Cerasis Quest

Gameplay

This game is a story about a prince who is kidnapped,  and his princess who goes looking to save him. Tapping on the screen advances the commentary or narration forward, and eventually you’ll get to quizzes, labyrinths, brain-teasers, and other challenges.

It’s not quite clear if this game is appropriate for young children though. iTunes rates Cerasis Quests for nine year olds and above for its “infrequent” mild horror and fear themes. I could see this rating coming from the “abduction” of the prince, but I don’t think many parents would want their 9-13 year olds playing this game. For starters, it seems like the graphics are a bit sexual. For example, there’s some amplified focus on the main character princess’s body.

9-12 year olds would also become quite frustrated with this game/story. The first quiz you take as a player in this game is very difficult and requires a lot of retakes. There isn’t enough time to even read any of the quiz questions, let alone answer them. So by the time you get to the third question, you have to keep restarting the quiz and getting the first and second question right just so you get a chance or two to read the third question. By the time you’ve done this dozens of times to complete just one quiz, it gets very old and very frustrating. There’s no feeling of reward with this game/story either, so it’s not clear why a child or adult would put themselves through such frustration.

Furthermore, when tapping on the screen to advance to the next character’s commentary, it takes quite a while for their comment bubble and character graphics to appear. Things would go along a bit quicker if these animations were sped up or at least removed.

Mission Accomplished

I must admit that the story itself can get interesting. The annoying quizzes and other breaks in the app however ruin it all. I would enjoy Cerasis Quest much better, as I’m sure others would, if there were no quizzes or breaks to be had.

Room to improve

Characters should have updated facial expressions and postures when they speak, and when alternating between different characters and their commentary bubbles. During one conversation between the princess and an otter-sort of animal, neither the princess or animal’s expressions or posture changed after 8-10 lines of commentary.

Conclusion

If you’re bored and want to follow through a very confusing but interesting story-line, sprinkled with annoying quizzes and other sort of tests, then this is the right game for you.