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Ary and the Secret of Seasons

Ary and the Secret of Seasons

Hold the power of the seasons in the palm of your hand in this light RPG.

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Over the past few years of game development, RPGs have ventured down a path towards elongated playtimes. It's incredibly common now for a typical RPG to deliver tens of hours of gameplay, and whilst that does have its perks, for a lot of people, the required commitment to complete them can be a little offputting. However, there's always an exception to prove the rule and the latest title by Fishing Cactus is slightly different, and this action-adventure RPG is lighter in terms of the content it offers. This is Ary and the Secret of Seasons.

Ary and the Secret of Seasons follows the story of a young girl searching for her lost brother after a clue reignites the mystery of his disappearance, whilst simultaneously learning more about strange red crystals causing the seasons to act unusually. With her family being one of the four guardians of the seasons, Ary uses the power of the seasonal elements to assist in her journey across the dangerous, yet marvellous lands of Valdi. In trying to find her brother and learn about the origins of the crystals, Ary uncovers a deep plot against the realm, a plot that will surely reveal shocking truths and perhaps even answer the questions she seeks to solve.

Ary is an action-adventure RPG, which means the majority of the gameplay is centred around exploring, completing quests, and developing Ary's skills. There is the main quest line to follow, unravelling the mystery regarding the shifting seasons and her brother's disappearance, a questline that often gifts Ary new abilities to play around with. These abilities are usually tied to Season Stones: powerful magical relics that can channel the power of a season and summon it at will. Using these newfound skills, Ary will have to manipulate the world to unlock new areas and solve some environmental puzzles along the way.

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As for how the Season Stones work, they have some really neat intricate details. To use them, Ary casts a small orb, and if it hits an elemental stone, the affected area is enlarged significantly. Each of the four seasons creates a different style of effect, for example, winter can freeze water and cause certain platforms to appear, summer can do the opposite in most cases. The great part comes when you start combining elements, as they start doing some really funky things alike spawning water that's completely suspended in the air. This elemental system has some quirky features to play around with.

Ary and the Secret of SeasonsAry and the Secret of Seasons

Outside of messing around with the Season Stones, Ary is also a very agile and talented individual. She can leap distances (even double jump with some added help), fight daunting, huge opponents without her courage faltering and even hit targets with marksman level skill with her slingshot. The beauty of having a mobile and strangely deadly character is that she can face combat encounters in a range of directions, something particularly useful against more lethal foes.

The game has quite a diverse combat system featuring opportunities to strike, combo, evade, parry, and use the seasons to your advantage. With these options, you can face combat however you like. You could dive right in with a beat em up' style of fighting, or rather you could be a little more methodical and focus on parrying and counter-attacking your opposition. There's little to limit the way you play, although with the types of enemies available, sometimes one style is better than another.

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Ary's main enemies are hyenas - literal hyenas. In the title, they are regarded as a sort of gang of criminals who will attack innocents, steal and just, in general, be a nuisance. The hyena gang itself comes with a variety of foot soldiers, from basic sword wielders to armoured bruisers, all the way to magic-using raccoons. Yes, it's all a little weird, but it sure beats fighting regular humans all the time. Each foe has its own attack chain and will challenge you to face them in different ways, something often reflected in the boss encounters.

Throughout the story, Ary will come up against daunting bosses, designed to test the limits of your abilities. All of them are unique, and each has their own move sets, which are usually tied to a specific seasonal element. For example, when searching for the second Season Stone, Ary takes on a large mace wielding bull, who spawns huge ice crystals on his slam attack. Ary must use the power of summer to remove the shards and be able to attack in return. Boss fights often require a little more ingenuity to solve, such as the amazing encounter with the stone bird, a fight that asks Ary to use all the seasonal powers she has available at her disposal.

Ary and the Secret of Seasons
Ary and the Secret of SeasonsAry and the Secret of Seasons

Outside of completing the regular storyline, Ary also offers plenty of open-world activities. These can be finding chests or picking up collectables, or it could be working on some side quests to assist the people of Valdi. The issue is, the majority of these outside objectives are really not all that interesting, in fact, most side quests can be completed in the space of a minute.

Quite frankly, this sort of gameplay is the main issue with the game. It's obvious for anyone who has played a large RPG that Ary and the Secret of Seasons is tailored to younger audiences. First of all, this isn't inherently bad, but with it comes the sort of narrative you'd find in a Trolls movie. Even more so, building on quest design, a lot of the side quests ask you to do mundane things, such as speak to some townsfolk, or fetch an item and return it, with little going in between. The main issue, however, comes on the technical front, with long loading times and unskippable cutscenes. Seriously, there were occasions where it felt like I was spending more time watching something happen or load than actually playing.

Ary and the Secret of SeasonsAry and the Secret of Seasons

With this being said, it's not all bad. The gameplay of Ary and the Secret of Seasons feels great when you get to actually play it. There's plenty of opportunities to upgrade Ary's kit, unlock new items, explore new areas, and the title has some striking visual effects, which for a younger audience, less versed in the style of diverse RPGs, make it as a whole a pretty brilliant introductory experience.

Ary and the Secret of Seasons is a great beginners action-adventure RPG, ideal for younger players looking to experience the genre. The title has some brilliant environmental effects tied to its seasonal system and plenty of ways to enjoy the world of Valdi outside of basting through the campaign. Older players will likely find this game a little dreary after a while, with a narrative that struggles to excite and technical aspects that frequently break the immersion. Even with its faults, Ary and the Secret of Seasons is fun to play, the feeling of casting your first seasonal zone and seeing the chill of winter seep out onto the landscape is exciting. It actually makes me miss the colder months.

Ary and the Secret of Seasons
Ary and the Secret of SeasonsAry and the Secret of SeasonsAry and the Secret of Seasons
07 Gamereactor UK
7 / 10
+
The elemental design is a lot of fun to play around with, and the intricacies of this system really do shine bright. The simple design of the title makes it great for younger players.
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The simple design will likely cause versed RPG players to become a little bored after a short while.
overall score
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Ary and the Secret of SeasonsScore

Ary and the Secret of Seasons

REVIEW. Written by Ben Lyons

"It's a great beginners action-adventure RPG, ideal for younger players looking to experience the genre."



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