Airoheart It is clearly a nostalgic work. The video game developed by Pixel Heart Studio and distributed by Soedesco don’t try to hide itso much so that it can be read as an introduction to his project in Starter.
Airoheart is a top-down 16-bit ARPG inspired by SNES-era classics. Like The Legend of Zelda: ALTTP.
With a reference such as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, you can get a more or less clear picture of what to expect from this game. And since not everyone has to know about this gem from the past, I will say it is
of a game with 16-bit 2D graphics with aerial view, in which we are presented with a world relatively openin which you have to overcome different puzzles and get tools so you can keep moving forward.
And this is the theory that Airoheart applies to ultimate consequences, this being good and bad. Let me explain:
1991 visual style.
And it is such theinspirationin this Zelda many sprites will look familiar to us: bushes, stones, bombs and even guards are extremely similar. I had to look up pictures of Zelda itself to make sure they weren’t the same, because I couldn’t have told from memory. On the other hand, in 1991 our screens did not have the technology or the resolution that we have today, so even if we ignore it on purpose, the truth is that the first impression when putting into play is that a current screen produces a shock
On the big screen it becomes hard, the texts themselves become difficult to read at first. Although this is completely intentional on the part of those responsible and whoever comes here knows what’s coming. What is reprehensible is the lack of inspiration in general of the characters, the cartography and the enemies, it gives the feeling of having already seen it.
An epic story, but not deep
Airoheart This is the classic fight of good against evil. Although he sometimes tries to talk about relevant issues such as the racism that the protagonist suffers from being mixed race, the speciesism humans compared to the rest of the “sentient beings” or justification different parties for a war.
Too bad none of them develop beyond a specific intervention and in the end it comes to nothing, more depth.
Although compared to the main story the game is quite serious, it is not at all at the level of the secondary missions, where the tone is much more casual.
It suits you very well because there are very spiritual, like an enchanted broom to sweep the house, but curses the wizard who enchanted her for giving her consciousness since her life is hell; will understand.
Unfortunately, sometimes the tone is out of context and more than once we’re going to have a “joke” in a pretty serious situation.
A structure that sounds something
The structure of the adventure is exactly the same only its reference: the objective is to overcome a series of dungeons, and among them we will have exploration sections where we can meet characters, side missions and improvements for our character.
In each area is the tool or power needed to move on to the next one.
The world in general is divided into well-differentiated areas and on some occasions we will find characters who tell us about a problem, need help or have a test prepared for us.
It has very clever puzzles and some that are particularly hard to see at first glance. Without a doubt, the best of the game is found in the dungeons
Too bad we can’t say the same about the progress of the game, since many times we will find ourselves lost without knowing where to go and without anything to indicate it. To mitigate this, we have the daily Airoheart
the missions and encounters we had during our adventure. however sometimes it lacks a kind of guide, since the log entries are rather descriptive of what happened and don’t give any clue as to
where to go The path to follow is usually the path that can be followed, and even finding it can be frustrating. The thought of “maybe I need something to get through here and I haven’t found it” is recurrent.
A character who lends you a hand when you’re lost is missing.
uninspired fight
One of the features used by promoters Airoheart It’s a real-time fight. well bad news: combat is the worst in the game. And there’s no other way to say it.
The vast majority of damage comes from anything that lands on you. The control sometimes fails and the character stays looking at one place when you go to another, so the next sword or arrow blow fails and in the time it takes to give it you have already received a shock from which you have to recover, and start over. This gives the impression that the enemies are only programmed to crash into youeven if they launch a projectile which usually does not pose a threat.
Special mention to the dungeon bosses, who apart from some are exactly what I was describing, only bigger, faster, take more life and last much longer. The combat is really the weak point of the game.
classic sound
The sound section is hard to rate, as it has some really good bits that mimic, again, the games of the era it’s inspired by. But there are relatively few tracks and little variety. It is also to be noted that
the vast majority of dungeons don’t have background music, and you’re pretty much silent, only to in-game sounds like bombs, enemies, etc.
conclusion
Nostalgia can play tricks on us, since we can relive something we loved, but at the same time we realize that all was not well.
If you like them Zelda classics, you will love dungeons, puzzles and exploration, and if you don’t know them, Airoheart to introduce you to the genre. However, we can stop counting, because in reality the game does not add anything new except combat, and this is the worst thing solved. This also leads to the problem of lack of in-game guidance to which “reference” and today it is difficult to justify.
It’s also worth noting that the version that was played for analysis has a specific bug that on some occasions prevented progress, forcing the game to be closed and reopened, clouding my experience with it a bit. This should be fixed in an update as well as what has been said about dungeon music.
Airoheart
Pro.
- Dungeons and their puzzles
- Some side quests
Contra.
- Too “inspired” in their referents
- The fight
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