Ariana and the Elder Codex

[regemond]

 

Dropping the trailer to introduce this one seems like the best course of action here, to be honest.

 

Remember Muramasa? That awesome PS3/Vita/Wii title? It had gorgeous, 2D, hand-drawn visuals, a stunning colour palette, and was a fantastic Metroidvania-style action game? Yeah, this gives me all those vibes. It's beautiful in movement, the design of the characters is great, and it plays really nicely.

 

You're tasked with repairing books. You do this by hopping into said books, finding tears in the pages, and painting/stitching/magicking them back together. Along the way there are perils to test your reactions and battle skills. There are certain areas you can't access straight away because you don't have the powers. Like a ground pound, for example. You know the drill by now with these games.

 

I'm only a couple of hours in, and had my ass handed to me repeatedly by a rock boss. I knew the attacks but just couldn't get the patterns down, so it took me 5-10 attempts, but I finally got through it last night.

 

One thing that's super-cool - the map is essentially colour-coded. If there are still things to do on your current screen, the map is in greyscale. Once you've repaired that screen/page, it goes to full colour. Makes it really easy to reference what you need to do, figure out where you need to go, all that good stuff.

 

Honestly, if you were a fan of Muramasa, or - and this is a game I've been trying to remember the name of for days but it's only just popped into my head - Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, I reckon this is worth a go. It's gorgeous and plays nicely.

 

 

[Maryokutai]

I tried the demo on Switch but it's unfortunately a technical mess over there. In quality mode it runs like OG Ocarina of Time and in performance mode it has the resolution of OG Ocarina of Time. I did somewhat enjoy the idea of it, though I wouldn't quite put it on the same pedestral as Vanillaware's output, at least at the very first glance. 

 

If they ever do a Switch 2 port I might check out the full version, but the Switch version is one to avoid.

[regemond]

8 minutes ago, Maryokutai said:

though I wouldn't quite put it on the same pedestral as Vanillaware's output

 

Couldn't agree more on this, tbf.

 

I name-dropped them because it gives me the same vibes, not because it's as good as their work. It definitely has some roughness to it, but titles in this genre that don't go down the soulsborne route are few and far between these days, at least in my experience. It's nice to have something where there's no penalty for death, just respawning at the last save point.

 

The art style is what sold me, too. It just had a really similar charm to the Vanillaware catalogue.

[DANGERMAN]

There was a game called The Vagrant that has a Vanilla Ware feel too. Either way I might add this to my wishlist