Coridden Review

In a world where games like Baldur's Gate 3 exist, an RPG needs to be able to sell itself on a feature, a unique selling point, if you will. It needs something that will help it stand apart from the crowds, be it a new combat mechanic or an interesting world. That is where Coridden, the latest game from developer Aftnareld finds itself. The question is whether this game can shift your focus or if it was better left in a pen.

Coridden takes place in Aasha, where you take the role of one of four siblings, all gifted magical gauntlets on the eve of a tournament. These gauntlets allow the siblings to transform into creatures to aid them in combat, however, the AI inside them tells you of a fault. It is up to you to fix the gauntlets, protect your family, and explore the world. As plots go, it does what it needs to, and it gets you moving along the necessary path. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of a problem. 

See, part of Coridden is that you pick one of the four siblings to play as at the start, and each is listed as having their own personality traits. However, as you pick the responses from a selection, I never felt much difference between each character. I didn’t notice a choice to do a mission differently based on the character I was playing. The same goes for the classes: you have several different ones that you can choose from, with many focusing on different elements. These elements will help with certain puzzles, but just pick your favourite, as you can find elemental attacks to circumvent not having the right class. 

Once you’ve chosen your sibling, it’s time to explore the world, which is where my biggest issue with Coridden appears. See, unfortunately, the game has a locked camera, so you can only see the world around you from an isometric camera… and I hate it. It makes exploring a chore, and, considering there’s no minimap, it means a lot of back and forth to figure out where you are. It’s not so bad on the more linear maps, but it’s a pain on the bigger areas. 

Meanwhile, the combat is pretty simple: you have an attack button, a set of abilities, and a ranged attack. There are no combos or secret moves here; everything is as it appears, with the only real choice being your gear. You have the same set of options as you would expect: swords, axes, crossbows, and the like, and each has a different set of numbers that determine how fast and damaging they are. In truth, like many of these games, you won’t easily notice the difference 90% of the time, but there’s more than enough to build your character around. 

Of course, there’s also Coridden’s ace in the hole: transformations. Throughout your adventure, you’ll gain the ability to turn into different animals and fight like them. The difference between each beast is pretty minimal, but there’s enough for you to experiment. The beasts also have their equipment of a sort, including a ranged attack. There are a few reasons why you might transform (outside of just why not), the first is that your human and animal forms have different stamina bars. These bars run out pretty quickly, so swapping gives you more overall attacks. The second is that you are much faster as an animal, so it makes getting across the map easier. 

The third also feeds into the multiplayer aspect of Coridden. As I said, you can pick one of four siblings at the start of the game, and if you opt for multiplayer, four of you can play at once. Honestly, Coridden is really designed for a full party, with many of the bosses being a challenge to get past while playing solo. The entertaining part is that you can also ride your friends — no, not in that way. If they are in animal form, you can ride and fight from their back. It’s an entertaining gimmick, make no mistake. 

Visually, Coridden does what it needs to do, and the environments all look quite nice with some lovely water effects. However, the character models are much less detailed. They’re not bad by any means but the fact that the game gives them a coloured aura makes them look a bit plastic at times, although it is easier to tell them apart in a melee. Although, it won’t take you out of the game to watch them moving around the map. Meanwhile, the character animations, including the transformations, all look fluid. And the music and voice acting are both pretty standard, with the voice acting actually being pretty rarely used. 

Coridden is easily a game that was designed to be played with friends over voice chat, where you can have a real laugh. However, that doesn’t really mean much, as any game with friends is fun. You can play Coridden solo, and it can be a fun time, but it always feels like you’re missing something when you do. However, everything here works as it should, and you can have a laugh running around as a monster (although, unlike Project Tower, the other monsters will attack you regardless).