Archvale (Xbox One)
When you start a file in the action adventure game Archvale, a world is made just for you. This design choice wouldn’t be unexpected in a rogue-like where every death reshuffles the world, but in Archvale the game shuffles its locations around only when you begin your adventure and it stays that way until the end. There are some rules in place during world generation so it’s not too sloppy, certain biomes are going to appear in about the same places, but the individual areas within can have some unexpected surprises as you explore. Perhaps that question mark on your map is a treasure, or a save point, or even that area’s boss, but with no way of knowing, you plunge into the unknown, the exploration more exciting not only because there’s few hints on what lies ahead, but you can head in almost any direction you like in your quest to reconstruct the arch to Archvale.
Archvale begins with a young boy being plopped down into a world full of monsters. While regular baddies will repopulate an area after you reach a healing statue or just die yourself, the bosses who guard the arch stones your quest revolves around are known as the Undying and you are the only one with the ability to put them down for good. While much is left a mystery at the start, you will gradually come to understand the premise of Archvale as you fight your way through the dungeons housing the pieces of the arch. A mad king had pushed the people to trying to seek safety in a land apart, but the arch to such a paradise was destroyed. Luckily, the king no longer reigns over the land, and for the most part the citizens have managed to establish small cities where life can remain somewhat lighthearted. With danger still outside the walls of civilization though, it’s still important to press forward and fight for peace in the land.
That land lets you head out towards the arch pieces as you please, only a few areas inaccessible until you find something like a weapon with a high enough damage output to break a seal. Even early on though you are given quite a few branching paths where you can decide which dungeon you want to seek out first. There are different monsters in each biome and there are certainly some that are much stronger than others, but you can punch above your power level if you have a good handle of the fighting system at play. Even the most mundane slimes and insects in Archvale can fire energy bullets at you, the player always needing to keep mobile in a fight and make good use of their limited recharging dashes to slip around the battlefield while landing hits yourself. The different areas you enter will have a variety of creatures in them that ensure a wide spread of bullet types you’ll need to dodge in tandem, which for the most part will be manageable save for a few little quirks in the world randomization. Areas seal off until you kill everything in them and sometimes your entrance will leave you facing a pack of monsters with no good way to slip past without taking damage, and while you are given some health potions, needing to stand in place and hold the button to use them properly does mean you can’t always heal when it’s needed.
Luckily, despite there being unique bullet spreads and battle tactics for every unique creature type you encounter on your mission, most of the action is manageable and if it is feeling rough, you can search for foes on your level elsewhere. Your strength in Archvale is not determined by battle experience but instead what you make yourself. Occasionally a weapon may drop and you can spend some of the money from slain foes on a few bits of gear, but most of your equipment is going to come from taking all the materials gained from slaying creatures or shattering pieces of the environment and taking them to an anvil. Archvale has a huge array of weapons to create and you can even have up to eight of them set to a taskbar in case you want to swap between them on the fly. In a game with so many energy bullets flying around it can seem like the melee weapons would get the short end of the stick, but having them in your taskbar ready for you to whip out if there’s a break in the action to deal heavy damage makes it so you might want to invest in a scythe or sword despite their low reach. Throwing axes, bows, magic tomes, flails that swing around your body, boomerangs, spears, and more all have their own advantages and variations where you’ll constantly be acquiring new gear and considering if it might offer something better than your current gear, and the variety of battle styles means you can find the one that fits you best and try to pursue that most with how you spend your resources. Putting the upgrades in your hands makes it all the more satisfying when you can whip out a powerful tool or notice that your new armor is helping you plunge deeper into dangerous territory, and even within a weapon class there are different advantages to consider beyond just the power of a single attack. Weapon speed is an important factor and some have extra effects like homing in on a foe or afflicting a status effect, but things can be augmented even further with accessories that can make up for a weapon’s failings.
Badges also come into play as customization continues to be an engaging focus in Archvale’s action cycle. Heading out to fight monsters, finding a healing statue that also serves as a teleport point, and heading back to town to spend your money on upgrades and badges to increase your capabilities is quick and manageable even when the options start getting quite numerous. Some badges have simple effects like increasing your strength with certain weapon types, but others can lead to some interesting synergies. You can give yourself temporary hearts with one badge and then equip another than raises defense based on the amount of temporary hearts you have. Magic weapons will cause enemies to drop magic shards when damaged that power up your spells briefly when picked up, so equipping a Blue Lotus to make them drop more and the Ultra Shards badge so those shards are more powerful can lead to even better spell damage. You can only have a few badges set at once and you can only swap out their effects after activating a healing statue, but there is still room for adjusting your battle style if you think a certain boss requires a new trick to succeed or you want to do something like gain more money from monster kills to afford something you’ve got your eye on.
