Taking on a unique approach in the action-adventure genre by giving players the ability to control the seasons within a dome around them which affects both enemies and the environment are the teams over at eXiin and Fishing Cactus. Working together they created Ary and the Secret of Seasons, an interesting action-puzzle game that has the gameplay familiar to that which many gamers grew up with and a story-filled atmosphere that is suitable for all ages. While it definitely has some issues worth addressing, the overall question I want to address has to be “is the game fun?” And to that, I do have to say that it is.

Story

After reading a letter meant for her father requesting his presence at the secret meeting of the season leaders and knowing that he would be unable to attend due to his mourning of her lost brother, Ary sets out in her father’s place to represent the Winter season. In this meeting, she learns that the balance of all of Valdi has been disrupted by invasive crystals that disrupt the natural season and they need to get to the bottom of it. Being the most youthful and agile of the season leaders, Ary is sent to find out what has it will take to restore balance to the world, but little did she know just what troubles lie ahead!

Gameplay

There is a fairly basic tutorial-style intro to the game where you will face off against a few enemies on your way to the initial meeting that kicks off the game. During these fights, you will learn the basic attack set up, how to dodge, when to time a counter (or deflect), and your movement controls including run and jump. The journey to the meeting also gives you a light puzzle cavern to get through as well which blended together does a great job showing off how the game pretty much plays out and what to expect.

They also do a good job by giving you the full story plot right in the beginning with a cutscene that plays out in Ary’s imagination. Not-so-spoiler alert: her imagined story is also a legend in the world of Valdi and is keen to the one you are about to set out on.

A lot of what you will be doing in this game is changing the season around you to see the difference in specific areas. While you can only make your dome so large on your own, there are two monolith types that can be used to help expand the affected area. The main one you will use is the taller one which gives a full expansion to a surrounding area rather than your initial tiny dome. The most helpful one you will use is the small one because these monoliths can be moved and are often used in puzzles.

When it comes to the puzzles themselves, they are definitely pretty interesting. Some seasons provide no water where there is plenty while others do provide water where there is none. This can be used to move around more easily throughout areas for both yourself and certain objects. Then you have the winter season to work with which will freeze the top of the water, even if that water only exists within the season orb. Utilizing these seasons in the puzzles was an awesome choice and easily my favorite aspect of this game’s whole set up.

You will also come across crystals that remove the orb power and cancel your season orb. These sections will test your platforming and overcoming skill, so be ready to think outside the box. But mainly, this is where you will end up using your slingshot the most as you will eventually gain the ability to shoot a season dome spawn with the slingshot, which became handy really quickly.

Visuals

Given that the story and gameplay style is fitting for kids, the cartoon style used for the artwork is very fitting to the game. They did send out a patch for the games culling and processing issues, but even after the patch I still came across some problems. Don’t be surprised to see the wrong season randomly glitch on the screen or for there to be lag in the cutscenes themselves.

Sounds

Again, given that this game has an overall style that is for kids, the sound effects and music used was very fitting to the game. I enjoyed the music used and found it to drive that adventurous feeling that these games are trying to provide. However, I did come across a glitch near the end of the game where the music just stopped altogether and ended up with no music during the games final moments.

Replayability

There are tons of side quests and collectibles all over the world of Valdi, so there is plenty of reason to go back through it. While defeating enemies doesn’t provide any reward on its own, there are plenty of enemies around for the player to face off against if they want to. I can see players putting more time in this game than just doing the main questline.

What Could Be Better

They definitely should have taken the time to polish this game more before releasing it at all. Even after the patch, I mentioned earlier, I still came across plenty of culling and performance issues. These issues are not all purely cosmetic as there were even moments that the thing I needed to interact with didn’t prompt me to interact with it so I would look all around to figure out what I was supposed to do only to try re-approaching the area and see the prompt come up.

While I liked that the boss fights were all unique in their own right, it would have been nice to have some kind of hint or cue as to how to fight them. The first moments of each battle is just a guessing game to figure out what it is we are supposed to do. It can be as simple as just a voice line adding a hint from the character to the player.

There were times where I don’t believe the team collaborated properly in the level’s design. It seemed almost like one team created the level, one team put the finishing touches to it, and then one team created puzzles for the area. The most blatant example of this was in the first temple. When you go in there, you are faced with a water-filled area and have to start solving the puzzle, but in this completely water-filled temple, there are a few dead hyena enemies just laying around. Why would you put hyena’s in a temple if they are drowned before we go in there at all? It was not only out of place, but kind of unsettling to be honest.

Conclusion

Ary and the Secret of Seasons is a title I have been waiting for and ended up enjoying overall. The star moments of the gameplay belong to the puzzle sections and boss fights, but it does have a few problems around the overall experience. I can see players enjoying this game and overlooking the issues it has without a problem, but the fact remains that these problems could have been easily fixed if they took the time to polish the game further before launching it.