Ary and the Secret of Seasons Reviews
Ary and the Secret of Seasons might don the aesthetics of grand adventure games but it only ever glimpses the horizon it’s so clearly chasing.
All-in-all, this could have been a game that you can just have fun with and not take seriously. It’s unfortunately riddled with a ton of game-breaking bugs that you’ll spend more time being frustrated and disappointed rather than actually having fun. It feels like a beta version, almost. These bugs can very well be fixed in the future and maybe the experience will be more enjoyable then. For now, however, this game feels like an unfinished product that was pushed forcibly towards release. The game’s combat is so unfurnished and unexciting. The story feels… rushed. All of these aspects are such a shame because I feel like the game has a lot of potential and the main character is really likable. Sadly, that potential is far from attained.
Ary and the Secret of Seasons presents unprecedented mechanics in which the characteristics of the seasons are used to revitalize objects and areas to create interesting 3D platform puzzles. Although it has its charm, the experience ends up being as fleeting and forgettable as the seasons themselves with four seasons full of technical problems such as rendering deadlocks, errors and crashes, in addition to other aspects that make the title repetitive, dragged and almost nothing challenging .
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The game is brimming with potential. Unfortunately, the weak narrative, plain bad combat, and a plethora of bugs and glitches make it so that I simply can’t recommend that anyone buy this ten-hour-long game.
If there are some patches to fix the bugs and technical issues, it could be recommended on sale, but until then I cannot suggest anyone play this game.
Ary can change seasons, but it is still not enough to keep you playing.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
A vibrant world full of enjoyable characters and high-quality voice acting take the edge off a game that's boring at the best of times and broken at the worst.
I sincerely wanted to enjoy this adventure. Everything I had read about it excited me but here I am, feeling as though I wasted too many hours and grew a dozen new white hairs stressing over a game that was just not ready to be released. From in-game glitches to progression-halting bugs, what little fun there was ended up marred by a game that just didn't feel finished.
Ary and the Secret of Seasons is fun for a while, but the technical issues really effect it, and stop you from having a great adventure.
At times, Ary and the Secret of Seasons can be a fun if not particularly memorable new action adventure game, but what will really stick in your mind are the various gamebreaking bugs you can stumble across. I would certainly wait a few seasons for patches before considering picking this up. There is the skeleton of an enjoyable family-friendly title here but it just isn't ready.
It offers some solid worldbuilding, a likeable lead, several funny moments, quality voice acting, and a few half-decent cutscenes for an indie title. Unfortunately, it seems it needed a few more seasons of its own before being anywhere near ready for release.
The curiosity and enthusiasm that the game aroused in me have been totally buried under a sea of errors of the most diverse, from graphics or performance problems, to a terrible translation, which make you wonder if it makes sense to even release the title to the market in these terms.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
With some more time in the oven. Ary and the Secret of Seasons could be a stellar Zelda Clone. The dungeons offer some decent challenge with the seasonal powers and later on you get access to a seasonal slingshot which helps with strategies. But that doesn’t change how the game feels soulless, characters frozen like it’s winter everywhere, the sounds characters make during conversations, even things like the choice of font, the objectives hanging on screen all the time, even just Ary’s reactions to new tasks feel empty. There is definitely some potential here, just some polish could make this game really shine.
Ary and the Secret of Seasons needed to stay in development for a few more seasons, receiving the polish it needed to become memorable. There are really good ideas in the game, with emphasis on the main mechanics of the stations. There are few titles that explore a certain aspect so well without making it dull or repetitive. However, without a doubt, the biggest negative point is the huge gallery of technical problems. Constant and time consuming load screens, objects being rendered a few meters away, areas with fog, very unstable fps rate, many bugs and crashes that close the game are just a few in this list.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
MEDIOCRE - A rather bland experience that is tainted by technical issues that almost render the game unplayable on the docked Switch, but made slightly better with some published workarounds. Once the game is patched and cleaned up it might be worth checking out, but I’m not sure that’ll be enough to make the game fun.
In spite of its problems, there’s a good game buried beneath Ary and the Secret of Seasons‘ many technical bumps and bruises. Wielding the weather to solve its many clever brain-teasers can be as exhilarating as a thunderstorm in July. But these flashes of excitement are almost always bookended by moments of frustration thanks to the game’s shoddy optimization.
Ary and the Secret of Seasons is a basic my-first-adventure, that rarely lifts itself above mediocrity. Turns out having the power of seasons can’t stop the game being a disappointing rainy day in summer when you’d planned to go to the beach.
Exiin's first step as an indie studio is not as strong, but it doesnt disappoint either. Ary and the Secret of Seasons is full of new ideas, but the lack of time probably prevented the team from fully developing those ideas, and the result is an unpolished, rushed game that could have been much better.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Early glimpses of the puzzles and dungeons showed just how great Ary and the Secret of Seasons could be, and while those are realised here, it's just not enough to make up for the numerous issues and missteps. Many players won't be able to even see those best moments unless they have the considerable patience needed to be able to get over halfway through. A true disappointment; there is an awful lot to like here, but ultimately it's hard to recommend this. Strangely, considering how many times it's been delayed, this just feels unfinished, like a preview build.