Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi

We have access to a lot of new games via various review platforms, but I am quite picky on the titles we cover. Partly due to time, but also because I want what we cover to be relevant to those of us who like games in an anime style. Altheia certainly looked the part, with it's attractive cover illustrations and aesthetically pleasing (if low-res) game world, so I decided to give it a go.

As the titular heroine, you must traverse a 3D world full of foes and puzzles, with help from your monk friend, whose powers you can tap to help you along the way. It looks quite Zelda-ish, but if you're going to draw inspiration from anything, it might as well be from the best.

The game itself does little to hold your hand - you start in a very dark location and have to basically feel your way through to finding a door that (thankfully) opens up to a more brightly lit world.

Now, I know this is a demo, but a glitch saw me float onto a platform I don't think I was meant to access, and subsequently I was both further along in the game than I think I should have been, but also stuck. Because there weren't any clear directions on what I had to do or in what order, I just ran around for a bit - jumping off my ledge killed me, so I had to abandon that playthrough and start over. Not an ideal introduction, really.

When I got back to my previous location without glitching, I found the hints would pop up so fast that I'd miss them, and with no way to look up previous instructions, that left me a bit lost. Some puzzles require a combination of buttons, which becomes frustrating if you don't know what they were and can't look them up. You either have to just try things until they work, or restart. Again.

The game is also pretty empty - while Altheia can use a bow and arrow, sword and optional equipment such as bombs, there wasn't a lot of use for them, instead I just had to traverse the levels to find the next puzzle, none of which were particularly inspiring. Again, this is a demo, but with the release date set for August 21st, it's going to need a pretty hefty update if it's going to be competing in the big leagues.

On the positive side, the world I got to see was stylised and imaginative. The characters have some charm at least and, should the content be polished up, this could be an appealing puzzle game. Unfortunately the demo failed to ,er, demonstrate this, but the trailer shows off some pretty awesome looking bosses, so it could be a case of a clumsy demo not really showing off the game's full potential. The glitching in my first playthrough was unfortunate and shows that the engine needs some serious work, so I'm really hoping they development team have everything locked down for launch.

I really want to like Altheia, it's heartening to see an indie game that isn't a sprite-based Metroidvania or top down shooter, but sadly this isn't the game (thus far) that's going to be starting any new trends. It's certainly no Zelda and it lacks the polish of games like Kena: Bridge of Spirits, which had a similar "clear the corruption" storyline but with far more graphical fidelity than I'm seeing here.

Hopefully the full game will prove to be a better experience than the demo when it launches on August 21st.