Riders of Arylide Demo

Great quests require great heroes, because the evil that lies at the end of it all won’t hesitate to trick you instead of pulling a knife on you. In RPGs, the journey itself is the most important part, since you get to see the character evolve along the way and even notice yourself changing opinions every once so often.

Riders of Arylide is your typical top-down RPG in the style of Final Fantasy, featuring a classic fantasy setting and the obligatory great evil returning to enslave everyone. Your job is to guide a party of unusual characters through a variety of battles and adventures, only to reach the monster and put an end to its reign once and for all. Obviously, there’s a bit more to it than just that.

The story starts with a few brave warriors trapping this evil and sending it to a different dimension, from where it cannot harm anyone. However, after a few hundred years and the substantial efforts of a cult, someone manages to bring the demon back and release it into the mortal world again. As it happens, you control the new group of adventurers task with the destruction of this evil.

In case you have played the original Final Fantasy titles, this should come naturally to you and feel very much the same. Hence, the characters travel in a party and you have to explore the maps in order to solve quests. Whenever you enter the combat mode, the view changes to a fixed first-person perspective and everything takes place in turns, which allows you to cast spells, attack using melee weapons or simply use a potion.

Because of the isometric view, the graphics are bound to be in 2D and you cannot rotate the camera or zoom in to get a better look at the action. On the other hand, that’s not to say that the level designers did not do their job properly, because the game features incredibly detailed environments. The textures might get a bit repetitive after a while, but that won’t be a bother if you are absorbed by the story.

In the end, Riders of Arylide is nothing out of the ordinary in any regard, but it’s so mundane one could instantly find peace and calm while playing it. Hence, if you are interested in classic JRPGs and you do not mind the usual anime-inspired cliches, the game at hand is a good choice to make.