Aaru's Awakening Worth Playing? Review

[Superbuu3]

After a few requests in addition to my tower of guns worth playing review I've done one for Aaru's awakening, let me know if you want any other games done, this review shows gameplay from most of levels of the game so you'll get a good idea of the variety in gameplay.

If you just want to see the story of the game check out this link:

[damon8r351]

Fun fact, I pronounce the title as Ay-Ay-Ru's Awakening like they do Ay-Ay-Ron's name in the Key & Peele sketch:

 

Good reviews BTW

Edited April 16, 2015 by damon8r351

[Superbuu3]

Good reviews BTW

 

Glad you liked it, I'll likely do more when I get more requests.

[ShadowGandalf]

I tried it, but I didn't like it. The art was beautiful of course, probably the games best feature, but I disliked the control scheme. I'm also not a fan of frustrating platformers. I made an exception for Rogue Legacy since it handled very responsively and smoothly, plus it was fun. I didn't have fun with the short time I spent with Aaru. A shame really. I thought I'd like it, but....

You should do this for more games, especially IGC games, or indies that aren't well known. Keep it up and I may subscribe.

[Superbuu3]

I tried it, but I didn't like it. The art was beautiful of course, probably the games best feature, but I disliked the control scheme. I'm also not a fan of frustrating platformers. I made an exception for Rogue Legacy since it handled very responsively and smoothly, plus it was fun. I didn't have fun with the short time I spent with Aaru. A shame really. I thought I'd like it, but....

You should do this for more games, especially IGC games, or indies that aren't well known. Keep it up and I may subscribe.

Thanks for the comment I think I might just do that

[TheYuriG]

4:31 "it's sad to see a game with such lovely visuals being ruined by poor design choices on the gameplay department"

I was on the fence with this game too (as much as Tower Of Guns) and I had a similar idea when watching the video, which was warranted by the phrase you said above.

 

I would really like you to do similar videos for the next games that reaches IGC (Hey, what about Never Alone?), so I can completely avoid downloading them if they are not worth playing. What I used to do was to download them and play at a secondary account, but liking it or not, it was already on my downloads list while I would never bother to play it again and the devs have already been paid (AFAIK, devs get paid for number of downloads at IGC, it doesn't matter if you played it or not).

 

People can be mad at me for saying this, but I don't want devs to get paid for games I don't like. These videos will help me out to decide about IGC games in the future, keep them coming superbuu3.

[Superbuu3]

Its certainly a shame the gameplay can't live up to the art style. If they decide to make more games I do hope they do improve the gameplay. I can't realistically see a sequel being made for this game. I also don't think it would be a good idea.

 

As people seem to like the review style I'll work on doing some more.  I might try and branch out and do games which people are on the fence about buying or playing. I need to also get some decent video editing software to make better videos, but one step at a time I guess.

[StrickenBiged]

4:31 "it's sad to see a game with such lovely visuals being ruined by poor design choices on the gameplay department"

I was on the fence with this game too (as much as Tower Of Guns) and I had a similar idea when watching the video, which was warranted by the phrase you said above.

 

I would really like you to do similar videos for the next games that reaches IGC (Hey, what about Never Alone?), so I can completely avoid downloading them if they are not worth playing. What I used to do was to download them and play at a secondary account, but liking it or not, it was already on my downloads list while I would never bother to play it again and the devs have already been paid (AFAIK, devs get paid for number of downloads at IGC, it doesn't matter if you played it or not).

 

People can be mad at me for saying this, but I don't want devs to get paid for games I don't like. These videos will help me out to decide about IGC games in the future, keep them coming superbuu3.

 

A good point. Whether boycotting the + games you're not interested will prompt Sony to consider the quality of games that go into + will remain to be seen though. For one thing, they're unlikely to care as long as people keep paying the subscription, and it benefits them if people don't download them as they don't have to pay the developer.

 

Its certainly a shame the gameplay can't live up to the art style. If they decide to make more games I do hope they do improve the gameplay. I can't realistically see a sequel being made for this game. I also don't think it would be a good idea.

 

As people seem to like the review style I'll work on doing some more.  I might try and branch out and do games which people are on the fence about buying or playing. I need to also get some decent video editing software to make better videos, but one step at a time I guess.

 

I think the devs in this case are (or were recently) students and that this was a student project. It looks like a decent game from a "competency" point of view, but as you say there are some design choices that may betray their lack of experience.

 

Keep making the videos dude. I enjoy your thoughts and they have helped me save my trophy list from a couple of games I'll probably put down (not that I'm overly bothered).

 

People have been saying on the forums for ages that they want to see more reviews of games on the site (half the forum says "yeah, do it" and the other half says "if you wanna do a review, then just get on with it already and stop making these 'let's do reviews' threads") so you're making a good contribution to the site that may not necessarily be reflected in the length of your review threads.

[Superbuu3]

A good point. Whether boycotting the + games you're not interested will prompt Sony to consider the quality of games that go into + will remain to be seen though. For one thing, they're unlikely to care as long as people keep paying the subscription, and it benefits them if people don't download them as they don't have to pay the developer.

