Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal

aka: Zanzarah: Das Verborgene Portal, Zanzarah: La légende des deux mondes
Moby ID: 7120

Description official descriptions

Amy's 18th birthday set in motion the start of a series of adventures. An unknown stranger enters her London house, leaving behind a curious casket in her attic. In it, she discovers a magical rune that teleports her to a magical land created by fairies: Zanzarah. In Zanzarah, the unknown stranger reveals himself a goblin. The goblin requests help from Amy, who he believes is the prophesied Fairy Master whose duty it is to save Zanzarah, as the land is now ravaged by wild fairies, pixies, and shadow elves. Amy, now a stranger in a strange land with the help and advise from the local elves, dwarves, owls, and goblins, must attempt to become a Fairy Master by obtaining and training fairies, dueling and defeating wild fairies and their masters along the way. To ultimately fulfill her destiny to save Zanzarah!

In Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal, play the role of Amy and help her become a Fairy Master. To do this, the player must obtain and train a fairy. With the help of the local inhabitants of Zanzarah, Amy will explore the land in third-person perspective in search for different types of fairies to defeat and capture, while helping the people of Zanzarah along the way.

Fairy Combat

When Amy obtains her first fairy, she will have to train it and make it stronger to face the various wild fairies that constantly attack travelers. Fairy combat, which may be considered the primary gameplay element of this game, either occurs when Amy is attacked by a wild fairy or enters into a duel with when challenged by other Fairy Masters. Combat occurs is first-person perspective, where the player directly controls the movement of a selected fairy. In combat, the fairy may fly (jump) and attack with spells. When a fairy is weakened enough and the player obtains a magical sphere, the player may opt to capture the fairy. Depending on the element of a fairy, some fairies may be stronger or weaker when facing an opposing element. For example, a Water fairy will sustain additional damage and suffer less damage from Fire fairies, but are weaker when facing of Air fairies.

Winning an encounter or duel may randomly reward the player with fairy coins (used to purchase various beneficial items) or a dropped item. Fairies that have entered and survived combat will also gain experience and may level up, obtaining new spell levels as well as stronger attributes. A player may only carry five fairies at a time, all of which may be summoned and switched at will during combat. Additional captured or obtained fairies will be sent to Amy's London house.

Fairy Character Sheet

Role-playing character development only occurs with fairies. Fairies have several attributes such as Hit Points, Mana Points, Jump Ability, etc. Fairies attack in combat using spells. Spells come in two variations: offensive spells and passive spells. Offensive spells are used to attack the opponent while passive spells are automatically active. Spells may be purchased and equipped to fairies. As fairies come in different types and elements, only specific spells may be assigned to a specific type of fairy. For example, nature spells may only be used by Nature Fairies. Additionally, fairies have spells levels and will have to gain experience in order to equip more powerful spells.

In total, there are 77 fairies the player may capture and level-up, consisting of the following elemental types: Air, Water, Fire, Stone, Energy, Psi, Chaos, Metal, Darkness, and Light. Additionally, certain fairies when reaching a particular level may evolve to a stronger type of fairy if the player wishes to do so. Other fairies may evolve to a stronger type of fairy by combining the fairy with specific items.

Spellings

  • Zanzarah: В поисках затерянной страны - Russian spelling
  • 赞扎克: 隐藏之门 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Windows version)

95 People (77 developers, 18 thanks) · View all

Project Lead & Design
Programming - Engine
Programming - Sound
Programming - Gamecode, Tools, Engine
Programming - Effects, Tools, Engine
Programming - Ai
Programming - Net, Engine, Gamecode
Additional Programming - Tools
Additional Programming - Net
Additional Programming - System
Level Design, Characters, Animations, Tools
2d Art, Skins, Effects
Level Design, Character Animations
Level Design
Characters, Animation
Additional Graphics
Intro & Video - Cinematic Animator
Intro & Video - Book design
Intro & Video - Lighting & Modeling
Author & Scripting
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 79% (based on 22 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 15 ratings with 0 reviews)

Be the first to review this game!

Trivia

Shortly after the game was released in Germany, an expansion pack was announced, and even some music made for it. The idea was dropped after Zanzarah sold very poorly all over the world.

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Portal / Portal 2
Released 2011 on Windows, Macintosh, 2022 on Nintendo Switch
Portal
Released 1987 on Amiga, DOS, Atari ST...
Portal: The Flash Version
Released 2007 on Browser
Pinball FX2: Portal Pinball
Released 2015 on Windows, Xbox 360, Macintosh...
Portal 2: Sixense MotionPack
Released 2011 on Windows, 2012 on PlayStation 3
Portal Knights
Released 2016 on Windows, 2017 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4...
Portal 2: Peer Review
Released 2011 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
WarCraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal
Released 1996 on DOS, Macintosh
Portal 2
Released 2011 on Windows, 2011 on Xbox 360, 2014 on Linux...

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 7120
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JenG.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Indra was here, Jeanne, MDMaster, Klaster_1.

Game added August 17, 2002. Last modified July 16, 2023.