Operencia: The Stolen Sun Review

Operencia: The Stolen Sun is a dungeon crawler by Zen Studios, a developer principally known for pinball games. Originally a 2019 Xbox exclusive, it recently released on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and GOG.

Popularized by classic franchises like Wizardry and Might & Magic, grid-based dungeon crawlers have slipped out of the limelight in recent years. Many of the subgenre’s modern additions merely regurgitate the fundamentals without bringing anything innovative to the table. If poorly executed, dungeon crawlers can be insufferable.

Operencia: The Stolen Sun is guilty of many of the same criticisms leveled at the subgenre’s bottom-of-the-barrel offerings. The combat, locations, and weapons would not look out of place in Dungeon Master. And the seven playable characters snugly fit into the conventional fantasy roles of knight, thief, archer, and sorcerer. From the very first second of the game, Operencia: The Stolen Sun feels familiar. Yet, the game is more than the sum of its parts.

Story

The subgenre’s tropes appear faithfully in Operencia: The Stolen Sun. But Hungarian developer Zen Studios injects a touch of personality by adopting its own cultural background as inspiration. Hungarian folklore is prevalent throughout the narrative. It offers a refreshing change of pace from the typical subjects explored by the majority of Western RPGs.

That is not to say Operencia weaves an especially bizarre tale. By and large, the straightforward story relies on a tried-and-tested narrative formula. A farmer is summoned by the gods to venture on a quest in search of a missing MacGuffin. Throughout his/her journey, the custom-created protagonist meets six other traveling strangers. Each for one reason or another resolves to lend a helping hand. As tends to be the case, this adventure involves slaying dragons, a couple of vengeful spirits, and a great deal of campfire banter.

Presentation

There is the occasional cut-scene. But Operencia: The Stolen Sun mostly tells its tale through an omniscient narrator, stunning interludes presented like a picture book, and static images of the characters chatting away about everything and nothing. The narrator and interludes perform an admirable job fostering a sense of wonder and mystique typically associated with fairy tales. Unfortunately, static images suffer from inconsistent voice acting. Quite a few performances lack the charm to convincingly deliver the more tongue-in-cheek passages of dialogue.

A dungeon crawler is nothing without memorable locations. So, Zen Studios deserves props for crafting detailed and diverse areas congruent with the established world. Whether traversing a dark forest or a fairy castle, Operencia’s 13 maps are nothing short of gorgeous. A comparable level of care has been extended to the designs of the enemies, especially the myriad exciting bosses.