 

 

I think the devs in this case are (or were recently) students and that this was a student project. It looks like a decent game from a "competency" point of view, but as you say there are some design choices that may betray their lack of experience.

 

Keep making the videos dude. I enjoy your thoughts and they have helped me save my trophy list from a couple of games I'll probably put down (not that I'm overly bothered).

 

People have been saying on the forums for ages that they want to see more reviews of games on the site (half the forum says "yeah, do it" and the other half says "if you wanna do a review, then just get on with it already and stop making these 'let's do reviews' threads") so you're making a good contribution to the site that may not necessarily be reflected in the length of your review threads.

 

Oh cool thanks for that some useful information.  I was actually suprised at the lack of reviews here so I thought I'd try my hand at them because I get judged less harshly when there's nothing to compare to, lol.  I didn't think many people were interested with but thats very handy to know. I'm guessing the quality is ok, as I seem to have finally hit 100 subscribers YAY.

[lesk8vaincra]

i began to play this game today, i already finished the third boss (and got the gold for first 3 "worlds"). Using L1 to jump/dash is a bit weird at the beginning but after 15 minutes or so i was used to it (even if sometimes i tried to use X to jump ).

The controls are not that bad imho. To be honest, i really like the game. It may not be the best platforming game but still. I'll 100% it tomorrow (i finished the 3 first world in like 2 hours, so i do not doubt the rest will be quickly doable).

The story of the game, however, is just a big 'meh' for me.

[MMDE]

Game fucking crashed as I beat the last boss with a gold ranking. I watch the error report thing appear and I find it hilarious the trophies are popping... until I check the list of trophies that popped. I missed world bronze trophy AKA beat every level. I got the ones for silver, bronze and all that other stuff, but not that one. Didn't help to replay one level or set a new record etc. Might help to do the last boss again, but I doubt it. I will just play through all the levels again. At least it was only the trophy for beating all the levels that didn't pop, and not the one for gold.

[MMDE]

 

 

Oh and here's screenshots of the game crashing as the last trophies popped:

 

 

Had to replay the entire game to get this one:

 

Edited December 13, 2017 by MMDE

[roxas21691]

On 10/10/2017 at 2:06 AM, MMDE said:

Game fucking crashed as I beat the last boss with a gold ranking. I watch the error report thing appear and I find it hilarious the trophies are popping... until I check the list of trophies that popped. I missed world bronze trophy AKA beat every level. I got the ones for silver, bronze and all that other stuff, but not that one. Didn't help to replay one level or set a new record etc. Might help to do the last boss again, but I doubt it. I will just play through all the levels again. At least it was only the trophy for beating all the levels that didn't pop, and not the one for gold.

 

Wow, the exact same thing happened to me as well. The game crashed and all trophies popped while I was on the PS4 UI, except the world bronze trophy. I just needed to replay the last boss once again to get the trophy, so it wasn't that bad

[MooozipanCheese]

What a coincidence - the game also crashed for me after getting gold on the final boss. A final "fuck you" from the game, it would seem, although thankfully all the trophies did unlock for me. I enjoyed the first half of the game, but the second half was incredibly and needlessly frustrating.

[Lordguwa]

4 minutes ago, MooozipanCheese said:

What a coincidence - the game also crashed for me after getting gold on the final boss. A final "fuck you" from the game, it would seem, although thankfully all the trophies did unlock for me. I enjoyed the first half of the game, but the second half was incredibly and needlessly frustrating.

 

i can't remember how i managed to 100% both games. really tough they are for gold medals but mostly enjoyable.

[Skadoki]

So many people seem to have crashing problems O.o I remember playing this game about 2 years ago and had lot's of fun; haven't crashed on me even once.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Skadoki

[dieselmanchild]

Started with the PS3 version and didn’t experience any crashes. The final boss sucked major ass though but after a few tries I was able to clear it in like 5 mins or something so not too bad I guess. Didn’t experience any crashes.

 

PS4 version was a different story…
 

I expected to breeze through the game playing it the 2nd time around, but for some reason I actually found it a lot harder on the Dualshock 4 controller. My times were far worse on most levels. Funny enough, I was initially pissed that the DS4 wasn’t compatible with the PS3 version and had to play with my half broken Dualshock 3, but in the end it ended up feeling much “looser” and served me well. The DS4 felt stiff, especially when it came to accurately aiming my jumps or the little projectile ball.

 

Got to the final boss again and this time I suffered big time and had a pretty rough time. Wanted to throw my PS4 out the window but I pushed on and eventually beat it with an awful time. However, the game crashes instantly as the trophies start popping.

 

It popped the gold, silver, and bronze medal trophy for the final world but none of the remaining 3 trophies. I beat my head against the wall killing the boss once again and the game crashed yet again, this time after popping the World Gold and World Silver. So I had to beat that son of a bitch one more time (this time it finally came easy) and popped the World Bronze and gleefully deleted the game from my hard drive.

 

Got all the trophies in the end, but figured I’d post this here as therapy & to document this incident in case anyone notices my weird time stamps on the PS4 stack of this game.

 

Would recommend players back up a save to the cloud before fighting final boss, just in case.