The Girl from Arkanya (PC)
The Girl from Arkanya is set in the land of Amazonia, a fantasy take on the actual Amazon Rainforest region… and yet, when you begin, you play as Marisa, a girl who lives in a German town in this region and seemingly speaks with a bit of an Australian accent. This land of magic and spirits appears to actually be our very own Earth on a different course through history, a more peaceful cohabitation happening between American natives and European settlers at an earlier point in time setting the stage alongside the game’s unique lore tied to its own invented creatures and characters. While a purely fictional setting would certainly have a lot to uncover, it ends up equally as captivating to see what this top down action-adventure invented and what it chose to tie to things we will recognize.
The game’s blend of reality and fiction starts first with the legend of the demon Quetzacoatl, a great being that threatened Earth long ago but was sealed away in the demon realm. However, many years later, the necromancer Xolotol seeks to unleash him once more, and as he sets out to capture and force the descendants of those who sealed the demon long ago to break that seal, he ends up kidnapping Ari, the friend of amateur treasure hunter Marisa. Marisa is an extremely care-free, single-minded, and upbeat girl, letting very little get her down or stop her, which ultimately proves to be a perfect personality for a protagonist who must go out and free the other priestesses. Rather than worrying about the danger or even the greater stakes at play, Marisa simply wants her best friend back, and her uncomplicated approach to life makes her fairly good at getting along with others out in the world. Princesa Katarina for example, or Kat as Marisa calls her with no regard for decorum, is a bombastic Spanish lady who commands a great army, but she can’t help but be immediately charmed by Marisa’s direct nature, meaning you get to see the delightful Princesa pop up to aid you from to time to time. Meanwhile, Ka’apiuara, or Kapi for short, is a capybara with ties to the more serious and supernatural elements of the plot, the talking animal not only there to keep Marisa on course and explain what greater forces are at play but he even joins you as a constant ally you can swap to or have a second player join in to play as.
Adventures across Amazonia typically involve heading off to where the next priestess resides, a romp through a jungle, cave, or snowy mountainside eventually leading you to a dungeon with more focused challenges. While navigating the main world, you often only have much need of your blade, there occasionally side paths with extra goodies if you have the right abilities or tools, but the dungeons are where you get the more focused play more often than not and they do take on a few interesting forms. A fair few are temples for story reasons, but the game isn’t afraid to also have a “dungeon” be a an island occupied by pirates and these dungeons can take on more elaborate forms. Perhaps the highlight of the ones on offer would have to be the pair of towers that heavily lean into the problem solving potential of having both Marisa and Kapi. Normally, a good deal of the game can feel like it outright forgets your companion, multiple dungeons passing where he’s not even necessary. However in the tower there are complicated puzzles where you need to swap and position both characters properly to continue based on their unique skills and the dungeon itself even breaks from the usually rather convenient design approach usually taken in The Girl from Arkanya. Much of the time, exploring an important area with branching paths will necessitate going down all of them, any true secrets usually requiring a puzzle solve that better separates those as optional activities. You don’t need to putter around worrying you’re missing much as a result, but the two towers have you climbing up and down, crossing between them, taking teleports, and otherwise needing to get a feel for the dungeon far more than usual.
Specific ideas do set dungeons apart, particularly focuses on repeated puzzle types. For the most part, recurring puzzles don’t get too difficult, ideas like creating circuits by rotating wire tiles never getting overly complex, and admittedly, the difficulty level in The Girl from Arkanya is generally rather low. You will get new puzzle solving tools like a grappling hook and bombs, the game not shy about showing its Legend of Zelda influence, but it also won’t often necessitate pausing to figure out how things work. Battles are often fairly quick and uncomplicated as well, the sword swinging usually doing the job and even bosses don’t always bring much added heat. You do have a more powerful special strike, it depleting a mana meter that’s also used for special items, but you can also land three hits and then get a free special strike, so it is made strong but not overpowering. However, the special strike can be changed based on the dances you learn from the priestesses, and the game seems like it’s widening your attack options thanks to it. You can get powers like an impervious barrier with the caveat you can’t move until you disable it, the ability to set up plants to fire shots at nearby foes, or the power to launch a spread of lightning bolts all around you, but not many situations call for anything out of the box. A few very late game boss fights do actually make much greater use of their arenas, moving around and unleashing large attacks, the game at least always good at communicating incoming danger, but only the bosses near the back end really feel like they’ll be threatening enough to worry about. Healing items aren’t too hard to hoard, even the cheese that recovers a single heart often enough to handle the dangers you face up until you’re near the end, but beyond the boss fights, it does feel like combat is more a momentary obstruction to add some flashes of action between the navigation and puzzle solving.
