Welcome to our review of Ara Fell, a new approach to the RPG genre where you can skip the grinding?
Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition is a 16-bit era Japanese-style RPG by Stegosoft Games. The new Enhanced Edition features a slew of upgrades, including a revamped battle system, new character classes and skills, new side quests, an overhauled UI, upgraded crafting system, new enchanting system, enhanced aspect ratios, new difficulty modes, an autosave feature and more!
Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition combines the best parts of Japanese-style role-playing games with the best parts of western RPGs, as well as including elements of visual novels and adventure games to create a truly unique experience. Atmosphere, emotion, and surprise lie at the forefront of Ara Fell’s story, driven by deep and accessible characters, each with his or her own past, their own desires and their own motivations for joining the protagonist’s quest. Join Lita and relive the golden age of RPGs with a game that both pays homage to the past greats, as well as blazing its own trail.
When I first started playing Ara Fell, I had this Kemco feeling. Similar graphics, those old school ones, an interesting story and tons of grinding. But that was not the case, at least not for the endless grinding to level up. More on that later on, first let us talk about the story.
This game is quite impressive when it comes to the storyline. In the first chapter alone, you are to win an archery contest, find a mysterious ring, escape the vampires that try to destroy all humanity, save your missing cat alongside other missing pets in your little town and so much more. Ara Fell got me really hooked on the storyline, more than I anticipated. The portability of the Nintendo Switch is the biggest benefit of getting it on this platform in my humble opinion.
Ara Fell also sports a very classic approach to the RPG genre as it uses the classic timeline for attacking, allowing you to plan out attacks like usual. Conversations and the menus are all the usual that any RPG fan has experienced a ton of times. But like usual, RPGs of this style, they get their audience through proper storytelling and balancing out the difficulty in battles.
And that is exactly where Ara Fell shines so darn brightly. The developers implemented a “story mode” which allows you to instantly win a battle. Forget about automatically resetting health and magic points after each battle, if you are lost in the world of Ara Fell and need to backtrack half the way back? Why not enter a fight, pick story mode, win the battle, get the credits and experience and move on.
I once had that happen, I misread a quest. Totally my fault, I just went over things too quickly and ignored the location in the clue. I had to literally go back to where I came from so I could advance in the storyline. I literally engaged in every fight, causing me to upgrade three levels, which would have cost me way too long in other circumstances, but this time it like cost me 15 minutes. Not too shabby!
In conclusion, Ara Fell is a classic RPG that allows for no grinding and an easy way out of difficult battles. This story mode might make it too easy, but that is a side thought considering how nicely the story advanced and how it kept me invested.
