Throwing down a summer sphere and following it up with a devastating move is a great feeling. Pulling off successful combos also gives you special Solstice powers that change depending on the season you’re in – Summer has the most offensively useful Solstice power, casting a ring of fire. That combat is also great, with a versatile lock on/dodge roll/parry/attack system. They’re even used in combat, with enemies holding things like ice shields or thorn armour that require a specific season to create a vulnerability. These are all used to great effect in the dungeons, with clever uses for puzzle solving that stayed consistently engaging. Spring will cancel out the presence of water, and autumn can bring back that water in a spring setting. Winter will let you reveal hidden ice platforms, or eliminate some thorny deciduous vines. Each crystal lets Ary create a sphere with a little self-contained microcosm of its respective season’s climate. These crystals do enable Secret of Seasons’ piece de resistance of a mechanic, though. It’s a bit all over the place, and it really hurts the reward loop when what seems to be the central purpose for your adventure is replaced with another a third of the way through the game. After completing a dungeon, you’re rewarded with… nothing, but a little later get the Summer Crystal, then the two remaining crystals at once, and only then you’ll complete another dungeon in search of the first of four new Light Cores that need collecting. The story here has a few twists and turns that keep it interesting, although it does mess with the pacing somewhat. Her dad is sick, though, and her brother is missing – so when the seasons are disrupted by mysterious crystals falling from the sky, Ary takes it upon herself to journey to the Dome of Seasons to fulfil her dad’s Guardian obligations. Ary is the daughter of one of the Guardians, who ensure their particular section of the country remains in a season-locked state. This, along with most of the cutscenes in the game, felt charming in a kids’ movie kind of way – personally, I found it skewed just a little too young to be enjoyable, but your mileage may vary and they’re all colourful, dynamic and well animated enough to thrill any child. We’re introduced to our main character Ary right off the bat as she narrates a story while playing with her toys. Thankfully, Ary manages to carve its own identity out of the Zelda framework and give us something interesting and unique – but lets itself down with some really, really, really big missteps that undo the positives quite handily. There’s a smattering of the aesthetic from Breath of the Wild, the obvious Oracle of Seasons inspiration, and the borrowing of a few franchise-universal structural and mechanical cues. There’s a lot that Ary and the Secret of Seasons owes to the Zelda series.
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