Arcane Assembly

About

Arcane Assembly is a single player action adventure game. It was developed by Isaac Lee and was released on May 17, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Arcane Assembly is a fantasy metroidvania where you craft spells using a visual programming language, unlocking new instructions and upgrading your powers. Explore diverse environments like jungle villages, lava caves, and deserts while battling epic bosses. The game emphasizes creativity and strategic spell creation to become the most powerful wizard.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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75%

Audience ScoreBased on 110 reviews

gameplay13 positive mentions

graphics4 negative mentions

The spellcrafting system is innovative and allows for a high degree of creativity, making players feel like true wizards.
The game features solid platforming mechanics and enjoyable boss fights that provide a sense of accomplishment.
The visuals and sound design are pleasant, enhancing the overall experience despite some gameplay shortcomings.

The game is very short, with many players completing it in under 5 hours, leading to a lack of replayability.
The level design is bland and repetitive, often feeling like a linear corridor rather than a true metroidvania experience.
The spell system, while promising, is limited in its application, often leading players to rely on a few basic spells rather than encouraging experimentation.

gameplay
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
64%
10%
The gameplay is characterized by a short but enjoyable core mechanic focused on spell crafting, which many players find innovative yet underutilized due to the game's brevity and lack of challenge. While the platforming elements are reminiscent of popular titles like Hollow Knight and Celeste, they often feel repetitive and disconnected from the spell system, leading to a mixed reception regarding overall engagement. Many reviewers express frustration with control issues and the limited scope of the spell crafting, suggesting that the game fails to fully explore its potential despite its intriguing concept.
- “Short but has a fun core mechanic of programming your own spells in a scratch-like development environment.”
- “Genuinely very fun, and absolutely worth a pickup for the spell creation mechanic alone.”
- “The platforming and action are pretty basic but there's obviously a lot of potential in the spell crafting/programming mechanics.”
- “The main mechanic is crafting new spells, but there's no incentive to build anything other than a single spell that throws a bunch of projectiles.”
- “Its central spell crafting mechanic is both limited and frustrating to use, while being ultimately unnecessary in a game that poses no real challenge.”
- “The core gameplay is repetitive, dominated by tedious platforming segments and trivial enemies.”
graphics
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
30%
40%
The graphics of the game are generally described as mediocre, with some users noting a functional and pleasant aesthetic reminiscent of Hollow Knight, while others criticize the visuals as lacking depth and quality, particularly the overlay. Despite some well-designed enemies and a cohesive art style, the overall impression is that the graphics do not stand out and are not particularly impressive.
- “The art style flows really well and some of the enemies are wonderfully designed.”
- “The graphics and music were pleasant, sound effects too.”
- “Overall, Arcane Assembly was a very enjoyable experience for me and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun and unique experience where you get to mess around with a spell sandbox and platform around a cute nod to Hollow Knight's aesthetics.”
- “The graphics are... bad.”
- “The worst graphical aspect is the overlay.”
- “Visually, the game is mediocre, with three-layered graphics across different biomes failing to impress.”
story
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
45%
33%
The game's story is largely criticized for being minimal and unengaging, with many players noting a lack of depth and memorable plot elements. While some appreciate the potential of the spell system, they feel that the overall narrative fails to captivate or provide sufficient lore, leaving the world feeling bland and underdeveloped. Despite a brief main story completion time, players express a desire for a more compelling and fleshed-out narrative experience.
- “I played through the main story in about 4 hours; maybe I missed parts of the lore (the dude said he had brothers, I only met 1?), but it came together in the end well enough.”
- “I wish there was a little more in-game lore to discover to explain the story, and overall it would be cool to see the spells you create in action more.”
- “The world is bland and mostly built out of asset packs, the enemies are as brain-dead as they come, character and camera movement is very basic and unpolished, and there is barely any story.”
- “I cannot stress this enough - the idea behind the game and the implementation of the spell system is awesome, but the game fails to keep the player engaged after the story is over.”
- “There's next to no story in the game.”
music
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
37%
25%
Overall, the music in the game receives mixed reviews; while some players find it top-notch and enjoyable, others feel it becomes repetitive and lacks polish. The soundtrack is generally described as energetic and pleasant, enhancing the gameplay experience, but there are criticisms regarding its originality and depth.
- “Music is nice and easy to listen to.”
- “The music is top-notch, I was vibing the entire time.”
- “The soundtrack is energetic and easy to listen to, managing to not get repetitive and annoying when you are spending much of your time designing and editing spells.”
- “I believe that at some point I simply turned off the music because it was getting repetitive and annoying.”
- “Unfortunately, there are several issues: first of all, the visuals and music are nothing special.”
replayability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
75%
The game has been criticized for its low replayability, with many users noting its short length and lack of engaging content that would encourage multiple playthroughs. While the concept is solid and the implementation is clean, it fails to offer the depth or variety found in more replayable titles.
- “Overall, it just didn't bring as much replay value as a game like Noita does.”
- “The issue is that the game is very short with little to no replayability.”
- “Solid concept, simple but clean implementation, but it lacks replayability.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and repetitive, primarily due to monotonous platforming and trivial enemies. Many express a desire for additional content, such as an arena mode, as the limited replayability on higher difficulties feels more like a chore than a challenge.
- “The core gameplay is repetitive, dominated by tedious platforming segments and trivial enemies.”
- “Repetitive gameplay with tedious platforming.”
- “I do wish there was some form of arena mode or something, because I beat the game in 3 hours and there's really not much else to do, aside from replaying on a higher difficulty, which I think would just be tedious more than difficult.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users report that the game exhibits stability issues, often feeling buggy or unbalanced, with certain elements appearing overpowered.
- “The game often feels somewhat buggy and unstable.”
- “There are frequent crashes that disrupt gameplay.”
- “I experience a lot of lag and glitches that make it hard to enjoy the game.”