Aeon of Sands - The Trail

fantastic dungeon crawler that somehow didn't get as much recognition as it deserved. aeon has that old-school "choose your own adventure" feel in a very memorable post-apocalyptic desert setting with great art and a great color palette. It's exploration focused, non linear, and full of tasty grid-based combat.

A fun dungeon crawler that feels like a journey and trek through desert lands. It promises to be a funny game, but I didn't really enjoy the humor much myself. I thought the world itself was very interesting so I was kinda bummed out that it tried to make jokes at the games expense much of the time. The art and mood otherwise is top notch! Unlike other oldschool dungeon crawlers, this game is pretty much devoid of nasty traps, insane puzzles or crazy teleporter shenanigans. All the challenge feels fair, as long as you are on your toes and keep a backup save handy. There are also a ton of story moments and characters you can meet while travelling. Feels like a lot of cool stuff can happen depending on where you go and who is in your party. It all makes for a unique and pleasant experience. I'd recommended this to grid-based dungeon crawling fans. People looking for a traditional first person RPG might be dissapointed by the lack of leveling since character growth comes from using weapons/spells and getting better gear. There is plenty of gear and items tho! Still, if you go in with an open mind that this is an indie game made by a very small team, I think you'll enjoy it as…

Aeon of Sands: The Trail is a unique blend of classic dungeon crawling and narrative-driven role-playing developed and published by Two Bits Kid. Rather than relying solely on combat and loot collection, the game places equal emphasis on storytelling, exploration, and player choice. Set in a harsh desert world where civilization survives around a colossal life-giving tree, the adventure follows Setrani, an unlikely hero whose journey begins with a missing caravan and gradually expands into a far more significant quest. The game's unusual setting immediately captures attention, offering a refreshing alternative to traditional fantasy kingdoms and medieval landscapes. The story is one of the title’s strongest assets. Setrani is not the typical fearless champion found in many RPGs. He is flawed, occasionally selfish, and often overwhelmed by the situations around him. This makes him a surprisingly engaging protagonist whose growth feels natural throughout the adventure. Conversations are filled with humor, personality, and meaningful choices that can influence relationships, uncover hidden information, and alter the course of events. The writing manages to balance lighthearted moment…

First person party based dungeon crawlers is a genre I have always been fascinated by. Every time I saw a clip of them, it was always a tight corridor with repetitive tile textures, as if the game was deliberately designed to try to cause claustrophobia. On the other hand, I wanted to at least try it once to see if I could understand the appeal. The core gameplay loop is you control a whole party, but instead of an isometric top-down or third person camera, you cannot directly see your party, and move in first person as a conglomerate. For this reason, the genre is sometimes referred to as "blobbers". The controls took me some time to get use to, along with the whole "battle dancing" concept. The UI is both intuitive and disorienting. You field of view is limited to a rectangle, any visual information on adjacent tiles is hard to process. The minimap made sure I knew exactly where I was, but didn't highlight enemies, which added another layer of difficulty to combat, as you need to track enemies nearby while paying attention to the minimap and avoid backing yourself into a corner. On top of it, everything takes place in real time. Health, stamina and mana slowly regenerate over t…

Game runs very smoothly, and reminds of "Land of Lore". But autosaves are not frequent, and force you to replay large chunks you already played. NPCs that you have to recruit can get hostile with wrong options and you have to kill them. Because there are only 4 companions (6 if you are doing replay I guess?) it is quite annoying when wrong choices bring to that, and nothing indicates correct choices. Oh well, passable but not great game. I may return to it one day, but puzzles in starter dungeon and unkillable rat are not great either and soured me on experience.

A nice looking DRPG let down by its writing. Its not just that the writing is bad(it is), it actively gets in the way of your enjoyment. The player character makes annoying quips, the dialogues choices feel bizarre with some of them having completely difference "voices" in the prompts, the way the story scenes flow feels schizophrenic. The game touts itself as a "gamebook" which means it also inherits the worst parts about it. After 16 hours of playtime I supposedly got the good ending in the game but I didn't understand anything about the story. Any interest or intrigue that might have been built up gets undercut by unfunny quips. The level design is on the harder side of DRPGs. You pretty much need to scour for secrets for progression and exploration feels somewhat nauseating due to combinations of repetetive tilesets, low draw distance and tiny FOV. The combat on the other hand is very braindead. I spent more healing items walking through damage zones while exploring than in all the combat encounters throughout the game. Despite its flaws I would still recommend it. Its an interesting game and well worth playing for people who are looking for a first person dunge…