Review anarchistica 2/5 · Aug 2, 2018
Nice Hotchpotch
Aaru's Awakening is a bit of a mismatched platformer. It's beautiful and it has a story. But then it turns out it's a hardcore platformer that encourages speedruns? Huh? It's really kind of a shame that you can't just enjoy the art.
The gameplay is fairly solid. There's a teleportation mechanic that sets it apart from other platformers. You shoot …
Aaru's Awakening is a bit of a mismatched platformer. It's beautiful and it has a story. But then it turns out it's a hardcore platformer that encourages speedruns? Huh? It's really kind of a shame that you can't just enjoy the art.
The gameplay is fairly solid. There's a teleportation mechanic that sets it apart from other platformers. You shoot a ball of light that bounces off surfaces. Often you have to shoot it through a hole too small to normally get through. It's also used to kill enemies and avoid deadly terrain.
A big drawback is that the dangerous terrain sometimes blends into the background and you'll often die because you teleport/jump somewhere without being able to see ahead. There's plenty of checkpoints but this is still rather annoying. I'd recommend it, but only to people who like that kind of thing.
