Thankfully, Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition features a “Story Mode” difficulty which allows you to bypass all battles with the press of a button. The combat system is nothing special, and in fact flows in a rather sluggish manner. Thankfully, the ability to fast travel later in the game eases the pain of exploration. The game’s navigation map is certainly no help either – sure, it looks interesting from an artistic standpoint, but it isn’t very practical especially when it’s almost never clear where the exits are when there are so many invisible walls to bump into. This also becomes a nuisance during exploration. Even more jarring is how the game can’t distinguish between a puddle of water from a deep pond, because even parts which should be treated as a bit of puddle end up being spots the player can dive right into. You’re able to walk over water buckets and certain objects like they are invisible but for some reason you bump into pebbles and a bit of grass, and so if the map design wasn’t bad enough the inconsistent behaviour of objects makes each step a rather bumpy affair. This all makes exploration needlessly tiresome, and the issues are further amplified by the way objects interact with the player character. The map design and layout definitely needs a lot more refining and foresight. It’s a real pain and slog to navigate because there are so many pointless dead ends and so much space is wasted for nothing. Some of these maps feel like they were created using a randomiser tool in some RPG Maker software, because there is no real rhyme or reason to the layout of each of the many confusing locations you have to traverse. While the sprite art and setting may be fascinating, Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition unfortunately suffers greatly from absolutely poor map design of its game world. It may borrow many RPG tropes, but it brings these tried and tested plot devices together to deliver a tale that still manages to keep you interested and guessing. Of course, the story does get serious when it needs to and so Lita finds herself navigating all sorts of twists and turns as she reluctantly finds herself in a situation far greater than anything she could imagine as an aspiring archer. Lita is a likeable protagonist for the most part, and her banter with other characters is usually quite fun thanks to the witty and comedic writing. Like most RPGs from yesteryear, Ara Fell follows the journey of a hero, from humble beginnings to grandeur destinies. The vibrant and detailed pixel art lends itself to the game world that brings the characters and the premise to life. Needless to say, this game looks rather charming on your 4K HDR television. The attention to detail pulls no punches here, and the Enhanced Edition takes the visual presentation of the original base game to a higher standard. Even the character portraits shine through, where even most NPCs have their own portrait artwork. It’s colourful, vibrant, and doesn’t ever look dated given the range of visual effects and filters. This is a gorgeously crafted game, every nook and cranny lovingly crafted pixel for pixel. To nitpick a little, Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition has the most amateurish key artwork, and if you judged the game simply by the underwhelming cover artwork on the Microsoft storefront then you’d miss out on the brilliant pixel art which brings the game to life.
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