Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition

HIDDEN GEM! Good stories, characters, and beautiful music. Great game!

Greate Game! if you like turnbased "Final Fantasy" type games! The only thing i didnt like was the Spam of the same Statue all around the map! 8/10

Still early in the game but not really engaged. Nothing overtly wrong with it just doesn't feel like a sink my teeth into game yet. Wandering around a lot and a little bored nothing pushing me to excel or get the next item or upgrade ...I either win easily or get squashed, so the pacing feels off..tbc

fun

Great game! Really enjoyed the story and the characters. Very cute and well designed game. Highly recommend.

If you like the old school 16-bit RPGs you should like this game. Its worth a playthough, but you probably won't get more than one out of it. World, story, and characters are interesting enough. Nice seeing character dialogue and interactions with how you would expect a character to talk and behave when throw into a situation instead of what you're use to seeing in RPGs where they instantly accept it and go about their life. Music is okay. Class system/skill upgrade choices are nice. Combat is decent - but is the one area of the game that could've been improved on. As it is, it's pretty shallow - enter a battle and pretty much use the same move set you've done for every other battle. Bosses are the only exception to this. Makes battles all feel the same and unengaging. No ambush/premeditated attack system so character turn orders tend to be the same every battle granted you're fighting the same enemies. No elemental weakness system you'd be use to seeing, granted magic does give different debuff effects instead Items as a whole feel pointless as I've made it through so far without having to even enter the menu to use on. Might be different on a difficulty other than normal.

Such a wonderful call back to the classic 16-bit RPG. Doesn't overstay it's welcome and offers a nice level of challenge on Hard difficulty. The world is fun to explore and I was always looking for nooks and crannies where a secret may be hiding. Plays perfect on Steam Deck. Loved the writing and interactions between characters as well. Can wholeheartedly recommend for RPG fans!

Just like the main character being kind of airheaded, I guess I’m same since I’m writing this review for Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition years later. This game truly deserves it. Everything about it feels like a complete JRPG experience. The humor may not work for everyone, but I personally loved it. I still wonder what the developers could’ve created with a bigger budget back then. In my opinion, it could’ve even surpassed Square Enix’s Octopath Traveler. Definitely worth picking up on sale. My score might surprise some people, but for me, it’s a 10/10. ⚔️🪄🏹🧚‍♂️

Ara Fell is delightful and reminiscent of oldschool JRPGs with some quality of life improvements such as: automatic HP/MP restoration between encounters, the encounters aren't random and you can see the monsters on the screen, teleportation between crystals on the map for faster travel, passive buffs you can find or purchase throughout the game called "Relics", swimming and crouching mechanics for exploration, and much more. The characters are genuinely fun whenever they're allowed dialogue, but I actually feel like that might be where this game sort of lacks for me. I like the characters enough to want more of their chatter, more backstory, more anything, honestly... and we just don't really get it. My favorite character is Seri Kasu, but we're only given small tidbits of who she is, where she came from, etc. I would have enjoyed the game more if it gave more time to character interactions. I understand that the game was about Lita, about her quest, and about the overarching story of Ara Fell, and that all felt pretty good for the most part. But I wish it had more depth, more oomph, but I think the point of the game was that it didn't need to really go any deeper than it did. And I'm not disappointed with the time I spent on the game, which isn't a bad feeling to walk away with. I recommend Ara Fell if you like oldschool JRPGs with some quaint exploration mechanics and a decent story to tell. My time played isn't true to the amount of time it actually took me. I would walk away from the game to go do other things, so I might be around 30-35ish hours for my completion. My character classes: Lita: Valkyrie Adrian: Paladin Seri Kasu: Elementalist Doren: Cleric My recommendation is to prioritize MP regeneration when upgrading skills, but I did find it helpful for Lita's Holy Charged Shot to restore HP instead of MP. I paired it with Adrian's Mark ability restoring MP, so with each shot she took it gave everyone in the party full HP/MP. It was a good battery mechanic, along with Seri being able to Channel to restore the Ultimate, and Doren using Regen on Seri to restore her mana to allow her to keep funneling out Ultimates.

I got this game on steep discount, but even at full price I think it is well worth it despite being a relatively short game (100% in <25 hrs, despite my own play time). The pixel art and music are extremely well done, with a well done story with dialogue that has enough wit and self awareness to remain entertaining throughout. The combat system I like, though it is on the simpler side for jrpgs and the game is generally pretty easy even on the highest difficulty. My only real complaint is that there is one (and only one based on what I know) choice that has gameplay ramifications. It just so happens that getting an achivement is dependant on choosing the correct outcome. I so happened to choose wrong and was a little annoyed, but you can ignore this if 100% completion isnt important.