October 16, 2023 - Day 289 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 308

Game: Arietta of Spirits

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Aug 20, 2021
Installation Date: Apr 17, 2023
Unplayed: 182d (5m29d)
Playtime: 19m

Arietta of Spirits is a pixel-art based retro action adventure game, about dealing with grief and monsters. You play as 13-year old Arietta, who is staying with her parents at her recently deceased grandmother's holiday cottage.

When I looked up the activation history, I couldn't initially make sense of why this game would be in my library. It wasn't part of a bundle, it looked like I'd bought it. Digging deeper, I found that it was a bonus game that came with the other game I'd ordered from Fanatical that day.

Unfortunately, while I like the idea of games that deal with grief, because sometimes I find them cathartic, Arietta of Spirits is SO retro that I spent much of my time glancing at the clock.

Firstly, the game includes a mechanic that I'm not terribly fond of: character graphic with a text box full of text to tell the backstory. Click, different talking head. Entire conversations like this. At least you can click through them.

Then there's the sound effects. They're /really/ retro, like C64 retro. The death noises of the mobs (see below) was really jarring and set my teeth on edge.

Start off on the adventure to... pick apples. Get stopped by dad, get given a wooden sword, to defend against wasps.

Encounter wasps. Discover that mob hitboxes aren't terribly consistent. Gets worse in the boss fight at the end of the level, when fighting a big wasp, and some little wasps.

I know from reading up after quitting out that I didn't quite reach the core gameplay about dealing with unhappy spirits, it's just... there was just nothing that made me want to keep playing.

For gamers with a deep love of retro gaming, this might be something that would appeal to them, but I'm not part of that group, which is why Arietta of Spirits is, unfortunately, a:

1: Nope

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