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.
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The art style is stunning and unique, providing a captivating visual experience.
- The game offers a high level of character customization and a variety of builds, making each run feel fresh and engaging.
- The gameplay is challenging yet rewarding, with a strong emphasis on strategy and experimentation.
- The game suffers from bugs and stability issues, including crashes during gameplay.
- There is limited replayability due to repetitive encounters and a lack of meaningful choices in events.
- Quality of life improvements are needed, such as better inventory management and clearer information about enemy abilities.
- graphics54 mentions
- 44 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The game features a unique and captivating art style that many players find stunning and reminiscent of ancient Chinese paintings, though some describe it as busy due to its vibrant colors and intricate details. However, the overall graphical quality is considered low, with limited options for increasing fidelity, leading to performance issues such as overheating GPUs. Despite these drawbacks, the visuals and accompanying soundtrack create an engaging atmosphere that enhances the gameplay experience.
“The art style is stunning, but under the hood is a challenging RTS game with a lot of variety and replayability.”
“The visuals are striking and colorful.”
“The game also features a stunning art style and haunting soundtrack.”
“Quality: graphical quality is generally fairly low overall, and there are 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.”
- gameplay52 mentions
- 23 % positive mentions
- 71 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The gameplay in Aetheris features 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 level-up system is enjoyable and adds depth, players have noted issues with balance, lack of vital gameplay information, and performance concerns, suggesting that improvements are needed before full release. Overall, the mechanics are seen as both familiar and innovative, but the game may benefit from additional rogue-like elements and better design choices.
“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!”
“Stunning visuals, great style of gameplay, and a roguelike that forces you to think twice before making a move.”
“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).”
“Lacking vital details/information about gameplay, enemies, and events in general.”
“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.”
- music28 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 36 % neutral mentions
- 14 % 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. Each chapter features distinct musical themes that adapt to gameplay scenarios, creating an immersive experience, although some players noted that the soundtrack can become repetitive. However, the absence of voice acting and average sound effects detracted from the overall audio experience for some users.
“The soundtrack is excellent and fits with the visual style well.”
“Not to mention the soundtrack which reacts and changes depending on the scene.”
“Special mention to the music, which is nice and fits the game, complementing the artstyle.”
“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.”
- story24 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 75 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The game's story and worldbuilding are described as refreshing and fun, with a central theme of learning from failure. However, players criticize the lack of a substantial narrative, limited replayability, and the randomness of choices that often lead to nonsensical outcomes. The linear progression through realms and repetitive gameplay detracts from the overall storytelling 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 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.”
“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.”
“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 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.”
- replayability14 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is mixed; while it features random elements and diverse build options that enhance replay value, many players note a lack of content and repetitive enemy encounters that diminish the experience. Additionally, bugs and nonsensical event outcomes further limit the incentive to replay. Despite these drawbacks, some players appreciate the variability in weapons and skills across save files, which adds a layer of replayability.
“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.”
“They also do change their weapons and skills between save files, which is really nice for some extra replayability.”
“However, there is limited replayability; the game is littered with bugs, and worst of all, the event outcomes, whether random or story-driven, 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.”
- optimization6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
Overall, user reviews on optimization indicate a mixed experience; while some players report no issues with stability or performance, others express dissatisfaction, leading to a low average rating.
“No issues with performance.”
“Contrary to other negative reviews, I've had no issues with stability or performance at all.”
- stability4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, particularly during the boss fight against the Eyeless One, where players frequently experience soft freezes that disrupt gameplay. Despite successfully defeating the boss multiple times and unlocking achievements, the freezing problem persists, detracting from the overall multiplayer experience.
“Well, if you try and 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.”
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with users rating it a 5 out of 10, indicating a lack of satisfaction with the balance between content and microtransactions. Players feel that the monetization strategies detract from the overall experience, suggesting a need for improvement in how additional content is offered.
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Players express that the grinding in the game is excessively time-consuming, suggesting that it requires an unrealistic amount of effort akin to having a second life to fully engage with it.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is enhanced by its cohesive art style and enjoyable music, which together create an immersive experience for players.
“The art style and music fit the atmosphere perfectly and are quite enjoyable.”
