When it comes to the state of gaming these days I feel like there’s nothing new under the sun. I always seem to be wrong about this, as every time I act even a little jaded something fresh will come around and make me look like a fool. I’ve made my peace with this. In spite of that, I do believe we can go for long time without seeing a game or a developer that has something new and exciting to bring to the table. So imagine my surprise when I found out about Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan, from Cameroonian developer Kiro’o Games, an action-RPG that forgoes the typical fantasy conventions of Medieval Europe and Feudal Asia in favor of a culturally informed “African fantasy”. The good people at Kiro’o Games were generous enough to give us at Enemy Slime a preview demo of their intriguing new title.
Aurion places you in the role of Prince Enzo Kori-Odan, soon to marry and become ruler of the kingdom of Zama. I won’t go too deep into the story, as what we were presented is short and may potentially be a spoiler, but as you might expect, things don’t go so well. Again, we only got a small taste in this installment, but there’s still plenty to be enthusiastic about.
With only a brief glance you can seen that Aurion has something unique going on. The game’s aesthetic draws on the experiences of Kiro’o’s developers, presenting a game world that looks unlike any other you’ve likely seen before. I won’t lie, I know next to nothing about Africa, let alone Cameroon, and I felt a little guilty that I have no idea what aspects draw from real life and which from fantasy, but in spite of that I really like how the game presents itself. It’s nice to see a setting outside of the usual European or Japanese-inspired fantasy realm, but especially exciting to see it from a dev who is presenting an unorthodox setting they have personal experience with.
How does the game play? So far, it’s honestly kind of rough. The translation to English from the native French is obviously in need of lots of work, though the developers assure everyone that the current one is a placeholder. Translation and localization isn’t a task one does on a whim, so I trust we can expect more coherency in the final release, and while there were a few times when instructions became a bit hard to follow, it’s of little consequence to the demo. The game only provides a few small locations to explore in Enzo’s village, and while they are rich in detail, character sprites move in a jarring, wooden way and I seem to get stuck on scenery and NPCs quite a few times. At the moment we don’t know what stage of completion the game is in, and while it’s in need of some polishing, I would suspect we’re a ways away from the final product.
The real focus of the demo we were presented with however, is the battle system. Combat in Aurion puts our prince in a side-scrolling real-time battle, often against half a dozen foes, that’s somewhat reminiscent of a beat-’em-up. Enzo fights with a blade, but can also cast spells and use special techniques when his powers are sufficiently charged. At the very beginning of the demo you fight with rudimentary swordplay, but it quickly adds new abilities to your repertoire, suggesting a great deal of complexity to combat. Enzo can run, jump and dash across screen, moving across the battlefield with fluid ease, string attacks into long combos and launch foes into the air for further punishment. Unlike the slightly wooden animations outside of battle, in combat characters move with flourish and battle animations which are generous on details. While the demo only gave us the opportunity to fight against a few enemies, the final boss fight actually introduces quite a few complexities to battle, including getting support from your wife as she casts buffs and healing. Overall fighting feels pretty satisfying and will definitely help add the depth to Aurion it will need to stand out.
Our time with Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan hints at an alluring full title, and while it has some work to do before it’s ready, we’re certainly excited to see what the studio delivers in the final product. Kiro’o Games has also agreed to give us an interview, which we will be posting on the site later. Be sure to come back to hear more about this game and its developer.
