brother died in a terrible incident
and so the role falls to Ary. With the
fate of Valdi resting in her hands,
she must journey to the four corners
of the land, each belonging to a
different Guardian, and put a stop
to the chaos.Climate change
After becoming the new Guardian
Of Winter, Ary acquires the ability
to control the seasons, which you
use by casting magical spheres that
contain a particular season inside. In
the beginning you can only harness
winter, but as you progress you gain
the power of all four.
This is how you navigate the world
and solve environmental puzzles. For
example, casting the winter season
sphere might freeze over the water in
a lake and allow you to access new
areas, or generate platforms that you
can use to reach hidden caves. The
only rules with casting the season
spheres is that you can only use
three at any given time, and only one
season for each. Also, they can never
cross each other or be combined –
so if you cast a summer sphere and
cast one for winter right next to it
the two domes will sit side by side.
Stone monoliths scattered throughout
the land can be used to amplify your
spells, making your spheres even
bigger, with some being more potent
than others.
The spheres don’t just help you
solve puzzles, they can also be used
to help you in combat. Some enemies
are susceptible to certain weather
conditions, and casting the right one
might just stop them in their tracks
long enough to take them out, or
maybe even strike them with lightning.
But you’ll need to be careful. Some
enemies may end up becoming more
powerful, so you’ll need to choose the
right season for the circumstance.
Where other developers have tried
and failed, eXiin might succeed:
the team has managed to bottle up
that ’90s platforming nostalgia and
created a beautiful and vibrant world.
The story might seem a little cliched
but the idea of playing around with
the seasons to help you navigate
the world and defeat your enemies is
incredibly unique and really fun to do.
We can’t wait to get our hands on the
finished game later this year. QThere’s something quite magical
about this platform adventure game.
It isn’t the fact that the protagonist
uses actual magic to control the
seasons, but instead that the game
does a wonderful job of recreating
that feeling of playing platform games
of old, while at the same time offering
up something new altogether. What
makes it all the more surprising is that
it’s being made by only eight people.
You play as Ary, who is tasked with
bringing balance to the world. 1,000
years ago an evil mage threatened
the world of Valdi, but it was alright
in the end: a mighty warrior defeated
the mage and sealed him up deep
within a vault. To ensure that he would
never be released, four men were
appointed protectors of the vault with
each made responsible for protecting
a different season. Now a mysterious
force has started to mess about with
the world, causing seasons to pop
up in the wrong places, prompting an
emergency meeting of the Guardians.
Ary goes to attend the meeting
in secret and arrives to find the
Guardians unconscious and all of the
season crystals stolen.
Ary’s father was Guardian Of Winter,
as was his father before him, and
as per tradition that responsibility is
to pass on to his first-born son, in this
case Ary’s brother. Unfortunately, herThe idea to play with seasons came from a game eXiin CEO Sébastien Le Touze created in 1994
Ary And The
Secret Of
Seasons
Fulfil your destiny in this
nostalgic platformer
Adam Bryant
PUBLISHER MODUS GAMES DEVELOPER EXIIN
ETA 2019ALL ABOUT
THE FUN
The developers want
you to enjoy the
game, so you won’t
be needlessly
punished. For
example, you’re only
able to cast a limited
number of season
spheres but you can
recast them as many
times as you like
without penalty. The
same goes for
swimming: a
pendant obtained
later in the game
allows you to breathe
underwater, so you
don’t need to stress
out about drowning.
“The team has managed
to bottle up that ’90s
platforming nostalgia”
040 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
PREVIEW