I really want to like enjoy this game but there are some very apparent and glaring issues that stop me from giving this game the thumbs up it deserves.

For Context: I play a lot of roguelikes of varying levels of quality, mainly due to their high replay-ability and the sense that each run is unique. I do still quite enjoy story style games a fair bit, but my main focus has usually come down to roguelikes. I have also played both Rivals and Creatures of Aether before. Due to my heavy Roguelike interest, most of my criticism with Dungeons of Aether is going to be directed towards the Challenge Dungeons mode and enemies/bosses.


The Good Things:
many aspects of this game are very well done, for example the art and animation is incredible as is the standard for Aether's previous games, easily some of the best I've seen for a game. The combat is (at least from what I've seen in other reviews) a bit more of a divisive part of the game, with mechanics like RNG and limited method of correcting the drafts of dice you have at your disposal. That being said, I quite enjoy the combat style of using different colours of dice to buff your stats:

Attack - Dictates whether you can connect an attack on the turn, usually if your attack is higher than the opponent's defence.

Defence - Dictates whether you can block incoming attacks, usually if the defence is higher that the opponent's attack.

Accuracy - Dictates what moves you can do at the end of a turn. Higher accuracy gives you more options for moves.

Speed - Dictates who moves first in the end of a turn. Highest speed goes first but ties are in favour of the player

This system has some noticeable flaws but the combat for the most part is not bad, even with Stamina (external stat that can be used to buff any other stats) and items being limited resources.

The characters themselves are all pretty unique and fun to play as well:
Fleet: focuses on using their stamina as a resource to turn gained dice as Stamina dice.

Slade: focuses on using stamina as a resource to dodge attacks if you have higher speed. Also uses money as a combat resource for some moves. Defence dice are significantly weaker however.

Hamir: Can't make use of Stamina by a traditional means but does gain stamina dice equal to half your stamina. Loses stamina by connecting but gains it by blocking.

Artemis: Staying at low health gives them noticeable buffs, can use Stamina to heal.

The Bad Things: (Will mention spoilers)
My issue with this does not come down to the combat mechanics as I think it's well executed. My issue lies mainly in the combats themselves. Most early game combats are not too difficult and their moves and stats are relatively balanced but the big stinker combats are after you've beaten the first boss and the second area of Challenge Dungeons. Most of these enemies are Relentless, meaning they get constant stamina and can shift it between stats in response to your stat allocations, which is not an issue by itself. This however can become a serious problem when the enemy has some strong abilities alongside it. For example, a Relentless enemy in the Crypts has an ability that allows stamina dice to immediately be transferred into stamina. This isn't a massive issue until you look moves it has, as some of them allow it to gain stamina dice each round. This is not a bad enemy by any means but this and the next enemy that deserves its own paragraph take way too long to defeat.

The other big issue is that enemies past the first 3 areas will have abilities that scale incredibly in power while you have very little opportunity to improve yourself in the process. The Boss of the Crypts is an enemy I want to make mention of as the necromancer is by far the greatest offender of this. First of all, her stats are incredibly high at the part of the game you fight her at (keep in mind on a Challenge Dungeon you will have only gone to town once and likely haven't scaled any of your stats unless you have been able to manage your coins with Slade). Next is her abilities, she starts with relentless and a special ability that gives her stamina at the start of the round equal to the amount of dice you gained (if you're playing Hamir, you better pray to have high stamina for your stamina dice to counteract this). This can be kind of annoying on its own but in conjunction with her moves, she is absolutely frustrating and honestly broken. Her Plan technique gives her 3 dice: +2 accuracy, +2 speed and +3 damage which can easily put her damage in the double digits if she gets further attack dice. Not to mention that this can pretty much render any character useless, Slade is likely to not out-speed her and can't effectively use defence dice, Fleet's added stamina dice can't help against her and most characters don't have high enough stats to stay on par (again, you've only visited town once on a Challenge Dungeon run). Finally, her Curse attack puts the final nail in the coffin for me, on connect, it induces -2 to all base stats, which again can increase the stat gap to a stupid degree, but on block it is still lethal, as every drafted dice regardless of value is -1 when you pick it up (this is honestly the worst outcome as every character is once again rendered useless as she still gains dice values normally). This is the second boss of a Challenge Dungeon run and apparently can take at least an hour to beat essentially hoping RNG is on your side for long enough.


I would like to reiterate that this game's mechanics are still excellent in my eyes but the scaling of enemies while you are very limited in your scaling is honestly a massive problem to me. If this were fixed, I honestly likely won't have much of an issue with Dungeons of Aether and would easily earn a positive review but at this stage, it's nearly unbearable.

