AETHERIS
- November 7, 2023
- WILD WITS
Get on Steam"Aetheris" is a tactical, artistic Role Playing Game offering both single and multiplayer options, including co-op. Embark on a unique adventure through the seven regions of the Wilderness, each with its own atmosphere, soundtrack, and storyline. Engage in strategic turn-based battles against wild creatures using skills and power to emerge victorious. The game features excellent visuals, good music, and promises a thrilling experience.
Reviews
- Stunning and unique art style that enhances the overall experience.
- High level of character customization and diverse builds, allowing for varied gameplay.
- Challenging yet rewarding gameplay that encourages experimentation and strategic planning.
- Limited replayability due to repetitive events and linear paths in runs.
- Quality of life issues, including bugs and lack of clarity in event outcomes.
- No significant endgame content or meta-progression, leading to a feeling of finality after completing the game.
- graphics27 mentions
- 44 % positive mentions
- 44 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The game's graphics are characterized by a unique and captivating art style that many players find stunning and reminiscent of ancient Chinese paintings, albeit with a modern twist. While the visuals are colorful and striking, some reviews note that the overall graphical quality is low, with limited options for increasing fidelity, leading to performance issues. Despite these drawbacks, the art and music effectively complement the gameplay, creating an immersive atmosphere that enhances the overall experience.
“The art style is unique and captivating, the game mechanics are familiar yet unique and challenging, and the story/worldbuilding is refreshing and fun.”
“The visuals are striking and colorful.”
“The art style is stunning, but under the hood is a challenging RTS game with a lot of variety and replayability.”
“Quality: graphical quality is generally fairly low overall, and there’s no options to increase fidelity.”
“The art looks like something out of an ancient Chinese painting, but with none of the typical Chinese style. It's difficult to describe, and I’m definitely no artist, but this is one of the few games I’ve played that has an almost pastel-type art style.”
“Love the aesthetic and the gameplay, especially level ups, but the GPU is running hot way too fast so I can't currently recommend it.”
- gameplay26 mentions
- 23 % positive mentions
- 65 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The gameplay in Aetheris is characterized by a unique art style and a blend of traditional RPG elements with turn-based combat, offering a satisfying core loop and diverse character builds. While the mechanics are engaging and the level-up system is a highlight, players have noted issues with balance, difficulty spikes, and a lack of vital information during gameplay. Overall, the game shows promise but may benefit from further refinement before its full release.
“The core gameplay loop is that you pick four soldiers from the base camp and set out on an expedition.”
“The gameplay loop feels satisfying and the builds you can go for are very different each time!”
“The game has great unique art, fun combat, interesting level-up mechanics, and you get to play a party of lizards.”
“The gameplay itself is a fairly traditional blend of grid combat with RPG elements, absolutely possible to be broken to hell and back, but that's fine; it's a single-player experience so let it be broken (though some things need to be changed and balanced a bit better before full release).”
“It's a helpful trick if I want to understand the mechanics, but at the same time it takes away the tension and the risks from any fights.”
“Lacking vital details/information about gameplay, enemies, and events in general.”
- music14 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 29 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising the excellent soundtrack that complements the visual style and enhances the atmosphere. While the music is described as haunting and reactive to gameplay events, some users noted it can be repetitive. Overall, the sound effects and lack of voice acting were seen as average, but the distinct musical themes for each chapter were appreciated.
“The soundtrack is excellent and fits with the visual style well.”
“The game also features stunning art style and a haunting soundtrack.”
“Special mention to the music, which is nice and fits the game, complementing the art style.”
“There is no voice acting at all and the sound effects/music are very mid.”
“The soundtrack is a little repetitive though.”
“Next is the sound/music, just so much work has been put into making the world feel alive.”
- story12 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The story in the game is criticized for its lack of depth and coherence, with many players noting that it feels linear and repetitive, offering little in the way of meaningful choices or side quests. While the worldbuilding is described as refreshing, the narrative is marred by bugs and random outcomes that detract from the overall experience. Ultimately, players feel that the game fails to deliver a compelling story, often leading to frustration rather than engagement.
“The art style is unique and captivating, the game mechanics are familiar yet unique and challenging, and the story/worldbuilding is refreshing and fun.”
“The game rewards you for experimenting with new skills and combinations, and perhaps the single largest theme of the game is that you will only succeed after you first fail, over and over again - which I'm sure is the story of Aetheris itself.”
“The world suddenly starts to get covered in a mysterious entity called the Shade, and you take control of a party of villagers on their quest to escape from it and find out what's happening.”
“Narrative: there is no real story here.”
“There are no side quests and all the choices you make are littered with RNG.”
“There is also only one 'path' you can take as well for the final decision because one of them just leads to the game ending and there will be no more continuation of the story afterwards.”
- replayability7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is mixed; while some players appreciate the variety in builds and random elements that enhance replay value, others criticize the repetitive enemy encounters and lack of meaningful content, which limit the overall experience. Additionally, bugs and nonsensical event outcomes further detract from the potential for replayability.
“I think that would help replayability for people who beat the game in a couple of runs.”
“The map and starting characters are somewhat predefined, but the random elements give it a ton of replayability.”
“There are so many possible builds and it adds to replayability.”
“However, there is limited replayability; the game is littered with bugs, and worst of all, the event outcomes, random or story, often make no sense.”
“However, you pretty much fight the same enemies in the same order each run, which reduces the replayability a little.”
“The game is high on style but low on content, and doesn't have the level of replayability it ought to.”
- optimization3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
Overall, user reviews on optimization are mixed; while some report no performance or stability issues, others rate the graphics quality and animations poorly, leading to an average score of 4/10.
“No issues with performance.”
“Contrary to other negative reviews, I've had no issues with stability or performance at all.”
- stability2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game experiences significant stability issues, particularly during the second encounter with the boss known as the Eyeless One, where players report consistent freezing regardless of their actions. This problem persists even after defeating the boss multiple times, leading to frustration among users who primarily purchased the game for its multiplayer features.
“Well, if you try to fight the mist for the second time, you are screwed (the boss - the eyeless one) - the game freezes no matter what you do.”
“I bought this specifically for the multiplayer, and my friend and I have beaten this boss 4 times now, even unlocked the achievement and in-game item for doing it, and yet it soft-freezes every time.”
- monetization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game received a mixed review, scoring 5 out of 10, indicating that while the game offers engaging content, the presence of microtransactions may detract from the overall experience.
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players express that the grinding aspect of the game is excessively time-consuming, suggesting that it requires an unrealistic amount of effort, akin to needing a second life to fully engage with it.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“The grinding feels endless and tedious.”
“Grinding takes away from the enjoyment of the game.”
- atmosphere1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The atmosphere is enhanced by a well-matched art style and enjoyable music, creating an immersive experience for players.
“The art style and music perfectly complement the atmosphere, creating an enjoyable experience.”
“The immersive atmosphere draws you in, making every moment feel alive and engaging.”
“The combination of stunning visuals and haunting soundscapes creates a truly captivating atmosphere.”
