4/5 ★ – soulfulgamer19's review of Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition.

I love this game. My older brother got me a eshop gift card for Christmas 2019 and I always wanted to try this game and was so happy I did. Ara Fell a super charming, retro style, pixel art, indie JRPG. Those are some of my favorite buzzwords in video games, and if those descriptions check your boxes as well, read no further and just play this game. Ara Fell was made by a core team of just two people (!) originally in RPG Maker, and they gussied it up in Unity and ported it to the Switch as the Enhanced Edition, which is the version I played. This game has all the classic features of 16-bit era JRPG goodness in it — lovely pixel art, relaxing music and reasonably deep turn-based combat. All this is wrapped up in an emotional story about a relatable and plucky hero (Lita) who meets lovable friends and uncovers her hidden powers to save the world. The game’s length was just perfect also at around 15 hours, so it never overstayed its welcome. Ara Fell’s strength stems from the fact that its core mechanics are done so well. The pixel art is surprisingly detailed, with impressive effects for the snow particles and the birds and little animals moving in nature. The combat is always fair but reasonably challenging. And the music punched above its weight also - with some of the tunes sticking with me for a while (like Caves and Ruins). The icing on the cake is the excellent quality of life features that make playing the game an enjoyable and comforting experience. In particular, I liked the “story mode” option in combat, which lets you automatically win battles. This was especially appreciated for players like me, who sometimes just want to chill and play for the story. I also really liked how the game’s approach to crafting. Crafting in JRPGs usually feels superfluous or cumbersome, but Ara Fell’s approach is perfectly balanced. The ingredients are always accessible if you do even some exploring, and the benefits are considerable in that nearly all high level gear must be crafted. It actually makes collecting and crafting fun! My only critiques are that the map is bland and unhelpful, and the black-out-to-loud-sound-effect sequences got a little cheesy. But all in all, I love this game. It even got me to tolerate a vampire-based plot which I typically do not go for lol. In sum, Ara Fell is an extremely well done, feel-good JRPG that embodies the best traits of the classics. It also inspired me as a tangible example to one day make my own RPG Maker game. I would love to bring a story and world to life with as much loving detail and charm as Ara Fell.