Arali

About

Arali is a single player casual hack and slash game. It was developed by DigiPen Institute of Technology and was released on August 13, 2022. It received positive reviews from players.

Fight your way through hordes of enemies, rescue the five forest spirits and bring them back to their tree, and lift the curse plaguing the Enchanted Forest!

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

83%

Audience ScoreBased on 35 reviews

graphics4 positive mentions

optimization3 negative mentions

The game has a cute art style and enjoyable music, making it visually appealing.
Despite its short length, the gameplay is fun and offers a fair challenge.
For a student project, it shows potential and has some solid mechanics, indicating that the developers put a lot of heart into it.

The game suffers from significant optimization issues, including frame drops and bugs that hinder the experience.
Gameplay is very limited, with only two types of enemies and minimal combat actions, leading to a lack of depth.
Technical flaws such as wonky hitboxes and the inability to adjust settings like resolution or controls detract from the overall quality.

graphics
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
50%
21%
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the cute art style and fluid animations, while others criticize the low-quality visuals and performance issues, such as lag and clunky controls. The attempt to blend 2D and 3D elements has been noted, but it often results in a clash that detracts from the overall experience. Additionally, the lack of customizable graphics settings and resolution options has frustrated users, leading to a perception of the game as having console-like deficiencies.
- “Beat the game once normally, pretty cool, cute art style, flowy animations, love it.”
- “The aesthetic in the game is absolutely adorable.”
- “Art style is very easy on the eyes and animations are very fluid.”
- “With a GTX 960, I couldn't even complete the first level without game-breaking lag, even though the graphics resemble a mobile game.”
- “There's no options to change the resolution for the game or customize the graphics settings.”
- “While this is on PC, it has all the hallmarks and deficiencies of a console game, from the clunkier than needed control scheme to the less than cutting edge graphics.”
gameplay
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The gameplay is a mixed experience, with some players finding it simple yet entertaining, while others criticize its shallow mechanics and issues like lag and wonky hitboxes. Combat mechanics can be unintuitive, and the game lacks depth, suggesting a need for more content and improvements. However, the art style and fluid animations are praised, and the gameplay can be enjoyable and satisfying when executed well.
- “The gameplay is simple, yet entertaining.”
- “The gameplay is fun and challenging, and it feels satisfying when you save the cute sprites.”
- “Good game, above average graphics, but a slightly larger file size than I'm used to for such a small game. Mechanics are solid, but hitboxes are very wonky. You can tell a lot of heart went into the project, especially in the time frame. However, to make it better, there needs to be improvements and vastly more content for the type of game and crowd it's aiming for.”
- “The mechanics of combat are somewhat difficult to intuit, mainly because most games in a similar fashion would implement the dash in such a way as to be following the velocity of movement input, and so many such cases wherein I dash into the clump of creatures as I try to strafe around them.”
- “Gameplay here is a shallow experience of moving a badly drawn, badly animated 2D character sprite around an isometric/top-down level structure, shooting and dashing to avoid enemies.”
- “10 minutes of gameplay which has a lot of lags and some bugs.”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users have expressed significant dissatisfaction with the game's optimization, indicating it is one of its weakest aspects.
- “The worst part for me is the optimization.”
- “The game suffers from severe optimization issues.”
- “I can't believe how poorly optimized this game is.”
story
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game's tutorial initially suggests a narrative introduction, but players find that it ultimately lacks a substantial story, leaving them disappointed with the overall storytelling experience.
- “You start the game with a tutorial and believe it introduces you to some story, but in reality, the game doesn't show any story at all.”
music
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The music in the game is generally well-received, with users appreciating its quality and contribution to the overall experience.
- “I liked the art style and the music.”
- “The music is nice.”
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users report significant stability issues, highlighting persistent bugs and performance problems, particularly with running the game at 1080p resolution.
- “Please go ahead and download to experience this buggy mess that you can't even get it to work at 1080p in this day and age.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization of the game is viewed positively, especially in comparison to many low-quality titles on Steam, suggesting that it offers a more genuine experience rather than resorting to cash grabs or asset flips.