"Long, long ago, the elven sorcerers cast a spell to save the floating world of Ara Fell from destruction. Instead, they doomed it to fall from the sky. By chance, the fate of the world has been placed in the hands of a young woman. Join her as she and her friends endeavor against all odds to save t...
"Long, long ago, the elven sorcerers cast a spell to save the floating world of Ara Fell from destruction. Instead, they doomed it to fall from the sky. By chance, the fate of the world has been placed in the hands of a young woman. Join her as she and her friends endeavor against all odds to save their homeland, all while the clock ticks ever nearer the final hour..."
Ara Fell combines the best parts of Japanese-style roleplaying games with the best parts of western RPGs, as well as including elements of visual novels and adventure games to create a truly unique experience. Atmosphere, emotion and surprise lie at the forefront of Ara Fell's story, driven by deep and accessible characters, each with his or her own past, their own desires and their own motivations for joining Lita's quest. Relive the golden age of the RPG with a game that both pays homage to the past greats, as well as blazing its own trail.
EXPLORATION - Ara Fell is a world meant to be explored! Jump, crawl, swim and even fly through the air to solve puzzles and discover new locations filled with hidden treasure, secrets and adventure! Every corner of Ara Fell is designed with exploration in mind.
OPEN WORLD - Most of the world can be explored from the moment you leave Aloria Village, the heroine's home town... provided, of course, you're strong enough. A clever explorer may be able unlock secrets and discover powerful equipment early in the game if he or she commits to taking advantage of the open nature of the game world.
TACTICAL COMBAT - Ara Fell may be a story-heavy game, but the world is still fraught with danger. Choose specialized equipment and statistics, customizing each character to best suit your play style, and to best thwart each boss battle's unique mechanics.
CHARACTER DRIVEN - When you join Ara Fell's unwitting heroine on her quest to save her homeland, you'll discover a world filled with vibrant characters who laugh, cry, crack jokes, lose their tempers, and even their will to go on as the size and scope of the curse that plagues Ara Fell becomes apparent. Friends and villains alike are not who they seem as the stakes grow ever higher...
Having had my eye on the original version for quite some time, I didn't waste any time in picking this up in picking this game up when it came to GOG, and I can say with certainty that this was the right choice. Ara Fell is a quality RPG; the games honestly looks gorgeous through and through, the writing is light-hearted but has more than enough depth to keep you interested, combat is fun and can be genuinely challenging while never getting grindy, and all around it's a well designed game. It does bare more resemblance to the JRPGs it is designed to homage rather than WRPGs, but for those of you who aren't bothered by this, this is well worth the asking price.
Did you like Golden Sun on the GBA? Played the original SNES version of FFVI? Do you miss thoughtful, retro, RPGs with detailed plots, good characters, engaging battle systems, but not shy of using modern conveniences wherever appropriate? Buy this game.
Ara Fell is a stylish, 16-bitty RPG adventure with a surprisingly engaging plots, a difficulty curve that (on normal) is just right for me (but several other options depending on how much you like to grind) and, above all, tons of charm. Its writing has made me laugh aloud on several occasions, and it very much is a worthy successor to great RPGs of yore. Battle is turn based with traditionally-inspired, but not clichéd, hybrid classes, and the world is large with plenty to explore. Music is plentiful and beautiful. Puzzles are appropriately difficult -- fun without being frustrating (I had to google, mildly blindly, for a walkthrough once). Convenience touches, such as the fact that the battle system fully heals your HP and MP after each encounter (if you don't faint), are very welcome. This game makes my inner 13-year-old very happy, and my 31-year-old brain very happy too. Buy it.
Disclaimer: I haven't completely finished it yet, but, well, after staying up 'till 2 am "on a school night" less than 36 hours after downloading it -- and seeing my ~20 hour playtime -- I felt I had to leave a positive review.
A technically well done game. The graphics are pleasing, as is the sound. Yet there are some mechanics which are not thought through.
- Sometimes, you need to jump into water. Sometimes, only for one tile, then go back to shore. The animations take too long and it feels like stalling me.
- Some resistance mechanics would have been nice. The magic is fire/ice/earth/etc, but besides the graphics behind it, there is no much difference.
- The riddles are *very* simple. Get a key from place X, go back to place Y where you saw a keyhole, rinse and repeat.
- Jump mechanics. Why? There are some places where you jump over a gap, but that's just that. Why even bother putting a gap there? The same goes for crawling.
- The battle system is okay, but the graphics could use more fine-tuning. The game invites to do grinding, but it doesn't do a good job in graphically rewarding you. Rule of thumb: The bigger the magic spell or your weapon, the better should be the graphics.
- Bosses. I stumble into a cave, and bam, there is one. They look nice, but it struggles to integrate into the story. They seem to be a chore on the side.
- The game is not self-explanatory in details. The debuffs have names, but what do they do?
- Doors/Exits. You mainly have to guess what an exit is or whats just a light source. Same goes for non-obstructed ends of the current map. Sometimes, you can travel there, sometimes you can't.
- NPCs being an obstacle.
- Long dead ends on the maps. You can walk somewhere where you might expect a secret or something, but return empty-handed, because there is just nothing.
But I don't want to be too harsh to the game, since I really enjoy it. It even contributes new concepts:
- Explicit "points of no return", to help you guiding through the game.
- Color-blind mode for quest-solving where needed
That being said, it's definitely worth the money. Just don't expect the next Chrono Trigger/Secret Of Mana/Finaly Fantasy.
After having played the grandiose "Trails in the Sky", I have developed certain expectations from RPGs of that kind. "Ara Fell" surpassed them. Young, spunky Lita is as lovable as a protagonist can get, and the others don't fall behind. And while Adrian, Seri and Doren are written pretty by the book, they are written well. And it's not just the party members. It's a pretty nicely built world. The story is also mostly by the book, but once again, executed quite well, with a few plot twists and turns, to keep the player invested and interested in it. The music and visuals are simple, yet very lively and vibrant.
Two things however REALLY stand out in a very good way. For one, the fun riddles and puzzles (to Lita's dismay). The other thing would be the difficulty. The excellently balanced Normal difficulty is truly a god-sent. It can be completed with no grinding whatsoever and it asks of the player to think their moves through. Each won battle felt like a reward, each loss like a lesson. And as an aside, I personally like the rather modest range of special skills. Nothing too flashy and flamboyant, but they get the job done.
The leveling system is pretty transparent and straightforward. Potentially helpful note: Agility becomes an extremely important stat after chapter 2, neglecting it is a VERY bad idea.
A wholehearted recommendation for this game.
I've been a fan of RPGs ever since and Ara Fell is definitely one of my favourites. The story, the characters, the music and everything is just gorgeous. It is one of the few games that don't let me go to bed until I can't keep my eyes open any longer. If you are into this kind of game, then I strongly recommend buying Ara Fell!
