Ariana and the Elder Codex

This is a pretty decent game, and I love Ariana's voice. However, the controls are rather unoptimized, as I get 0.5ms delay after clicking a button; and that simple slowness could kill me... but the self-heal is cool. Nonetheless I'm using a 8bitUltimate controller---which is supposed to be good still has that delay, which was weird. The story has potential to be great, but playing a 3D model for a 2D Platformer is rather cool, but at the same time, it's dull... Imagine sucking up enough electricity to actually play an AA(A) title—that kind of thing—but playing a 2D platformer. For the gameplay, it's luck luster when I think about it. Every map is just 2-5 screens away from loading another part of the map, which I get to see the loading screen transition of a book which is actually cool and all, but everytime it loads and actually adds up to the waiting time causes me grief and disappointment. It's not fluid enough. Lastly, [b]DO NOT EVER BUY THE BASE GAME ONLY[/b], as there's no way to get the Deluxe items afterwards unless you pay for the Deluxe version outright. But if you don't care about the DLC, just buy the Base Game. I would only recommend buying this for more than but…

Decent game clearly inspired by modern 2d soulslikes, but thankfully without being one, the rpg mechanics are more on the light side. The combat is thanks to the skill/magic system very satisfying (especially thanks to the elemental burst explosions). And there is quite some variety and different combinations that are possible. When exploring the maps some platforming is mixed in, but nothing too challenging. The presentation is where the game falls off though and is very barebones. While the artwork and the character designs are really good, there is also its ambient soundtrack that is very monotone and never truly stands out. A lot of the "emotional" moments in the story fall a bit flat thanks to the music never fitting the scenes. And said scenes are mostly presented in visual novel style (but basically without any event cg) or via the very simple chibi-models. Some either pre-rendered or anime cutscenes (or try something experimental and less expensive like still picture book style) could have elevated my impression of this game by a lot. It is still a game that i can recommend. Not like this game is overly expensive when bought on a discount.

The game is not terrible but has some major flaws. The story is actually interesting, I like the short stories format for the codices. Experimenting with the different spells is fun. The visuals and music are also pretty good. This is where the good things end, sadly. The controls are pretty clunky. You can get by most of the time, but you specially feel it against airborne enemies. The difficulty curve does not exist, the game was from trivial to complete nightmare with no inbetweens. The difficulty spike is so high at the end, with the amount of random ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ flying your way it's impossible to tell, where everything is coming from or even where you're actually standing. The games ask for too much dodging and quick reflexes for what the controls can actually allow you to do. Even though the story is interesting, the pacing is abysmal. I get stopped so much by characters rambling incessantly, it honestly gets way more annoying than engaging. Unfortunately these issues have killed any enjoyment I could have had with this, at this point I'm just trying to defeat the final boss because I'm already here so might as well. If you still want to play this, just put it in easy m…

This is my opinion After playing for less than two hours, the art style is pretty, the voice acting is solid, and the music is nice, but the gameplay just isn't doing it for me. It was good at first, but fighting enemies gets repetitive and boring really fast. Plus, there’s barely anything to explore rather than just opening chests. I started on hard mode at first, but I ended up switching to easy mode just to go through the story. tbh, the gameplay was the main reason I bought it in the first place. The story itself is fine, nothing crazy. Overall, it’s not the worst 2D game I’ve ever played, and there are definitely things I liked about it, but I just don't have the will to finish it.

The story is somewhat predictable, but I like the gameplay enjoyed every second of it.

A magic casting platformer. Charming artstyle, nice music. Movement is fluid and combat is responsive. Story is fun to follow. Spell effects look great.