Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi is a 3D action-puzzle game where you play as Lili, an untested Guardian exploring the world of Atarassia with your trusty sidekick, a Monk apprentice named Sadi who helps you in your journey in saving their home from the corrupting Void.
Developed mainly by 2 brothers, the game explores the story of an unwilling protagonist following her late mother’s legacy of becoming a Guardian, even though the death of the mother from an ancient evil has made her detest becoming one. After she saves Sadi, they form an unlikely duo that revives the traditional partnership between Guardians and Monks.
Gameplay
The game focuses mainly on the relationship between Lili and Sadi, with Lili being the leader and the protector of the group, while Sadi supports her and offers advice. During combat, you can perform basic sword attacks, or merge Sadi with your sword to create a mega-sword that deals more damage or unlock special combat abilities. Sadi can also shapeshift into a bow, allowing you to do more precise attacks on certain enemies. Outside of combat, Sadi helps by interacting or merging with constructs around the world, to aid in your travels or to solve puzzles.
The relationship of Lili and Sadi starts off rather shaky, with Lili being very hesitant about becoming a Guardian due to her mother’s death. However, I do wish the developers added more gameplay mechanics that could better portray the rougher edges of their relationship. Perhaps some hesitancy from Sadi when you give him commands, or Lili could reject Sadi’s requests for her to carry out Guardian duties. The friction and hesitancy from Lili is conveyed mainly through dialogue, but not so much during the actual gameplay.
Art
The art, on the other hand, is beautiful and stylised. The characters and animals are uniquely designed to fit amazingly into the world’s aesthetic; the set pieces of the levels and dungeon convey strong emotions and lore implications of what took place in that area. Animations for both combat and cutscenes are smooth and stunning, with the action pieces within them clear and easy to follow to see what is happening. Everything about the art is a wonderful piece where you can feel the love of the craft from the developers.
The game’s art style is genuinely a sight to behold. During my playthrough, I spent a lot of time just exploring the different areas, checking out every nook and cranny just to fully enjoy the beautiful artwork they’ve done within the game. If they ever release a walking sim with the same art style, I would definitely pick it up in an instant.
Conclusion
The game is definitely an experience for anyone who enjoys a beautiful art piece with the action of a cosy adventurer. It is definitely made for controllers, so I highly recommend that you do. Speaking from experience, despite being a mouse and keyboard player, my time playing Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi was infinitely better after switching to a controller. There are some slight janks with the camera controls during combat, such as the lock-on and bow aiming, but overall it’s still something worth picking up.
This article was contributed by Darren Barker, your sleepy coffee-drinking game design student and co-founder of The Cham Drinkers. Follow him on X/Twitter where he posts and retweets about the ASEAN Game Dev scene and cats.
