Ary and the Secret of Seasons

Information / Review English
Ary and the Secret of Seasons falls into the RPG, Adventure and Platformer Gerne, which was developed by eXiin / Fishing Cactus.
Gameplay / Story
Yule, a Region where it is white all Year round and the Snow does not thaw. A Dream of many People. In this Town Aryelle lives with her Parents in a chic House. Actually, Ary's Brother Flynn still lives with them, but he disappeared during the Guardtraining and was pronounced dead. This plunges Ary's father, Guardian of Winter, into a Deep hole. He appears to be depressed and doesn't play a special Role during the Story either. Ary's Mother is there for her Daughter, even if she is not always enthusiastic about the Ideas of her offspring.
When Ary is surprised by hyenas on the way to the market square, who are carrying the Sword of their Brother who was believed dead, she doubts her Brother's death. But she can't think about it for long, because suddenly the Seasons in Yule go crazy. Instead of an ice-cold Winter, the residents now have to deal with Summer temperatures. In order to get to the bottom of the Chaos and the disappearance of her Brother, she decides that her Father is unable to take on the Role of the winter watchman and will be the first woman to attend the meeting of the Guardian union. To do this, she snatches the Winter crystal that is hidden in the basement of her House. When she arrives at the Cathedral, she discovers that the Guardian Association has declared the glorious days to be the rum-rich days. After a halfway degenerate drink, the Guards of Spring, Summer and Autumn find that their Crystals have disappeared and have been stolen by a mysterious black Figure. They eyed the little girl skeptically that the line of tradition is breaking open. But you have no Choice but to search for the Crystals. In doing so, Ary uncovered a cunning intrigue.
In the course of our Journey we also discover some Side quests, the Content of which ranges from classic collecting Quests to bring-me-painting Quests. They are not particularly time-consuming, which means that the main Quest does not fall by the wayside. Chests found en route contain Coins that are used to purchase new Clothing, Character upgrades, or new Weapons. Unfortunately, Weapons and Clothing only have a creative use.
Pro
+ Greetings from Zelda
+ good Scope
+ Charm and Humor present
+ many different Opponents
+ Fights are challenging
+ good magic Skills
+ beautiful Puzzles with the Seasons
+ easy-to-learn Controls
+ Fast travel
+ Successes
Contra
- Opponent's AI is terrible at times
- The game world looks partially empty
- Translation errors and other Bugs around
- Guns and Clothes just for the Eyes
Conclusion
Ary and the Secret of Seasons offers you a magical Adventure which is told with lots of Charm and Humor. If you like Zelda, be sure to get it here.
Informationen / Review Deutsch
Ary and the Secret of Seasons fällt in das RPG, Abenteuer und Plattformer Gerne, welches von eXiin/Fishing Cactus entwickelt wurde.
Gameplay/ Geschichte
Yule, eine Region wo es das ganze Jahr weiß ist und der Schnee nicht taut. Ein Traum vieler Menschen. In diesem Städtchen lebt Aryelle zusammen mit ihren Eltern in einem schicken Häuschen. Eigentlich wohnt Arys Bruder Flynn noch bei ihnen, jedoch ist er während der Wächterausbildung verschwunden und für tot erklärt worden. Das stürzt Arys Vater, Wächter des Winters, in ein tiefes Loch. Er scheint depressiv zu sein und spielt auch während der Geschichte keine besondere Rolle. Arys Mutter ist aber für ihre Tochter da, auch wenn sie von den Ideen ihres Nachwuchses nicht immer begeistert ist.
Als Ary auf dem Weg zum Marktplatz von Hyänen überrascht wird, die das Schwert ihres totgeglaubten Bruders bei sich tragen, zweifelt sie an dem Tod ihres Bruders. Lange kann sie jedoch nicht darüber nachdenken, denn plötzlich spielen die Jahreszeiten in Yule verrückt. Statt mit einem eiskalter Winter müssen die Bewohner nun mit sommerlichen Temperaturen klar kommen. Um dem Chaos und dem Verschwinden ihres Bruders auf den Grund zu gehen, beschließt sie, da ihr Vater dazu nicht im Stande ist, die Rolle des Winterwächters auszuüben und als erste Frau an der Sitzung des Wächterbundes teilzunehmen. Dafür reißt sie den Winterkristall an sich, der im Keller ihres Hauses versteckt ist. Am Dom angekommen entdeckt sie, dass der Wächterbund die ruhmreichen zu den Rum-reichen Tagen erklärt hat (ok, im Spiel wird über Saft geredet, aber warum sind die Wächter dann so komisch drauf?). Nach einem halbwegs ausgearteten Umtrunk stellen die Wächter des Frühlings, Sommers und Herbst fest, dass ihre Kristalle verschwunden und von einer mysteriösen schwarzen Gestalt geklaut worden sind. Skeptisch beäugen sie das kleine Mädchen, dass die Traditionslinie aufbricht. Ihnen bleibt aber nichts anderes übrig, als auf die Suche nach den Kristallen zu schicken. Dabei deckt Ary eine ausgefuchste Intrige auf.
Im Laufe unserer Reise entdecken wir auch einige Nebenquests, die inhaltlich von klassischen Sammelquests bis hin zu Bring-Mir-Mal-Quests reichen. Sonderlich Zeitaufwendig sind sie nicht, wodurch die Hauptquest nicht auf der Strecke bleibt. Unterwegs gefundene Truhen beinhalten Münzen, die zum Anschaffen von neuer Kleidung, Charakter-Upgrades oder neuer Bewaffnung gedacht sind. Leider haben Waffen und Kleidung nur einen gestalterischen Nutzen.
Pro
+ Grüße von Zelda
+ guter Umfang
+ Charme und Humor vorhanden
+ viele verschiedene Gegner
+ Kämpfe sind herausfordernd
+ gute magische Fähigkeiten
+ schöne Puzzles mit den Jahreszeiten
+ leicht zu erlernende Steuerung
+ Schnellreise
+ Erfolge
Kontra
- KI des Gegners ist manchmal schrecklich
- Spielwelt wirkt teilweise leer
- Übersetzungsfehler und andere Bugs im Umlauf
- Waffen und Kleidung nur fürs Auge
Fazit
Ary and the Secret of Seasons bietet dir eine magisches Abenteuer welches mit viel Charme und Humor erzählt wird. Wer Zelda mag, unbedingt hier zugreifen.

