I'm also a fan of Zanzarah - or at least have been, since it is sol old now.
But the press and as a result of that the gamers stamped it as a "Pokémon-game" => "childish".
I think this could have been the beginning of the fashion that games should be dark and not cute in any way.
I have never ever felt in any game the feeling of actually losing any sense of direction within a wood … which was so dark, I did not know where I was.
Normal woods in games are considerably light : the trees are high, thin, do not stand much together, and they have few leaves that the sonshine easil comes through.
That wood I'm talking of in Zanzarah was the total opposite of that. Short, but very, very broad trees, so thick leaves that the sunshine hardly ever comes through … I have never ever seen a wood in any game that was so immersive, it almost gave me the shivers.
And it was neither dirty, not gritty in any way.
Just dark, and … so …
thick I quickly lost my way within it.