The main quest certainly has some fun and quirky characters, it surprising the game can add a great deal of personality even to some priestesses you only meet for a bit. There is a good range of optional quests as well, the game urging you to poke around more and remember the land so you can return to areas when you acquire new tools and magic dances. Upgrading your sword or bombs has obvious value, and money is often really only obtained from quests or selling the items found in chests and dropped by enemies so you can at least find value even in the quick skirmishes or diversions. Some quests do lean more on just getting a lot of a certain item like gold nuggets or leaves from a specific monster which isn’t particularly entertaining, but character interactions can add some fun flair to the world and there is a library and museum in your hometown of Arkanya to fill with objects and books that flesh out the game’s curiously conceived world. Moment to moment action can sometime be a it simple, but a lot of the optional activities and the constant need to be on the lookout for helpful extras holds your interest until you can get to more focused and unique situations like the dungeons.
The soundtrack ends up setting a nice tone for the game, many themes having a sort of relaxing but adventurous feel to them that suits the often low pressure journey you’re on, but then the music steps up with some creative instrumentation for areas like the pirate fort and the battle music of course tries to bring a more chaotic energy. The Girl from Arkanya’s main theme is particularly good, worming its way into your memory so that when it appears again either in a cute way like Marisa humming it or in a dramatic context, you’ll find yourself perking up since it becomes so recognizable. In fact, sound design in general is quite strong here. Enemies have very clear and distinct sounds that make them feel a bit more interesting than just a bipedal alligator or radish that flies with its leaves. Your various attacks and tools also fit in that category, it feeling like a little extra love was put into making sure the game all around sounds great.
THE VERDICT: The Girl from Arkanya is a delightful adventure through a land with one foot in reality and the other in fantasy, Amazonia not the most dangerous place but one filled with fun characters, a great soundtrack, and plenty of optional activities to help Marisa live up to her claim of being the world’s best treasure hunter. Puzzles can get more focused and engaging in dungeons and a few boss fights up the ante when it comes to involved fights, but the game can feel a touch simple since it’s often not pushing too hard against you. There’s quite a bit worth doing on this 20+ hour adventure though, and the fun touches make it easy enough to remain invested in the quest to save Amazonia.
And so, I give The Girl from Arkanya for PC…
A GOOD rating. The Girl from Arkanya is full of a great deal of fun touches, the music being superb, the characters being fun and memorable, and like I mentioned, even the sounds have a way of sticking with you since they try to stand out and yet feel totally appropriate. This action-adventure does feel like it needs to up its action a bit, not enough meaningful battles occurring with some bosses even repeating and it waits til near the end to really whip out its best ideas for involved fights. However, the adventuring side really hits the right notes. You want to know more about this world that has its own unique elements and some surprising parts borrowed from real life. You want to learn each new dance to search the corners of the land for treasures you had to skip before. You know the dungeons ahead will test you a bit more, so when you’re out in the world collecting enemy drops to sell, you don’t end up too fussed that the game isn’t always action-packed. Some of the low difficulty does feel like it comes a touch from not getting too adventurous with puzzle formats, that pair of towers standing out for being about considering many more variables than usual, but the accommodating design elsewhere does point you towards progress well enough that you won’t caught up on some frustrating conundrum. There are times you’ll need to think, and optional tasks like filling the library and museum make you consider the world more carefully along the way. The game definitely could afford to up the degree with which it tests your mind and reflexes, but you won’t dwell on the simpler parts of the journey because you’ll be considering a lot more than just the immediate task when exploring Amazonia.
The Girl from Arkanya creates the kind of world you’ll wish you could spend more time in. Fun characters you wish would appear more, interesting lore that could be spread to an even greater region than this slice of Amazonia, and a generally light-hearted journey thanks to the protagonist’s mindset and the sometimes relaxed nature of exploration all make you think about much more than just what your grappling hook and bombs can do. The Girl from Arkanya does feel like it left untapped potential in areas like its underutilized dances and just how far puzzle solving could go when you’ve got two playable characters, but other areas make up for it thanks to the thought and care put into making the adventure enjoyable for plenty of reasons beyond just the actions you’re taking.