I greatly enjoyed this game. There were some lingering bugs, but they did not affect my game progress or my ability to have fun (they were all quite minor). I'm sure they will be patched soon.
The dungeons are where this game shines the best; they are very well-designed. Unfortunately, you have to play for a few hours before you reach the first full "proper" dungeon. Even so, it's worth the time investment.
You are given access to all 4 seasons before the first dungeon, and that means you have mostly free reign to explore the world with a lot of options from very early on. There are essentially 4 different versions of the same world to explore - as the seasons can be activated anywhere in the entire game. You can have all 4 seasons represented in the same room.
The whole game feels like a passion project. You can tell that a lot of care was put into the animations and character designs. The story is neat - not groundbreaking or anything, but it was enjoyable. The combat was a bit easy (on normal mode).
Sometimes it felt like the game tried to do too many things, and that means that some of them just don't feel as important or fleshed out as others. I think it's clear that the story/cut-scene, characters, town, and dungeon designs got the most attention. But the game also has a bunch of optional cosmetics, skill upgrades, and sidequests to go through.
Despite its flaws, I love this game for the dungeons alone. If you like games like The Legend of Zelda series, I highly recommend Ary and the Secret of Seasons.

Fun action platformer with an interesting twist. Could use some collision detection improvements

Okay, so it's definitely still rough around the edges. I encountered most of the bugs the developer mentions in the launch day update, as well as a few of my own. None of them actually broke the game completely though, with one exception. The game can get stuck trying to autosave, which means that it's NOT actually autosaving. I lost my progress through an entire dungeon this way. Now, that being said, it didn't prevent me from completing the game, I just had to do the dungeon over again.
The story is very sweet, although the end was a little bit out of nowhere. The main character is memorable and cute and very enjoyable to play, and they did a great job with outfits and weapons. The combat is fun too, and the game can be VERY hard on the harder settings. The platforming was good too.
Basically, I took about 13 hours to get to the ending and at no point did I feel like I was wasting my time. As a result, I don't feel any qualms about recommending it. Try to get it on sale, at least until the rest of the bugs are fixed, but the developer seems to be working hard to iron all of them out.

I don't know if I am of a simpler mind than other players, but I really enjoyed the game. There are undoubtedly flaws as many of the other reviews stated, but personally I did not encounter any game breaking ones (at least none that I didn't provoke myself by climbing to places you're obviously not supposed to be) in my playthrough.
I was intrigued by the season mechanics the moment I saw the game at Gamescom and seeing it applied in the final product, it feels like the first time you understand the mechanics of Portal. It felt amazing to cheese my way through one of the temples using the season spheres, skipping most of the puzzles, only to then find out I had to go through most of it again with severely reduced season powers, so this time I had to play them properly! The developers stated in one press interview that a bunch of puzzles got cut after play testing revealed that some players would get stuck on them, but I'd like to see them added back in!
The story is cute, but a bit too compressed. Everything happens rather quickly. There is optional content, some of which with a lot of word building and background info on the main characters. Speaking of which, the main cast is a bunch of likeable characters, helped along by some brilliant voice acting during the cutscenes. At first you're belittled by most people you meet, but over the course of the story this prejudice against Ary is turned around.
The boss fights are a mixed bag, but overall fun. Most of them follow the established pattern of figuring out the mechanic and repeating that mechanic a couple of times, very much like any Zelda boss. The final fight in the game is pretty underwhelming, however. It really felt like a stage one of some larger battle. It's a shame, because overall the fights where creative, using your season abilities to find the enemy's weak spot.
Overall, would I recommend it? Yeah, give it a try! Again, I had quite some fun exploring the world and its story, from which the flaws did not distract me.

I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Zelda games such as Skyward Sword. It does contain a lot of bugs but it didn't affect my ability to progress through the story. The story is playful and isn't meant to be taken too serious but the ending did leave a sour taste in my mouth.