Aethermancer First Impressions
Alrighty everyone. Today is a fabulous day for another impressions piece for an early access game, so without further ado, we are looking at Moi Rai Game's new project Aethermancer. Having played and enjoyed their previous project, the monster-taming metroidvania Monster Sanctuary, I'm delighted to say Aethermancer is a natural next step forward for the team.
Aethermancer is a monster-taming roguelike, set in an eldritch-like world of Terastae. The game takes place in a mysterious-yet-dangerous area called the Void, an alternate plane that is slowly but surely consuming the world.
I played as Siruix, a humanoid entity who appears to be made of spiritual energy and stardust. He's wry and guarded, but is also well-meaning and protective. Siruix is here for his own ambiguous reasons; reasons that will slowly unfold over the course of the game.
Siruix is what is known as an Aethermancer, a being who commands monsters to fend off the risks inherent to The Void. Over the course of a run, Siruix builds a team and swaps out monsters to achieve synergy and fight the progressively more dangerous opponents.
Whether a rougelike works or not is dependent on the core gameplay loop. While Aethermancer is in early access and there are still things to come, I'm pleased to say this game has the roguelike sauce.
It's no exaggeration that for the past couple of weeks, this game has consumed my life. Part of what dragged this review out was that I kept wanting to do just one more run before sitting down and writing my thoughts. I always try to see if I could do better and unlock more. It's the feeling a roguelike is supposed to invoke. The fact that it has its hooks in me so deeply shows me there's something special here, despite the game still being in a very early state.
What grabbed me was the addictive 3 vs 3 monster combat. It played like a combination of Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon for adults. Every turn, monsters generate one of five elemental Aethers, which are used to pay for attacks. Each monster has a unique playstyle and niche it fills. Team building requires balancing a multitude of factors, such as elemental types and the buffs and debuffs they inflict, to achieve the right synergy to get through a run.
Complicating matters is the influence of Corruption, which grows every time a monster sustains damage. Corruption is the manifestation of The Void’s power, lowering your monsters’ hit points and making it easier for them to fall in combat. Monsters too affected by this will need to be swapped out, keeping the combat dynamic while forcing varied strategies in battle.
While roguelikes aren't often story-based, this game boasts an impressive amount of world-building and lore. It unfolds through dialogue with various NPCs throughout the world. While it was lovingly crafted, it was a little hard for me to fully engage with it. The game throws a lot of info into the dialogue, which can be tedious, especially when I was itching to rush through and get to the next fight. In addition, it's presented so passively, with strange terms, that I'm not entirely sure how much of it actually sticks. I wish the delivery was easier to digest.
My only real complaint about the game is that there's definitely a learning curve. There's a lot going on, with a large amount of terminology to learn, and I found it took me about four or five hours to really get a grasp on it -- a time sink that will be too much for some players. Moi Rai does the best it can to ease the process with its UI. Unfortunately, it's not that well explained. I found that things that I wanted the game to include were already present; it was more that I hadn't been aware of where to look.
Before I wrap up the review, I want to shout out one more thing. Aethermancer boasts gorgeous pixel art. It's both a joy to look at and feels immersive, and it's definitely one of the best parts of the whole experience.
In the end, I think Aethermacer is off to a promising start. While there's more to be added down the line -- the roadmap suggests a new biome, more player classes, more monsters, and so much more -- there's already a fair amount to chew on here. I have a feeling the end product will be much different, but as is, there's a lot of promise and much to enjoy.
