September 12, 2020

Active XP - Ary and the Secret of Seasons Review

16 minutes

Chris reviews the disappointing Ary and the Secret of Seasons from Modus Games, eXiin, and Fishing Cactus. A review code was provided by the publisher.

Image from Ary and the Secret of Seasons by Modus Games, eXiin, and Fishing Cactus

Chris Penwell – twitter.com/PenwellWrites

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Music

Theme Song made by Novila. https://soundcloud.com/novila-edm

Ary and the Secret of Seasons Review Notes

Puzzles are a bit awkward. There was a lever that needed to be pulled but there isn’t a pulling animation until later on. So I had Ary walk into it to pull the lever. It was super strange and took me out of the game. The puzzles are terrible. I had to finagle my way through them rather than thinking of a proper solution. It doesn’t give you a clear thought process on what to do. I literally had Ary walk into a ball to make it roll. Then, I was given a tool to pull things across; that would have been nice earlier rather than awkwardly pushing Ary into a ball by running into it.

Combat Isn't that fun. Parrying, rolling, and striking. There aren’t any special moves. Combat is dull and there’s only so many times I can hear Ary say, “Son of a cow” before it gets old.

It’s cool that the dialogue changes when you alter the season around characters. NPCs mention they’re cold when you make their area winter. You can also heat up their environment by using the summer ability.

The characters and the animations are so adorable.

The graphics are down right ugly at times.

The art behind the bad graphics stands out. I loved seeing fireworks set in front of the castle.

Frame rate is choppy, despite my laptop being able to run it easily.

Repeating dialogue. “Son of a cow” was cute a few times, but when I hear it a dozen times over one play session…

Ary is so adorable. You could make plushies out of her and they’d sell.

It carries such a light hearted tone

The game is unfinished. Doors aren’t unlocking in the Winter Temple and it mocks me with an opening noise. I can tell something is on the other side by looking through the crack.

After leaving the cathedral to upgrade Ary so I can fight the hyenas more effectively, I couldn’t go back in. Issues like this make me worry that I can’t continue the game. I’ve tried to progress but I’ve literally had a block that won’t let me through, hence reviewing this earlier than I’ve wanted to.

Music is generic, repetitive, and mixed awkwardly from field to battle. I don’t know why they bothered marketing the album release as it’s painfully lifeless.

Side quests failed at being interesting distractions to the main story. I would have loved to know more about the world around her rather than generic fetch quest missions.

3/10

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By The HP Video Game Podcast Network

1515 ratings