There aren’t many things I love more than a good Metroidvania, but as time goes on I struggle to really classify what games slot into the genre. For a long time most Metroidvania games fit into a nice little box, but really when you consider any game that gives you powerups you can use to access secrets in past locations so many grey areas emerge. Is almost every single Zelda game actually a Metroidvania? Can the same be said for Skyrim because sometimes you need to Shout to get into a cave? Honestly I have no idea, and I’m happy for someone else to sort out genre classifications so I can get through my backlog of reviews. In aid of that let’s talk about Ariana and the Elder Codex, a Maybevania with a whole lot to offer.
In the world of Ariana and the Elder Codex, magic has gone missing. Once upon a time this place was teeming with the stuff, but now it’s pretty much entirely barren of spells. The exception to this is Ariana, who can still summon some fairly basic fireballs and a magical sword as the game starts. Because of this she’s tasked with exploring the codices that created magic to see if she can fix them, but that’ll be easier said than done. There’s heaps of lore and world building you can dive into if you like reading dense text files, but if not the books are waiting for you.
There are seven books that originally summon magic into the world, corresponding to various elements. Our hero Ariana can magically jump into the pages of these ancient tomes and explore the story herself, all while fighting various monsters lurking within. By finding various rifts she’s able to repair the damage and gain new magic herself as she does. It’s an entertaining setup that means you get to explore themed locations, as well as fighting loads of mysterious monsters.
My absolute favourite thing about Ariana and the Elder Codex is the combat, which is just delightful. Ariana has five spells at her disposal at any time, assigned to various button combinations. These can have all sorts of effects, like dealing damage, providing healing, and even summoning floating orbs that shoot nearby foes. Finding the combinations of these that work best for you is a lot of fun, and if all else fails you can try and survive by dodging with perfect timing.
If the combat was all just about cool spells and fast reactions it’d be great, but overwhelming enemies with elements takes it one step further. Whenever you attack an enemy with one of the four elements you’ll build up a meter, and even if you switch from water to wind or something similar this will keep filling with magical power. Once the meter is full a foe will explode, dealing massive elemental damage to itself and others nearby. If you’re really lucky this will cause those enemies to send out more explosions in a glorious chain reaction of pain, which never gets old and really helps in arenas full of monsters.
Fighting standard enemies is the perfect balance of tough and entertaining, but the same can’t quite be said for the boss fights. These battles are ridiculously tough, and really require you to fully focus and learn how to dodge loads of massive attacks. So many of the bosses took me multiple attempts, and a few I had to give up on and explore somewhere else instead for a while.
The structure of Ariana and the Elder Codex is very interesting, because of the order you can tackle it in. The actual element themed areas are pretty linear, but you can take them on in the order of your choosing. Since they all give you different movement abilities for progressing (like a double jump and air dash) this means you can get your moveset in various orders. You can also dip in and out to grab extra abilities, find secrets and level up before tough fights if you fancy, which I’d highly recommend when you struggle.
Ariana and the Elder Codex is an engaging game, but there are a few elements that didn’t really click with me. The way the story is told is one of them, because while it’s interesting I didn’t want to read mountains of text logs to find out more instead of having fun fighting. The short stories about humanity told in the codices are lovely though, it’s just a shame it’s tougher to enjoy the overarching plot. I do think the bosses will be a bit much for some too, and a few definitely left me frustrated as they battered me over and over again.
I didn’t know what to expect from Ariana and the Elder Codex, and it really pleasantly surprised me. This Metroidvania has unique and delightful combat, and plenty of challenge for those seeking it. The story is great as long as you don’t mind a bit of heavy reading too, which is at least thematic for a game all about exploring books.
