After taking a break from game reviews for a couple of months, the return to the grind has never been this rewarding. A fresh start, a blank slate, but more importantly, a new game that doesn’t disappoint… well, mostly. Ariana and the Elder Codex is an action adventure game that mixes both platforming and magic. Wielding a great array of abilities that you can mix and match to suit your playstyle whether it’s devastating your foes with rotating air blades inside a fiery vortex of flames or overwhelming them with multi-elemental projectiles. But before I get too ahead of myself and spoil too much, let’s take a step back.
A story about jumping into other stories…
Ariana and the Elder Codex, a game that is coming out for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation consoles on March 24th, with a later release for PC on April 29th, is a side-scrolling action platformer about, you guessed it, Ariana. A librarian in a world where magic was created through the seven hero codices—magical books that have mysteriously been altered, which led to losing the ability to use their magic within. Luckily for our dear protagonist, she has the unique ability to traverse inside the codices and directly restore them to their original state. And thus her adventure begins…
It’s a nice tale with a great setting. Giving you a bit of lore and background to how each of these thousand-year-old books was made, without giving a thousand-hour-long history lesson in the process. What’s nice here is that because they’re separate stories from one another, you’re also given free choice on which story or magic you’d want to tackle next. But sadly, it isn’t without its downsides. Ariana’s story, which only takes shape after each book has been restored, often feels messy and disconnected—having to bounce from one story of the codex into a huge wall of text right after.
A chaotic gameplay you wouldn’t want to miss
Although its core gameplay and fun little additions are what really made me enjoy the game the most. As I mentioned earlier in the review, you can mix and match abilities that can be mapped on your three face buttons—namely Y, X and A on the Switch with three more while holding the right trigger (zR) for a total of 6 normal spells out of the 30 or so available, which all have their own upgrades and additional effects.
This offers a lot of freedom and more importantly, it gives you a sense of control and being out of it. Oftentimes, I find myself just overwhelming the enemies with a barrage of bouncing water balls and projectiles that even I, myself gets overwhelmed. You can level up your character as you fight hordes of enemies, collect loot and craft magical items that will help you out as you clash with the guardians of the altered codices.
And as an action-platformer, it does what it’s meant to do. Diverse areas with its own themes, obstacles, tricky platforming sections as well as hidden areas with certain challenges to reward map exploration. It just feels a bit sad that enemies are a bit overused and redundant—often differentiated by just a new splash of paint. But amidst all of that chaos, is a genuine game that has character which evolves as you go.
Great visuals with nice bits of details
In terms of visuals, it doesn’t disappoint on the art direction. The lead character feels like someone taken from a fairy tale book which sounds fitting considering the setting. Meanwhile, the supporting cast while only given minor screen-time, strikes a certain way. You’ve got Berkeley who’s probably getting his groove on for the next vampire movie and if you’re looking for a fortune teller, Divina’s got that covered. Its just a real shame that minor characters within the codex are mostly ethereal in appearance and lacks proper voice acting.
The world and its many areas offer diverse backdrops that fit the theme. Its nothing to write home about but gets the job done nonetheless. A codex of earth is mountainous with a lot of rocky surfaces while others would speak the same tone. But what really got me was the twist within the later codices where instead of elements, you’re dealing with something a bit more dark, scientific and man-made. Plus, I love the attention to detail when switching areas also flips a page, a forced encounter has these jagged edges that imitates a torn page and the occasional challenges show up like someone punctured the book from underneath.
I wish Ariana is able to fix this too
However, it saddens me that it also has its big issues that I hope gets optimized. During the review process and more specifically, on the Nintendo Switch, the game does suffer from longer loading times whenever you enter a new codex. Even worse is the game does slow down and stutter ever so often when you enter these sorts of rifts that mostly spawns a lot of enemies. But if you don’t care much about the image quality, there’s also a toggle that sacrifices quality for a bit more stability.
Conclusion
Ariana and the Elder Codex is a truly fascinating game despite its hiccups. Its one of those games that has some really good gameplay if you want something a bit more active, hectic or even just plain chaotic. The fact that its stories are a bit more independent also makes it a great game for quick bursts to shorter gaming sessions. So if you’re interested in something that’ll keep you busy without having to dedicate extensively long hours, this might just be the game that scratches that itch—that is if $39.99 or £26.99 sounds reasonable enough for a game that you’d finish in around 10 hours give or take.
Ariana and the Elder Codex Video Review
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The game was provided to us for the express purpose of reviewing.
