Ariana and the Elder Codex Review
Winning Personality, Modest Ambitions
It has often been said that the pen is mightier than the sword, and in the world of Ariana and the Elder Codex , the pen and the codices produced from them aren’t just powerful; they are omnipotent vestiges of magical power that the world depends on for just about everything. As a librarian myself, I know too well the power of knowledge and lessons contained within books and stories. I went into Ariana hoping to find a real page-turner, but unfortunately, while some heartfelt chapters of this adventure show real potential, formulaic storytelling and gameplay deficiencies hold it back from standing out on the shelf.
In the world of Ariana and the Elder Codex , the Library is a supreme entity over society as a whole, and its many codices hold sway over everything from food production to modern conveniences like electricity. The most important are the Seven Hero Codices, which are comprised of the Four Elements: Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire; and the Three Phenomena: Convergence, Transmission, and Diffusion, all of which govern various major aspects of day-to-day life. For example, water is responsible for healing, and so on. However, one day, these codices are altered, disappearing the world’s magic and causing massive chaos and suffering. The library’s director, Berkeley, tasks Ariana Virellis with repairing the codices to restore the world’s magic, as only she has the latent magical ability to enter them. Under Berkeley’s orders, Ariana gets to work, while also hoping to find clues about her missing parents. Along the way, she’s helped by Divina, a mysterious cat-like demon with incredible power, and Vester, a magic-powered automaton servant.
[caption id="attachment_186432" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Most of the codices have super heartfelt parables![/caption]
Ariana ’s story is quite simple but effective as a motivator, driving the game forward. Its greatest strengths lie in the codices, which contain straightforward yet ultimately highly poignant parables. The Elemental Codices demonstrate this best, addressing themes of selflessness and sacrifice for water, as well as fury, honor, and the emotional pain of exacting revenge for fire. The Phenomena Codices are more complex, but also contain interesting little stories, with the notable exception of Transmission, which, of the three, seemed noticeably underdeveloped and contrived. What holds Ariana back from excellence, though, is the plot of the real world, which is spoon-fed to players very slowly until the game’s ending, where there’s quite a bit of text dumping and predictable twists. The Library’s bookshelves contain a lot of interesting lore about the world, but the pacing of details about the world outside the codices feels uneven, which is rough considering the game’s short length.
On the gameplay front, Ariana is a simple sidescrolling action RPG with Metroidvania elements, and while combat has a mechanically solid foundation and is generally engaging, it never flourishes into something great except during each codex’s boss fight. Essentially, Ariana has the ability to cast spells from five different elements: neutral, earth, water, wind, and fire, with the more powerful spells incorporating the Phenomena Codices’ attributes along with the element. Ariana can equip six spells at any time, in two sets of three, which can be toggled between, helping to declutter the UI. Each spell has a numerical attack power, direction of fire, cooldown, and casting time, and unleashing them on enemies deals damage while also causing elemental buildup. When an enemy’s elemental buildup is full, this unleashes an associated burst, dealing massive damage centered on a radius around that enemy. As she uses spells of each element, Ariana gains access to powered-up elemental forms she can switch to – indicated by the color of her dress changing – that increase damage and the secondary effects of spells for that element.
[caption id="attachment_186436" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Note the glow - he's an earth giant. Hit him with wind![/caption]
The game boasts an appreciable variety of spells, which have a wide range of different effects and attack types, and, in theory, this should make for a lot of cool, different ways to tackle enemies. Unfortunately, two things keep Ariana ’s combat from standing out: poor enemy variety and the overpowered nature of elemental bursts. Aside from the bosses, players will have seen every enemy the game has to offer in the first two codices, and the only real change going forward is enemies having elemental affinities, indicated by a glow around them: fire and water are strong against each other, as are wind and earth.
Different combinations of elemental enemies do enough to keep players engaged by encouraging variety and timeliness in spell use. However, this doesn’t bring out the full potential of Ariana’s combat, which is best exhibited by the bosses, who have a nice variety of attacks to be dodged by Ariana's dash to provide temporary invincibility. Fights against regular enemies are made worse due to the insane damage of elemental bursts, which can turn many combat encounters into a chain reaction of high-damage explosions. Sometimes this works well by encouraging proper aggressive spell use, but other times it simplifies an already simple combat system, ultimately reducing a fascinating framework into something that is just okay.
[caption id="attachment_186437" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Ariana and the smarmy know-it-all Divina have some really fun banter.[/caption]
With its Metroidvania elements, Ariana offers engaging, light platforming and level-exploration. As she sets out to fix the codices, Ariana comes across Repair Points, which are one of two activities: a race against time to quickly slaughter enemies or a timed foot race from point A to point B. The faster players are, the better their rewards, which range from items used to upgrade Ariana's magic to direct upgrades to Ariana's health or attack. This effectively incentivizes players to fully explore each level, with a few areas gated off until Ariana gains movement abilities from other codices. This is implemented more effectively at the beginning of the game, but is unevenly incorporated later, which holds back the level interaction from fully blossoming.
Ariana and the Elder Codex ’s score is quite nice, with a dreamy sound that creates a soothing atmosphere, though none of the tracks are particularly memorable. The game's voice acting is more remarkable, though somewhat limited, with Ariana sounding high-spirited, plucky, and hardworking, which makes for an entertaining dynamic against Divina. Library Director Berkeley's voice booms with an imposing, deep, and intimidating crackle, though his screentime is unfortunately quite limited. Visually, the game has a very cute overall look, with lovely little character designs, portraits, and inspired storybook-like visuals in the codices. Ariana herself, with her hairbow and adorable smile, stands out as a huge plus. Further, the spell effects are good and colorful, lending the combat and traversal a radiant appeal.
[caption id="attachment_186441" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Director Berkeley intimidates with his authoritative presence.[/caption]
As a full tome, Ariana and the Elder Codex has quite a lot of potential, but among its genre and the RPG landscape as a whole, it doesn’t stand out too starkly on the shelf. While it has some charming visuals, lore, and some good voice acting, its gameplay and story are only ever serviceably engaging, and predictable twists and excessive endgame lore dumping dull the adventure. While I found myself thoroughly charmed by the characters and having a decent time, the uneven exploration and easy moment-to-moment combat left the game feeling devoid of the substance it's obviously capable of. If players are looking for a short, fifteen-hour light adventure with some nice charm, Ariana is not a bad pickup at all, but it doesn’t do enough to warrant a top spot on RPGamer's reading lists.
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