Arboria

Arboria is a very captivating game featuring ugly trolls. After a few rounds, however, you get so used to them that they actually start to seem kind of cute. The game has its own unique sense of humor—perhaps a bit too vulgar for some players at times—but I enjoyed it. I had fun constantly exploring the dungeon, which is full of interesting enemies.

Arboria is what I’d like to call a “status quo” game—as in it fits in with the current “gaming climate” (or whatever you want to call it) very nicely, but fails to make any kind of a splash. You play games like these because they’re already made up of components with which you’re comfortable, and, as a result, end up cozying up to said new game with relative ease. It’s not a bad thing to like, or even create games like these (several of my personal favorites fall into this category as well!), but, without that special “drive” to go the extra distance, you’ve already gone as far as you can go before things have even gotten started with that. Simply put, Arboria‘s just fine—and that’s all there is to it.

Overall the developers have done a great job. The game has some interesting twists on the genre and I really think it will appeal to a wider audience. There are a few things I would like to see improved, which I touched upon a little already. It would be nice to see some more weapon types in Arboria, maybe some take on a bow and arrow or crossbow? Some ranged spells, perhaps? From the time I spent playing I was only able to find melee weapons, and while they do behave differently it still feels a little bit repetitive. I award Arboria the Thumb Culture Silver Award.

Arboria’s Souls-inspired combat is solid and it does some original things with the roguelike genre. It’s a modest title to be sure, but punches well above its weight when it comes to pure entertainment value. It’s weird and irreverent, doesn’t take itself too seriously, and all its systems work pretty well together. Arboria is one of those games that doesn’t try to do everything, but it has a distinctive approach to familiar mechanics and while it gets a little repetitive, it’s still fun for a good long time.

If you like to give yourself a bone and are not afraid of roguelikes then Arboria will be a great choice.

Arboria is a title with good ideas but like some flaws that cloud the final result. If you have played absolutely all the roguelikes and roguelites on the market, you will like Arboria and it will even surprise you with some of its mechanics. If not, there are better deals on the market.

Despite the performance issues at the end of the game, Arboria is a good action roguelike experience. Any fans of the genre will enjoy the title a lot and probably won't be bothered by its repetitiveness or its other slight flaws.

While Arboria has some strong artstyle, its roguelite mechanics feel more like a massive padding to hide reused enemies, a unfun combat system and lack of weapon variety. For a year filled with great roguelites, this one should be on the bottom of your list.

Are you passionate about rogue like like Hades? Are you sick of the fighting that Dark Souls raises? Well, Arboria will fill you with joy, as it combines the best of these two genres to make a unique, fun, profound work whose emphasis on progression is measured with surgical precision.

There's no doubt Arboria is an interesting rogue lite, but perhaps it was been published at the wrong time, in a market really overcrowded by games of the same type. The game offers captivating graphics, the original setting and the robust combat system, as well as the interesting character skill tree have but also lacks variety, which combined with the abscence of side quests tends to make every run look the same. I still enjoyed, although the long waiting times between one run and the next are a poor fit for the genre.