Mar 2020
Welcome to the wondrous world of Ara Fell – a land where vampires reign, elves sulk, and aggressively cute animals go missing like socks in a dryer. This 16-bit love letter to JRPGs lets you live out your dream of battling baddies while occasionally throwing your phone across the room in pure frustration. So, grab your bow and arrows, and let’s dive into this pixelated fantasy!
The gameplay is a classic turn-based RPG setup, which means you’ll be spending a lot of time selecting attack commands while pondering the mysteries of life, like why no one has invented a self-cleaning house yet. You control Lita, a 16-year-old with a penchant for getting into trouble—kind of like a teenage version of Indiana Jones, but with less sweat and more elvish powers. The game kicks off with our hero collecting magic rings and battling vampires, not because she has a penchant for danger, but because it’s all in a day's work when you’re a restless teen in a fantasy world. Between scouring dungeons and engaging in heartfelt dialogue that could put Shakespeare to shame, you'll face numerous quirky challenges. Want to free pets that have mysteriously vanished? You've come to the right game! The secrets of the universe await, and they're hiding behind a vampire named Arger (and frankly, who wouldn't want to deal with that guy?).
Graphically, Ara Fell cranks up the nostalgia dial to eleven. With its vibrant pixel art, it transports you back to a time when games didn’t need massive budgets to be visually appealing, because we all know pixels can pack a punch just as well as a high-def explosion. Despite some areas feeling like they were designed at a last-minute pizza party, the overall aesthetic is charming and cute. The animation during combat is crisp enough that you might even find yourself mistaking it for a fancy fireworks display after a couple of hours.
Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition is like that quirky friend who shows up to parties and makes you question your taste in music. You might roll your eyes at first, but before you know it, you’re all-in on the over-the-top cheesy dialogue and charming visuals. Sure, it might not win any awards for innovation, but it's an enjoyable romp through a land filled with mystery, adventure, and enough fantasy tropes to satisfy even the grumpiest of JRPG veterans. Grab your Switch and get ready to do some serious vampire hunting that will surely allow you to live out your heroic fantasies… until you remember it’s just a game, and you still have school in the morning.
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