Arboria

A Souls-inspired roguelite set in a techno-biological world, where your weapon is a symbiont and you develop your character by mutating – all that in a Nordic mythology coating and seasoned with humor. Sounds weird, but it works, at least until it gets repetitive.

Arboria is what I’d like to call a “status quo” game—as in it fits in with the current “gaming climate” (or whatever you want to call it) very nicely, but fails to make any kind of a splash. You play games like these because they’re already made up of components with which you’re comfortable, and, as a result, end up cozying up to said new game with relative ease. It’s not a bad thing to like, or even create games like these (several of my personal favorites fall into this category as well!), but, without that special “drive” to go the extra distance, you’ve already gone as far as you can go before things have even gotten started with that. Simply put, Arboria‘s just fine—and that’s all there is to it.

On the whole, Arboria is a fun spin on the largely established roguelike formula, using its overgrown dark and dank setting to create a series of inventive mechanics, which means that no two runs are ever the same.