Note: I played the entire game, from start to finish, on the Steam Deck. The game was completed once, in Expert mode.

TLDR: An outstanding jRPG which can be recommended without hesitation, as long as you are aware of one major negative (the lighting).

Ara Fell is simply amazing. It does almost everything right. The story is fantastic. You are given the time to get to know the characters, and they are written well. There are no translation issues here! The story has its ups and downs, some genuinely funny moments, and an absolutely epic finale.

The pacing is tremendous. The gathering and crafting system are fairly unique, but it works very well. Each character has their full outfit available to them from the outset, but each piece can be upgraded with the materials you find out in the world. The world is a very believable, lived-in space. There are numerous critters flying and scurrying around all of the time. Leaves fall, trees sway in the wind, it all feels very real. The pixel graphics do some heavy lifting here, as you can tell that enough attention to detail has been given here to make the world feel alive.

The only time I dislike the environment has to do with the biggest negative the game has to offer: its lighting. As mentioned above, the entire game was played on the Steam Deck. The Deck was very frequently docked with the game displayed on a 72 inch television, and the rest of the time played in handheld mode. The result was the same. The game has SEVERE problems with its lighting in several places in the game. It is simultaneously too bright and too dark. The game has many white “flashbang” screens (even right at the title, where it lasts interminably long until you realize you can hit any key/button to advance). These screens are almost blindingly white, and I really did not care for them. Likewise, when you are out in the snow or in certain grove areas, the sunlight and reflected light are just so bright as to be uncomfortable on your eyes. And then, conversely, in most caves, everything is just WAY too dark. I literally could not see where to go in some areas. I wound up having to increase the brightness of the tv or deck (as the game does not provide a working brightness control) whenever I was in a cave, and then lowering the brightness whenever I was not in a cave. This was very annoying, but it speaks to the quality of the game that I was willing to go to such lengths. The final negative regarding the lighting is that several areas have a “pulsing background light”, which is probably meant to represent lightning. This, thankfully, is only present in the early areas of the game that you will push past quickly, but it is also present in the final area of the game, and you unfortunately spend a long time in that area. If you are epileptic, this may pose a problem for you.

The rest of the game is nearly perfect, with minor quibbles. The combat is excellent, a highlight of the game, and that’s very good, because there is A LOT OF IT. And I mean a lot! I was playing on Expert difficulty, so I did wind up fighting almost everything I saw (to keep myself over leveled for the mostly hard boss fights). Each character feels unique and the choices they make each combat turn do feel meaningful. A small downside here is when each character gets to upgrade their class. This choice is permanent, enormous (every character plays completely differently based on what you choose), and given very little fanfare. Worse, you are not really told or shown HOW the choice will affect the character. It almost seems as though you are meant to consult a guide/wiki to see the skills before you make your choice. I’m fine with that (and that’s what I did), but I think the game would have been improved with either class tutorials showing the difference ahead of time, or a “testing area” to allows players to try both options out before committing.

Finally, the audio and visual are mostly top notch. The pixel graphics are a delight, infusing the world with life. The music tracks are purchase-worthy, though I feel there are not enough of them. The sound effects consist of a lot of grunts and weapon “whooshes”, and feel much lower quality than the rest of the game, so I turned those off early and left them off for the rest of the game.

Thank you for reading this far, and if you have even a passing appreciation for RPGs and jRPGs in particular, you owe it to yourself to try this brilliant throwback to the genre.

A great little indie JRPG! looking forward to more!