I really want to like enjoy this game but there are some very apparent and glaring issues that stop me from giving this game the thumbs up it deserves. For Context: I play a lot of roguelikes of varying levels of quality, mainly due to their high replay-ability and the sense that each run is unique. I do still quite enjoy story style games a fair bit, but my main focus has usually come down to roguelikes. I have also played both Rivals and Creatures of Aether before. Due to my heavy Roguelike interest, most of my criticism with Dungeons of Aether is going to be directed towards the Challenge Dungeons mode and enemies/bosses. [h1] The actual start of the review: [/h1] [b]The Good Things: [/b] many aspects of this game are very well done, for example the art and animation is incredible as is the standard for Aether's previous games, easily some of the best I've seen for a game. The combat is (at least from what I've seen in other reviews) a bit more of a divisive part of the game, with mechanics like RNG and limited method of correcting the drafts of dice you have at your disposal. That being said, I quite enjoy the combat style of using different colours of dice to buff your stats: Attack - Dictates whether you can connect an attack on the turn, usually if your attack is higher than the opponent's defence. Defence - Dictates whether you can block incoming attacks, usually if the defence is higher that the opponent's attack. Accuracy - Dictates what moves you can do at the end of a turn. Higher accuracy gives you more options for moves. Speed - Dictates who moves first in the end of a turn. Highest speed goes first but ties are in favour of the player This system has some noticeable flaws but the combat for the most part is not bad, even with Stamina (external stat that can be used to buff any other stats) and items being limited resources. The characters themselves are all pretty unique and fun to play as well: Fleet: focuses on using their stamina as a resource to turn gained dice as Stamina dice. Slade: focuses on using stamina as a resource to dodge attacks if you have higher speed. Also uses money as a combat resource for some moves. Defence dice are significantly weaker however. Hamir: Can't make use of Stamina by a traditional means but does gain stamina dice equal to half your stamina. Loses stamina by connecting but gains it by blocking. Artemis: Staying at low health gives them noticeable buffs, can use Stamina to heal. [b] The Bad Things: (Will mention spoilers)[/b] My issue with this does not come down to the combat mechanics as I think it's well executed. My issue lies mainly in the combats themselves. Most early game combats are not too difficult and their moves and stats are relatively balanced but the big stinker combats are after you've beaten the first boss and the second area of Challenge Dungeons. Most of these enemies are Relentless, meaning they get constant stamina and can shift it between stats in response to your stat allocations, which is not an issue by itself. This however can become a serious problem when the enemy has some strong abilities alongside it. [spoiler]For example, a Relentless enemy in the Crypts has an ability that allows stamina dice to immediately be transferred into stamina. This isn't a massive issue until you look moves it has, as some of them allow it to gain stamina dice each round. This is not a bad enemy by any means but this and the next enemy that deserves its own paragraph take way too long to defeat.[/spoiler] The other big issue is that enemies past the first 3 areas will have abilities that scale incredibly in power while you have very little opportunity to improve yourself in the process. [spoiler] The Boss of the Crypts is an enemy I want to make mention of as the necromancer is by far the greatest offender of this. First of all, her stats are incredibly high at the part of the game you fight her at (keep in mind on a Challenge Dungeon you will have only gone to town once and likely haven't scaled any of your stats unless you have been able to manage your coins with Slade). Next is her abilities, she starts with relentless and a special ability that gives her stamina at the start of the round equal to the amount of dice you gained (if you're playing Hamir, you better pray to have high stamina for your stamina dice to counteract this). This can be kind of annoying on its own but in conjunction with her moves, she is absolutely frustrating and honestly broken. Her Plan technique gives her 3 dice: +2 accuracy, +2 speed and +3 damage which can easily put her damage in the double digits if she gets further attack dice. Not to mention that this can pretty much render any character useless, Slade is likely to not out-speed her and can't effectively use defence dice, Fleet's added stamina dice can't help against her and most characters don't have high enough stats to stay on par (again, you've only visited town once on a Challenge Dungeon run). Finally, her Curse attack puts the final nail in the coffin for me, on connect, it induces -2 to all base stats, which again can increase the stat gap to a stupid degree, but on block it is still lethal, as every drafted dice regardless of value is -1 when you pick it up (this is honestly the worst outcome as every character is once again rendered useless as she still gains dice values normally). This is the second boss of a Challenge Dungeon run and apparently can take at least an hour to beat essentially hoping RNG is on your side for long enough.[/spoiler] I would like to reiterate that this game's mechanics are still excellent in my eyes but the scaling of enemies while you are very limited in your scaling is honestly a massive problem to me. If this were fixed, I honestly likely won't have much of an issue with Dungeons of Aether and would easily earn a positive review but at this stage, it's nearly unbearable.