Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition

The game has a lot going for it, but many strange design decisions have been made. The good parts: + Expertly written dialogues. The characters bicker and banter in a very natural and entertaining way. + The characters. They act very human, for better or worse, which helps the player to understand and connect with them. + Interesting setting. The world of Ara Fell is fascinating as a concept and the worldbuilding encountered throughout the game shows that a lot of work went into it. + Tried and true RPG classes. Tanky warrior, ranged single-target DPS archer, multi-target DPS mage, support bard. Players can build the characters in multiple valid ways into different strategies. + The portrait art is far from master-level, but it conveys emotions well and adds to the humorous parts. + Hidden treasures. Ara Fell is chock full of secret chambers, chests and resources to gather. Exploring the world feels rewarding. + "POINT OF NO RETURN". The game informs the player outright when they're about to enter an event or cutscene. I wish more games did that. The bad parts: - Unclear descriptions. How much PWR/DEF does Elven Focus grant*? How much damage does 5 "potency" give? How much stronger will the elemental spells be after selecting the Elementalist class option? The game won't tell you any of that. - Terrible plot contrivances diminish the characters' agency and competence. It's often lampshaded when it should have been fixed in the script. - Boring main antagonist. Also, another important antagonist disappointed me with their final decisions. - Pointless mechanics. Jumping and crawling serve no real purpose in a JRPG. The few logic puzzles featured pose no challenge and aren't that interesting. And don't even get me started on the apple minigame. *I experimented a bit and it seems that after archer stone upgrade and story event upgrade the PWR bonus is 32%*(100+PWR) up to 200 PWR plus 10% of any PWR above 200. DEF bonus is 10+20%*PWR, up to 200 PWR.

If the answer is yes, you will love this. If no, you can move along. This is clearly a love-letter to the NES/SNES days where games like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Chrono Trigger ruled the roost. And yet, this is the game that gets nostolgia right in that it evokes the feeling of those games but remembers that there have been improvements to the formula over the years. Two notable ones I noticed are warning if you are approaching the point of no return and to cut to the chase and skip the cutscenes if you want. As far as the gameplay goes, it's your standard JRPG turn-based combat with each character being a set class with different abilities/spells. The game is quite helpful at giving you a general idea of what they do without holding your hand. The story, while simple, is pretty epic in it's scope, the characters are likable and have good story arcs, and sheer ambition of the world is kinda what I want from a fantasy world like this. I played this mostly without a walkthrough as the game is fairly intuitive when it comes to figuring it out. My only complaint is the level design as the entrances and exits tend to bend in with the scenery and the path forward is not obvious. The map you get is kinda useful but the sheer sprawling nature of the level design can make navigation a bit of a chore. There are also some movement gimmicks like the ability to swim that aren't really utilized too much, such as the ability to crouch under traps. But overall, I enjoyed the game. It's been sitting in my GOG libarary for over a year as I bought it on a whim and I came away pleasently surprised that I went through most of the first chapter when I booted it up. I wouldn't put it up there as my favorite JRPG (that's tied between Dragon Quest 11 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon) but I feel like this game is criminally overlooked. Don't skip it.

Ara Fell: enhanced edition is a fantastic 16-bit RPG that follows in the footsteps of the classics like final fantasy 6 but adding it's own flavor to it. The graphics are spot on and the artist did a great work on the sprites. Really nice, colorful visuals that charmed me from the beginning to the end. The battle system is unique in that you replenish your mp every turn which was a nice thing. You could keep using special abilities, which the battle system was clearly designed around and it changes the formula of just attacking and saving the special attacks against bosses, which made the battle system more engaging. Story wise there was plenty of things going on. You meet a lot of different characters with many with their own agendas so the story wasn't a clear cut good against evil setting, which made the story more interesting to follow. Where it falls short being a classic was the character development. There wasn't a deep growth ark with any of the characters even though they were "good enough" for the sake of the story which keeps Ara Fell from being a classic. The game's pacing was good and the game kept introducing new things all the time to keep the adventure fresh. The ending left kinda more to be wanted and it's like the developers left the doors open for a sequel but at this point they are not developing a sequel to my knowledge. All in all,l the developers of Ara Fell created an example how to create something new with something old and I recommend this game to anybody who is even mildly interested in this game. -Slinger91

It has a generic plot, or I would rather say, it's not trying to reinvent the wheel, but my god it makes everything right: Beautiful pixel art, gameplay quick and to the point, a good fight mechanic, but what makes it the best generic RPG for me is the characters; this game has one solid party; loved their interactions, good chemestry; the four of them cover really good the basic roles in a party (healer, magician, tank and fighter). Just play it.

The game is great in many ways, the retro graphics, atmosphere, likable characters and plot clearly inspired by the Castle in the Sky from studio Ghibli ;) I don't give 5/5 only because: - compared to the good old JRPGs there is not so much in terms of equipment and character growth - getting the best equipment is too easy and it is very linear: sword lvl 1, sword lvl 2, ..., sword lvl 4. That's it. There are charms you can swap, but they don't really have such a big impact. Skills are a bit better, considering there are classes you can choose from. Still, you get almost everything at the beginning in the game, so most of the time you use the same skills over and over. - the sidequests are very basic. Class ones are the most advances, but still, compared to locations from old SNES games, they are very short. One feels that especially in the later parts of the game. - bosses are... ok, but only ok. Not even close to the bosses from FFIV/FFV/FFVI/Chrono Trigger/Earthbound. - glitches, one of the best animations in the game final scene was broken and other small ones. Fortunately, no glitch impacts the gameplay enough to break it. Still, great indie JRPG and I hope there will be a sequel!