Pros:
- excellent art, both for backgrounds and characters
- quirky characters and NPCs
- intriguing story that can be very unpredictable
- on-point humor when you do and don't expect it
- you can romance select people in your party
- many throwbacks and references to previous games and characters in the Aveyond series
- simple controls
- militant squirrels
- combat is intuitive but can be challenging if you don't know what to expect

Cons:
- you do have to grind on occasion (unless you're on the easiest setting)
- there is a version of fast travel, but it still takes a significant chunk of time to get from place to place
- some sidequests are unnecessarily convoluted (but only a few)
- doesn't appear to have much replay value
- bears
- Te'ijal's sprite still doesn't match her appearance

I originally bought this from Amaranth's website when it first came out and I received a free Steam key as a result. I haven't yet completed the game, but it's definitely worth the money - especially if you've played previous games from the Aveyond series!

I am an Aveyond fan . . . . This is a new twist of the Aveyond games with a new Darkthrope. Even if he is "evil" and cursed to marry a witch - he is a very likable character. You have a great quest to complete and a new group of heros - along with a few favorites from previous games. Of course you can have a marriage at the end . . . . if you get enough attaction points. I personally loved the game and will play more than once.

I have played all the Aveyond games and I have loved them all... except for this one. That's not to say it isn't an okay game, but it didn't live up to the expectations I have come to have for an Aveyond game. It was a bit disappointing.

Pros:
- The characters are well done. Boyle makes for a fun and interesting "hero". The side characters are just as interesting and the dialog is well written..
- The art is, as usual, beautiful. Each location has so many little details that make the map come alive.
- The mechanics are great. Each character has their own set of unique skills. Changing one active party member for another can have a real impact in a fight.
- The humor is on point.
- Lots of little easter eggs / throwbacks to previous Aveyond games.

Cons:
- The quests were all over the place, to the point it became confusing in parts. While a game can be boring if it is too linear, this game would have benefitted from more clear direction.
- The story started out strong, but fell apart toward the middle.
- Backtracking. A lot of tedious back and forth, zig zagging all over. It got pretty boring.
- The locations, while beautiful, felt small and cramped. The overall world map felt like each continent / island was stuck together on a too-small map at the end. Where previous games felt open and vast, this one felt small and squished.
- The ending. No spoilers, but it was a letdown. I kept saying to myself "That's it?". Pretty disappointing.

Overall, the game started out strong but seemed to lose it's way around the middle. I enjoyed it for the most part, but I felt as though the game had potential to be better than it was. If you love the Aveyond games, by all means get the game. Maybe wait until it's on sale though.

I've been a huge fan of Amanda and Amaranth Games since Ahriman's Prophecy first came out, but for me, AV4 beats them all. Despite the lack of an item/setting to speed up movement (thus making travel rather slow), the humor and plot (failed villain turned reluctant hero) more than make up for spending a little too much time trying to get to people and places. There has been some commentary on Ingrid "forcing" her love interests into a relationship, but having actually played through each of the romances, the men never felt forced to me.

Overall, Boyle is the perfect mix of "Oh [insert divinity], we have to save the world!" heroism and "Why can't I just torture innocent villagers in a dungeon?" villainy, and AV4 is bold, beautiful, and brilliant.

4.3/5

Additional note, I bought this game when it first came out and received a free Steam Key for writing a review.

Wish I could recomend this as the only big issues it has are technical.

Primary Issues:
Only two screen sizes, full screen and tiny. Full screen stretches the game for wide screen.
Slow movement. Several things go into this complaint. I'll detail it in full at the bottom.
Audio slider for sound does not work.


Positives:
Story starts out fun and strong. Loses some focus in the middle but never becomes tedium.
Mechanics are an embaressment of riches. Every character has their own.
The meta dungeon was inventive. Cool idea well executed.
Being able to steal anything on the usuable item table was great.
Item that let's you see goodie rooms. Saves me from looking up (more) spoilers online.
Boyle's starting pokemon is the best pokemon for the whole game.
No random encounters, in spots this lets you run past higher level enemies to loot things.



Slow movement:
Late game there's no teleportation between cities, there is a system to reduce how much walking you need to do to get where you want to go but for this whole game you will be walking from point A to point B. There are several points where the next event isn't obvious, searching for them adds to the travel time.

Movement is handled with either mouse or 'wasd'. This is an issue as clicking on some things is hard due to their size while using pure 'wasd' will end up hurting your hand. And when using 'wasd' the fidelity feels off as when the character rotates direction 180 degrees they rotate in 90 degree chunks adding several frames of lag to the movement.

The walk speed is a fixed rate for the whole game and it's not fast. This makes backtracking through large areas like cities painful. Eventually I settled on using both mouse and 'wasd' to minimize hand pain.

I love the Aveyond games, and so I had being eagerly anticipating this new installment to this old school RPG series (I got this elsewhere and have been given a free Steam key thanks to the lovely people at Amaranth Games). This is an engaging stand alone story, so you don't need to have played the other games before diving into this one, for fans of the series like myself there are nods to the earlier games and old friends scattered throughout. I love the humor and hours of game play with side quests and secret goodie locations, these games offer, be warned they're highly addictive!!!!!

One of my favorite games since childhood.

This is beyond a shadow of a doubt my LEAST favorite Aveyond game. I think I own around 7 of them. The others are awesome. This one is torturous.

Pros: It's Aveyond. Cute characters. Nice story. Beautiful graphics. Characters in reserve earn xp.

Cons: Too confusing. As with all Aveyond games, you have to zig zag all over the place. Not a problem but without maps included it is hellacious trying to figure out how to get back to a previous location. Between the ferry, mist portal and ship....I don't know which way is up. With previous Aveyonds, you took your ship to a location and maybe had to navigate a woods or two.
I've spent most of my time trying traveling and googling 'how do I get to (insert town name'.

More cons: Game is very skimpy as far as coins go. Drops from fights wouldn't be so bad if the weapons and armors weren't so expensive. With previous Aveyonds, I never ran out of money.

If you're looking for your typical fun Aveyond game, this isn't it.

If I wanted to be this frustrated and clueless with a game, I would have played Nancy Drew instead.

EDIT: Forgot to mention 6/10 times I minimize the game to consult strategy guide or Google, the game glitches and my mouse cursor blinks and disappears.
If I am in a doorway or near stairs, my char will automatically walk up and down the stairs, or back and forth through the doorway and I can't stop him.

If I'm out in the open, the char will randomly walk in 1 direction until he can't any longer. I cannot move him with my mouse. Keyboard commands still work. I have no option but to save and restart the game.

I absolutely love Aveyond Games. This one is different from the others, in the sense that you are playing a villian(ish) as opposed to a hero-but it allows for some great dialogue and a different game-and I liked it. My favorite character was the Raven Lord-he has some great lines. Aveyond is fun to play, and I am always sad when I finish the game, because it means I'll have to wait for the next version to come out. If you are looking for interesting quests and funny dialogue, give this game a try.
(I was provided a game key to type this review, because I'd already bought the game before it came out on Steam. I buy the games the day they come out-but I'm excited they are on steam now).

I love this game! I have played and enjoyed all of the games in this series. I love the dialog and there is so much to explore. I highly recommend it! My fiance bought it for me when it was first released and it came with a free steam code. I have played around 63 hours (before I got the Steam code for it). Like with the other Aveyond games, you can play it oer and over and notice something new and different each time.