Introduction by Ashraa.
Arboria gets it's full launch out of early access today, 9th September 2021. I first previewed this game as an early access release back in August of 2020 and wasn't overly impressed with it at the time. In the interest of fairness and impartiality Geir Gunnarsson has taken a fresh look at the game one year on to see how it fares going into it's full release.
Arboria review By Geir Gunnarsson Arboria is a 3D roguelite with a unique setting and style. It kind of reminds you of the 3D games of the Nintendo 64 and Playstation 1 era. The graphics are much better than the games from that generation but it certainly evokes that style and feeling. Arboria feels like a hybrid of enter the Gungeon and Dark Souls.
The game revolves around a tribe of trolls called Yotunz, which seem to be made from wood and stone, and they are birthed from a Father-tree called Yggr. The story begins with the tribe Shaman Vordagg explaining how the world was created and that the Father-tree has become sick and that there is something below in the underworld Durnar corrupting the roots of the tree.
In comes Raggar, a troll sporting what looks like a cowboy hat with some lights and pipes. Raggar is blaspheming against the Trolls religion saying the gods are nothing and then urinates all over the altar to drive his point home, and eventually jumps down into the underworld.
The Shaman Vordagg then proclaims that the Father-tree needs to give them a new troll warrior to follow Raggar into the underworld and to find out what is going on with the Father-tree.
At this point you are introduced to the respawn system and Rata, the troll fairy (I guess it is a troll fairy as she is smaller than the rest and has wings). Rata serves as your tutorial helper and confidant while exploring the underworld. In the father-tree Yggr, you get to choose the troll to play and you usually get 4 trolls to choose from, all with randomized stats and perks. The perks can be beneficial or detrimental. Once you pick a troll, he gets birthed from a giant sack on the Father-tree and you can explore the troll village. This happens every time you die, you get to choose from a set of 4 trolls.
The village acts as the traditional hub of roguelite games, with upgrade stations and NPC’s to unlock, all which improves one aspect or another of the trolls. When you are all set, you talk to the Shaman and let him know that you are ready to jump into Durnar. Which triggers a short silly clip, and each time you start a new run, a silly clip plays, and each time you start a new run a different it is a different clip. In one the tribe is carrying you on a stretcher and when they get to the hole, they unceremoniously dump you into the hole, which sets the tone for the game and story, it is all pretty silly and a bit cringy.
Now on to gameplay. The game plays and feels very much like a soulslike though there is no stamina management in Arboria like it is in soulslike games. It is janky compared to Dark Souls but not overly janky and can be quite fun. You seem to be able to spam attack and dodge without worrying about running out of stamina. There are 2 types of weapons: melee weapons and mutations. Melee weapons are your main attack and then the mutations are your secondary attacks and costs resources. Each time you hit an enemy with your main attack you gain a bit of mutation resources to perform mutation attacks. I only experienced 3 types of melee weapons and 3 types of mutation attacks in my playthroughs. Seeing as this is a roguelite and all drops are random I am not entirely sure how many weapons and items are in the game but each weapon I tried were quite varied, for example there was a sword which seemed to be medium speed with medium damage and an option to spam the attack to build up the attack and do more damage, then there was a scythe that was very fast and low damage and finally there was an axe with medium speed and 3 hit combo. Each weapon also had a secondary attack that was either an AoE (area of effect) or a heavy damage attack. The mutation attacks were quite varied as well, ranging from a teleport to a blast that damages everything around you. Just like most, if not all roguelites the levels are randomized and like Enter the Gungeon there are powerups and portals scattered around the map but unlike Enter the Gungeon, Arboria is a 3D third person perspective with a combat system similar to Dark Souls except for the stamina management.
It is all about timing and positioning, though Arboria does the same grave mistake as Dark Souls 2 did, some of the enemies’ attacks track you and become very difficult to avoid though thankfully it is not all of their attacks, just their most powerful build up attack.
The main objective of the game is to cure the roots of the Father-tree and to stop Ragga from doing whatever he is going to do (was not really clear from the beginning cinematic but hopefully will be explained further along).
While in the run you can pick up powerups, weapons and armour, all with different stats and characteristics.
The enemies are quite varied as well. You got your standard melee mobs and ranged mobs that come in various sizes, and then there are bigger tougher enemies with heavy armour. You explore these levels and fight to find Veri, which is a crystal and the main levelling currency, like souls in Dark Souls or cells in Dead Cells. Besides just basic enemies you’ll come upon events for example the cure root events, which tasks you to defend Rata from waves of enemies while she heals the corrupted roots.
Completing these events rewards you with Veri and cured Roots. The more cured Roots you have the more you can unlock in the hub, for example one of the first unlocks you get is Tadd Da Bat, who funnily enough does not really look like a bat but some kind of growth with vines. Tadd Da Bat will improve your weapons for Veri. After each level you’ll get an option to upgrade one of your stats and if you found a battery you can unlock an elevator making it possible to skip some of the earlier levels to get deeper sooner.
In these between level rooms you also have the option to deposit any Veri you’ve accumulated so far, saving it in case you die.
Now when you die, you’ll lose most of the Veri you’ve collected so far but not all, Rata will tear your head off and take it back up to the village where the head will be placed in a memorial with all the statistics from the last run and depending on how well you did the next generation of trolls will have better stats and is a pretty fun mechanic and reminds me a little bit of Rogue Legacy.
In conclusion this is a janky roguelite with some interesting ideas and a very unique style and setting.
It is silly and cringy at points but in a good way. If you like roguelites or soulslikes then you cant go very wrong with grabbing Arboria. It is a very reasonably priced game with a decent amount of content.
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