increasingly bizarre architectures. While the low-level arenas look like rather reasonable RuinsForRuinsSake, high-level arenas may look like a giant stone corkscrew or a number of random stone slabs just floating in the sea of nothing.

* RecurringBoss: Seamus the elf sees Amy as his [[TheRival rival]] after his father picks her as his successor in pixie hunting rather than him. He keeps coming after her over the course of the game with more and more powerful faery sets.
* RPGElements: All faeries gain XP and level up through combat, can be equipped with increasingly powerful offensive/defensive spells, lose and gain mana/HP. There is also something like the PlayerParty, namely, Amy's five chosen faeries that follow her into battles (although only one can be fielded and directly controlled by the player at a time). For a cherry tapping, you can give your favorite faeries unique names.

* StarterMon: Before you leave Endeva, you must choose one three starter fairies offered to you by Rufus: an all-rounder Nature fairy Sillia with a good evolution path, a tanky Stone fairy Grem, or a wonky Water fairy Tadana. The last one seems like an odd choice, except that you won't have a chance to capture another water fairy for quite a while after that.
* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: To access the Great Tree where the Elemental Card of Air is kept, you'll have to engage in one of the most loss-making [[ChainOfDeals deal chains]] in video games: the only path to the tree is [[BrokenBridge blocked by a tournament entrant]] who won't budge until you give him a Segbuzz faery--which cannot be found in the wild and must be traded for a Suane, which, at that point, can only be obtained from a miniquest in the Cloud Realm. At the end of the day, you trade the most powerful Light faery in the entire game (that does not even exist in the wild), for a level ''0'' Worgot--a weakling Nature faery. [[spoiler:You do get the Segbuzz back after you beat its master in the tournament, but it's still hardly a replacement for Suane.]]
* SummonEverymanHero: Amy is not exactly summoned to, but rather lured into Zanzarah by Rafi.

* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Fielding a faery that has an [[ElementalRockPaperScissors elemental advantage]] against your current opponent usually means you are safe from defeat... unless the enemy faery has a lot of HP and uses a spell that charges much faster than yours, in which case it can kill you faster with its weak but fast jabs before you can inflict enough damage to it. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard That the enemy faeries never run out of mana helps.]]

* StarterMon: Before you leave the First Town, you must choose one three starter fairies offered to you by Rufus: an all-rounder Nature fairy Sillia with a good evolution path, a tanky Stone fairy Grem, or a wonky Water fairy Tadana. The last one seems like an odd choice, except that you won't have a chance to capture another water fairy for quite a while after that.

The game was developed by the German studio Funatics Development and released by THQ in 2002. They also tried to release an ExpansionPack, ''[=ZanZarah=]: The Lost Village'', but it was CutShort. After languishing in IP limbo since [=THQ's=] closure, the publishing rights to the game were picked up by Creator/DaedalicEntertainment for a rerelease on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} in August 2015.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zanzarah_portal_square.jpg]]

The game was developed by the German studio Funatics Development and released by THQ in 2002. They also tried to release an ExpansionPack, ''[=ZanZarah=]: The Lost Village'', but it was CutShort. After languishing in IP limbo since [=THQ's=] closure, the publishing rights to the game were picked up by Daedalic Entertainment (of ''VideoGame/{{Deponia}}'' fame) for a rerelease on {{Steam}} in August 2015.

The game was developed by the German studio Funatics Development and released by THQ in 2002. They also tried to release an ExpansionPack, ''[=ZanZarah=]: The Lost Village'', but it was CutShort.

* ElementalRockPaperScissors: There are 12 elements in the game that the faeries can belong to, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

''[=ZanZarah=]: The Hidden Portal'' is an ActionAdventure game with ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''-style [[GottaCatchThemAll faery training/duelling]], {{Metroidvania}} and RPGElements, and a simple plot in the footsteps of ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourney''. It also features [[SceneryPorn beautiful visuals]], Awesome/{{music}}, funny pseudo-languages, and surprisingly tactical combat (once you [[GuideDangIt figure out how]] to ''shoot''[[note]]To shoot a spell while controlling a faery, you need to hold down the left mouse button for it to accumulate some charge. Don't hold it for too long, though. It backfires.[[/note]]).

* GuardianOfTheMultiverse: The White Druid and also, the Guardian, though the latter's function is more like guarding Zanzarah from Earth's humans.