I purchased this because I enjoy RPGs and adventure games in general, and this seemed to have both of those elements. Unfortunately, the final impression was pretty underwhelming. Legends of Aethereus isn't a bad game, but it's not that good either. For me, this title fell into the mediocre category pretty quickly.

Pros:

I loved the environments. While not too highly detailed, they were well fleshed out and large. I especially enjoyed the forest areas with all of the greenery and lush vegetation.

The character growth features a nice system where there are six main attributes sectioned into three pairs and displayed on progression bars. Each attribute has a complementary one on the bar that prevents you from maxing out every stat. For example: filling up the strength/agility bar with points in strength prevents your character from being agile. It's a nice system that allows for specialization instead of overpowered characters.

The skill trees are also quite large and feature a lot of skills to obtain and expand upon.

Cons:

While the environments were well-made, the character and costume models, unfortunately, were not. Character textures are flat and dull with the characters themselves not being pretty lifeless. I suppose it's just a gripe of mine, but I would've expected a bit more detail on the character models considering how much better the environments look.

The fighting engine is quite simple. The game's website boasts of a physics-based fighting system, but so far in my playthrough, combat just boiled down to dodging to the side and swinging your weapon (I've only played a melee character, so ranged attacks might be different). Enemies aren't that bright, either. They'll detect you and then just perform one attack the majority of the time.

Regarding enemies, there are some areas where they spawn indefinitely. It can get pretty frustrating when attempting to pick up a quest item or some loot and enemies keep on coming. Most of the time, there isn't a musical change that signals an attack, so you can get surprised from time to time. It's not that big of an issue, but I get the impression that unlimited waves of enemies were used to create tension, but they instead end up being a point of frustration.

Quests are extremely simple. So far, everything I've experienced has basically been: go to a certain place, fight some enemies, get an item or wait out an attack, then return and collect your reward.

Crafting is also simple with few different armor models. Most of the armor looks the same with maybe an extra texture or armor piece added. Though I've only seen the Tier I armor and weapons and tiers II and III may have more different kinds.

All in all, I wanted to like Legends of Aethereus as it seemed like a good entry in the adventure-RPG genre, but it turned out to be quite underwhelming. It's good if you want something quick to do, but at this point, that's about it. Perhaps the developer is working on more content and updating the gameplay engines somewhat, but until that happens, I would say to hold off on it.

I purchased this because I enjoy RPGs and adventure games in general, and this seemed to have both of those elements. Unfortunately, the final impression was pretty underwhelming. Legends of Aethereus isn't a bad game, but it's not that good either. For me, this title fell into the mediocre category pretty quickly. Pros: I loved the environments. While not too highly detailed, they were well fleshed out and large. I especially enjoyed the forest areas with all of the greenery and lush vegetation. The character growth features a nice system where there are six main attributes sectioned into three pairs and displayed on progression bars. Each attribute has a complementary one on the bar that prevents you from maxing out every stat. For example: filling up the strength/agility bar with points in strength prevents your character from being agile. It's a nice system that allows for specialization instead of overpowered characters. The skill trees are also quite large and feature a lot of skills to obtain and expand upon. Cons: While the environments were well-made, the character and costume models, unfortunately, were not. Character textures are flat and dull with the characters themselves not being pretty lifeless. I suppose it's just a gripe of mine, but I would've expected a bit more detail on the character models considering how much better the environments look. The fighting engine is quite simple. The game's website boasts of a physics-based fighting system, but so far in my playthrough, combat just boiled down to dodging to the side and swinging your weapon (I've only played a melee character, so ranged attacks might be different). Enemies aren't that bright, either. They'll detect you and then just perform one attack the majority of the time. Regarding enemies, there are some areas where they spawn indefinitely. It can get pretty frustrating when attempting to pick up a quest item or some loot and enemies keep on coming. Most of the time, there isn't a musical change that signals an attack, so you can get surprised from time to time. It's not that big of an issue, but I get the impression that unlimited waves of enemies were used to create tension, but they instead end up being a point of frustration. Quests are extremely simple. So far, everything I've experienced has basically been: go to a certain place, fight some enemies, get an item or wait out an attack, then return and collect your reward. Crafting is also simple with few different armor models. Most of the armor looks the same with maybe an extra texture or armor piece added. Though I've only seen the Tier I armor and weapons and tiers II and III may have more different kinds. All in all, I wanted to like Legends of Aethereus as it seemed like a good entry in the adventure-RPG genre, but it turned out to be quite underwhelming. It's good if you want something quick to do, but at this point, that's about it. Perhaps the developer is working on more content and updating the gameplay engines somewhat, but until that happens, I would say to hold off on it.