AereA Review

"Musical Heroes"

Campaign

AereA is an enchanting and simple little rpg that brings together a group of musical heroes. It's not particularly difficult being something the younger audience might enjoy but not an experience that will provide challenge to others. That being said, the game does come across as repetitive and one I couldn't finish since the first boss you come across was broken. I reloaded the same level multiple times and each time the neat bagpipe spider would go up after being damaged to then not come down again. This resulted in me walking around the area, standing there and eventually watching a video to see if I was doing anything wrong.

This is the least far I've ever gotten in a review and while it took time to get to this part of which I felt I could review it, it's a damn shame. The story is focused around playing as a local cooperative unit or by yourself to blast away enemies through dungeon crawling focused environments. There are a number of stages and bosses to compete against as you move in the world. It's also quite linear in design yet confusing as to where you're going since the guide indicator was awkward.

Gameplay

The central hub area of AereA is actually a gorgeous musical hall, but once you leave that space the areas come across as rather bland. I didn't hate the art style finding it simple, but it just wasn't quite at what I hoped for. The characters were really neat with their unique musical weapons though I would have liked some customization options. The classes each present something unique to the action and you'll need to find whatever you find works best for you. The game wasn't difficult to play at all and it was completely broken at a certain point as stated before. A final mention would be to the absolutely stellar music, it was on a completely other level of quality from what was being played.

The Conclusion

AereA could have been a decent or even average rpg, but despite multiple replays it was broken for me. It's disappointing that my progress was cut short, but honestly what I was playing wasn't too exciting. There's a fair bit of content here if it does work for you with rpg elements that don't factor in too much. It also doesn't feel very modern lacking any sort of loot drop and it doesn't give off a feeling of progression. Levels feel repetitive as you revisit the same section yet in different parts and still cross over existing portions. AereA had some promise and as part of a supposed series I'd like to see a better effort going forward. The premise is completely unique and I haven't seen this sort of thing before. I loved the charm of adding musical aspects to an rpg and I could see this being an accessible game for the younger audience.

AereA Review on Xbox One
Review Code Provided by SOEDESCO

Rating Overall: 2.5