Overall Impression
Aethermancer is a charming turned based creature collector with a pixel graphic aesthetic. There’s a very nostalgic feel to the game that brings me back to classic RPGs from the early 90s. There’s something special in that era of gaming when things were simple but intriguing. Aethermancer exhibits these same qualities packaged in a strategic and challenging roguelike experience.
Target Audience
Gamers that enjoy a turned based adventure with retro style pixel graphics and creature collecting may want to check this out. It’s fairly easy to get into, as the mechanics are introduced slowly and in bite sized sequences. Combat is strategic, challenging and rewarding.
Gameplay
The core gameplay loop revolves around adventuring, collecting creatures and combat. You’ll generally be exploring an area, encountering battles and building your team by selecting the right mix of creatures and upgrading them.
Combat is pretty straight forward but challenging and strategic. Enemies are weak to certain elements. Hit the creature enough with their weakness and they enter a broken state where they take increased damage and also skip their turn. It’s a simple mechanic but allows for strategic choices in which creatures to place in your lineup to cover each element. Furthermore there are various mechanics that make each combat encounter potentially dangerous. This makes for interesting gameplay as each choice you make in combat matters. Lastly, the resource system of gaining aether is slightly different than in other similar games. It gives a unique feel to the game.
The RPG aspects of the game add more depth and strategy. Creatures can level up and gain new skills. When a creature gains a new skill you have a choice between 3 options allowing for further customization. This allows for a lot more strategy when you put together a formation. Combined with the random nature of skills you receive and the variety of combinations and build options allow the player to make creative choices to match their playstyle and current lineup. Putting together a cohesive build among your formation feels very rewarding.
As with any roguelike there is a meta progression system. On each run you earn currency and use that to make certain upgrades that help on each subsequent run. The upgrades are quite helpful allowing you to select certain creatures to start with or allow for access to more resources. It has everything you would expect in this genre.
The exploration elements are also simple but interesting. Most areas feel like an appropriate size and there are hidden objects to uncover and interact with throughout each map. It’s also very easy to fast travel and warp between points of interest. Altogether, the basic gameplay loop is interesting and easy to get into.
Art & Design
The overall art style has a retro pixel type aesthetic that really adds to the overall nostalgic charm of the game. It does this in a way that feels familiar but also still putting a stamp on its own visual identity. Creature designs are varied, interesting and fun. There’s so much to like here. The user interface and UI is also quite simple and easy to navigate.
Challenges
The main challenge for any roguelike is that there’s a learning curve especially when starting out. The basic combat mechanics are easy to understand. However, as you gain more skills, passives and equipment the combinations that you can pull off and effects that you can trigger become more complex. It’s not inherently a flaw in the game but it can become tricky in tracking or making sense of everything that is happening.
The other aspect that can be challenging is the repetitive nature of a roguelike. This means that you’ll be playing and re-playing certain parts over and over. It does allow you to experiment with different setups and learn the intricacies of combat. I do wish there was a setting to adjust the overall speed of animations in combat or just speed up combat altogether. With the number of fights that you encounter even a slight change in combat time makes a difference.
Closing Thoughts
Aethermancer is a fun and strategic turn based creature collector. It’s one of the most interesting new IPs I’ve come across in a while. There’s a ton of potential here. If you enjoy strategic turn based combat and creature collecting with an old school RPG vibe, you should check out Aethermancer.
GAME DETAILS
PLATFORMS: PC, Nintendo Switch
RELEASE: TBD
DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER: Moi Rai Games / Offbrand Games
GENRE/TAGS: Turn Based Strategy, Creature Collector, 2D, Retro Pixel Art, Roguelike
TARGET AUDIENCE: Gamers that enjoy creature collecting and turn based combat with a retro pixel art style.
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