Aether Preview

Aether is an action roguelike developed by ORYgames with some fascinating ideas. Seemingly blending ideas from a variety of games in the genre to make a unique experience. Sadly, though, in its current state, it often feels like a frustrating mess; yet, as a very early build, it has the potential to grow into something great.

Within the world of Aether, after a war between gods the world is left fractured, the player character is the only person with the potential to save it and return things to how they should be. The setup works adequately to set the world of the game, yet it does feel pretty underwhelming and stereotypical. The same goes for the actual levels in the game: wide open stages, lacking any unique flair or additions, making the roguelike formula feel pointless currently. Each stage is composed of Shrines, Minibosses, and the boss shrine. Defeating minibosses drops chests which each give a choice between three different random gear pieces, which each affect different stats, such as damage, defence, or critical damage. The same goes for the shrines, which spawn either a miniboss or a small hoard of enemies. Defeating these spawns a similar layout of items. Finally, there are the Boss Shrines, which are required for progress. Activating this spawns the boss, who, once defeated, drops another chest, similar to the other shrines, along with a portal to the next stage. The stress of defeating enemies and surviving isn’t all the game offers in terms of difficulty — however, the longer you spend through each run slowly increases the power of the enemies. In its current implementation though, I’m not the biggest fan of this system as each of the items are primarily stat increases, and as you progress and increase your stats, so do the enemies. Due to this, despite an obvious increase in numbers, the power fantasy never seems to come, which is a big selling point for action games in my eyes.

Combat is the primary way you’ll be interacting with the world, and this is all through the use of the eight elements of aether. These consist of Metal, Fire, Lightning, Wind, Ice, Water, Nature, and Earth. These all come with unique abilities and playstyles. For example, Metal seems to focus on high damage and applying bleeding, while Fire is incredibly fast with low damage and burns enemies. As you defeat enemies you’ll earn experience, which can then be spent on levelling up each element. When an element levels up, you’re given the option between different abilities, or buffing yourself, providing a minor stat boost. Each of these abilities feels incredibly unique, yet I did find balance to be a huge mixed bag: there’s a lack of invincibility frames after taking hits, which leads to more close-range abilities being incredibly risky and not worth using for the most part, especially in the later stages. Also, enemies can often get staggered by attacks, which makes the faster abilities generally feel far stronger and safer. It’s an incredibly satisfying system yet it does need some polish.

The meta-progression system is incredibly simple. There is a small list of achievements, unlocked by completing tasks, such as killing bosses, enemies, and clearing stages. These achievements reward both shards and pieces of gear. Shards can be used to unlock new elements, while the gear unlocks can be equipped to add buffs before each run.

Aether shows a lot of promise and could easily grow into a fantastic roguelike with the addition of content and a lot of polish. There are some slightly hard-to-see hitboxes, along with rough attack animations from bosses, which lead to taking frustrating hits. The combat system feels fluid, and the eight elements allow for a lot of creativity and experimentation.