Aurion: Legacy Of The Kori Odin

 

Title: Aurion: Legacy Of The Kori Odini
Developer(s): Kiro’o Games, Odyssey

Platform(s): PC
Release Date: April 14th 2016
Price: £10.99

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Game modes: Single Player
Activities/Collectables: Main story.

Extra notes:
1st African Fantasy RPG ever.

Time played: 5 hours
Extra notes: Played using Xbox one Controller ( suggest you use a gamepad )

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Who is it for?:
Fans of “Tales of” series, Fans of 2D RPGs.

Who isn’t it for?:
People who want to have a little emotional journey.

Replayability:
I would say a full-hearted invested play through would be enough.

By Glen Ferguson – Well this little gem went a little unnoticed by me and for that, I feel like I should kick my shin several times until it bruises real bad! The guys over at Kiro’o Games have done something special, not your top end Triple-A title with millions of game bucks thrown into it. It is 1 guy from Africa who found RPG maker and decided, you know what, I am gonna make a game. To me that is awesome and for that well done I’ll go into that later but for now lets talk about the game.

The game starts in the City of Zama where you are introduced to one of your main characters of the story, Enzo the king of the Zamian’s, just as you are preparing yourself for your wedding with the lovely Ennie. Of course, you have a little village which is richly filled with little characters and a few gems of dialog from some of the population of Zama.

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From here on you know something’s coming right, I mean it’s an RPG someone’s dying, someone’s gonna steal the princess or some weird monsters gonna turn up… well kind of, A coop occurs as you are just married and sorting yourself as defender and king of Zama. The city is invaded by an army of bastards with spears. That’s right you ruined my wedding ceremony how dare you do this I’m the king of Zama, someone is getting a mega slap. So that’s what happens, your first taste of the combat of Aurion, to me, this is the best thing the guys have done in the game.

So the battle format is quite similar to the “tales of” series in the way of having arts and busting up combos with different button combinations and using your Aurion abilities (arts, skills) to keep the chain going, using strong attacks to stagger and break your enemies guard, opening them up for a dragon ball z style hammering of swordsmanship and fireballs That’s right spear boy break up my wedding feel my fire fury. Right moving on the combat which the team has designed is pretty damn cool. As the game goes on obviously you unlock new Aurion abilities and super legacy powers.

 

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Legacy powers being your ultimate attacks, these also change some of your stats depending on which form of the Aurion board you have unlocked and used at the time. Your first one is Honor. These aren’t gained by doing temples or killing big bad dragons. it’s done by what is the key component in this game. Self-discovery through playing the story and seeing it all unfold.

Your combat is a management of stamina to use your Aurion moves and make sure you can bust out your legacy form and crush your enemies in combo madness. without keeping an eye on it, you’ll be left open to the attacks of your opponents and this is key in the way the game works, all the enemies you come across have their own fighting styles which you can see come from different styles from Africa itself. Which is bloody awesome.

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Moving on to the coop comes full circle and you are met with the Rhino or as he is properly known as Ngorba Evou your brother in law. What a lovely wedding gift cheers pal. He forces you to meet him in combat and shows that he is the true ruler of Zama and he will lead them forward into the world as a proper king. Come help me out Ennie cause this Rhino chap is tough as nails. You now have your partnership of the game. Where the bond of these two characters is on the full show through the way their combat works together. Ennie supports you and you have control over a healing ability later on and she can revive you help you keep on track while Enzo kicks ass and does his best Goku impression.

Of course, you lose Spoiler, fast forward to waking up in a strange town and being met with your trainer and fathers friend Yode. This is where the game begins and you are told the overall idea behind the story and what you will be doing going forward. Enzo isn’t strong enough to fight and protect his city and his people. So he must venture into the world to strengthen his Aurion connection to his ancestors and draw from their power. By killing huge dragons right Glen… nope, by understanding himself and his search for self-discovery begins alongside his wife.

So a completely different take on your normal action RPG which is pretty fantastic stuff, I like the fact this comes from one guy in a country which had no game development companies. A little idea that he put into reality by finding people around him who could share the same ideas as him and show something to the world. For this, it’s no surprise that they got the attention of Hollywood from the first African fantasy set game. More information on that on the website and where they will be taking it from here is interesting to see.

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The art in the game is all hand drawn characters with a very traditional African feel to the clothing buildings but with a little fantasy thrown in and in a general bigger more eccentric form. The music is pretty cool fits the parts of the game and again being a small indie company they have done something truly fun and different, that’s what matters here so give it a shot. See for yourself if your into “Tales of” games you will enjoy it.

I for one am looking forward to what else comes from these guys, not to mention they have spurred on a bunch of new developers over in Africa to make there own companys and start up there own games themselves. An interesting time indeed.