Archvale’s dungeons are all hand-made and consistent across playthroughs so they can focus a bit more on catered experiences without the occasional oddities found while exploring the open world. No cramped hallways or dead ends without anything of note, and a few even focus on more than just rooms full of monsters to fight. Dash challenges crop up pretty regularly where you need to hit crystals that refresh your dash power to zip across open air or help fight things like a powerful current trying to push you to your doom. The focus will always remain foremost on the bullet dodging battles, the bosses sometimes quite demanding unless you have managed to push into a stronger area to get more powerful gear and are heading back to clean up someplace simpler. Still, because you worked towards that power and healing usually doesn’t come easily, Archvale won’t become a complete walk in the park until all your effort pays off with the strongest late game weapons. A few areas are difficult no matter your strength like the dodging challenges where you need to collect jewels while in the crossfire of automatically firing orbs, each trial providing some twist to how the bullets work and even eventually whipping out full on laser beams. Having areas like the Molten Rift also contain a long arena challenge also push against you in a new way as an endurance challenge. Some areas like the underwater Brinkreef feel a bit humble for something you won’t likely get to until near the end, but they do usually have some nice music and visuals to complement some area-specific enemies so you are at least experiencing something new even when it’s not whipping out impressively novel concepts.
THE VERDICT: Archvale locks down a very satisfying game loop as you plunge into unknown dangers, acquire materials, and go build up the equipment you desire so you can fight in the way you feel works best. By having even basic enemies launch bullets the action always remains at least somewhat lively and depending on your tool of choice you’ll be able to experience different ways to tackle a foe. A few injections of play outside of the constant bullet-dodging monster brawls are appreciated shifts in focus that still keep their attention on good movement, and the open layout of the world to tackle biomes as you deem fit continues to build on the idea of making your own way forward. The somewhat random layout of the map adds some mystery even if it also leads to a few tripping points like enemies crowded in an entrance, but Archvale is usually an energetic and thrilling experience with the freedom to find different approaches to even its hardest challenges.
And so, I give Archvale for Xbox One…
A GOOD rating. While the world generation does mean Archvale can provide some surprises, it also leads to a few of the little quibbles that keep the game away from greatness. Encountering a few of the dodging challenges in a row can be a bit exhausting even though they’re optional, but since they rewards badges it’s hard to refuse. The rooms where you’re thrown in with too many monsters in your face can be a bit of artificial difficulty, but the openness of the world means you can always head off down a different road for a while despite that not really making such moments of practically guaranteed damage okay. However, Archvale offers a lot more moments where instead you’re focusing on the engaging process of building up your own power. Statues can provide little power boosts that aren’t felt much, but most of your progress will come from investing in the ideas that suit your play style, be it through which badges you choose to equip, which gear you choose to craft, or which tools you put in your little taskbar for ease of access. When a boss or area serves as a tough roadblock, you can succeed either by learning the way your foes fire their bullets or you can try to find a tool that might better deal with that specific enemy type. Having the dungeons keep their set designs through playthroughs was wise as they can serve as some structured challenges with more harmonious enemy line-ups and hazards although a few are surprisingly short and simple.
Making your young hero into the warrior you want to be is definitely Archvale’s greatest appeal, and the variety is there to make that an engaging process rather than just following a road map. If you want to fire lasers from a Bubble Scepter, shoot stingers from a bumblebee’s rear with the Stinger Launcher, or blast baddies with the Magma Cannon, you not only can make that your preferred way of fighting for a while, but you can swap between them as you please mid-fight. The bullet-dodging chaos will definitely compel you to make your character into the best fighter he can be both in the badges he has and which tool will work best in your hands, so perhaps it’s not too surprising that the world generation idea was implemented. This is already going to be a rather personalized adventure, so why not have the delightfully open world itself be a bit different for each playthrough to make it even more like a unique quest only you will ever go on?