Co-developed by Compile Heart and HYDE, I approached Ariana and the Elder Codex with a mix of apprehension and genuine excitement. The apprehension comes honestly enough… not because Compile Heart is a bad developer, far from it, but their occasional forays outside of the RPG and visual novel spaces they’ve made their name in have produced uneven results over the years. The excitement, on the other hand, came from a premise that felt genuinely promising: a 2D side-scrolling action adventure (with metroidvania elements) starring a young librarian who can physically step into the pages of corrupted magical books to repair the stories within. As someone who has enjoyed games like Odin Sphere, I was stoked to see what the concept could offer gamers in 2026. Whether Ariana lives up to the charm of its concept, however, is a more complicated question… and one worth turning the page on.
While the setup isn’t a completely novel one, it is more than enough to get players immersed in the world of Ariana and the Elder Codex. You fill the shoes of titular character Ariana Virellis, a young librarian with the rare ability to step inside the pages of the Seven Hero Codices, ancient tomes whose corruption has drained magic from the world. Her job is to mend the four elemental and three phenomena books in turn, all while chasing the truth behind her missing parents and a curious Fairy of Light who seems to know rather more about her than she does about him. The parables in each codex are a highlight of the storytelling, which offer small but affecting tales around heavier themes. The wider plot is less well served. Characters tend to talk far too much, the central mystery telegraphs its twists from a long way out, and the final stretch can be more than a little of a slog. However, A charming core cast (Ariana and her wry feline mentor Divina, especially) does a lot to soften the rough edges, but the dialogue often feels like an obstacle between you and working your way through the game.
Visually, Ariana and the Elder Codex wear its inspirations on its sleeve. The painted storybook aesthetic and 2D backgrounds will likely see long-time gamers comparing it favourably to the classics by Vanillaware, and while it may not quite scale to the same heights, it is a design language I would love to see both Compile Heart and Hyde build upon in the future, as we definitely need more of this hand-drawn art style. Each codex carries its own distinct elemental personality, character portraits are vibrantly rendered, and Ariana herself is a winning protagonist on design alone. Spell effects are colourful and often screen-filling, occasionally to the point of visual overload during busier encounters. Is it flawless? There are a few missteps, the biggest one being the thin enemy variety across the game.
On the audio side of things, Ariana and the Elder Codex may also not be game-changing, yet they hold up well. The English dubbing is a highlight, with the cast bringing real personality to a script that doesn’t always deserve the effort. The soundtrack is dreamy and atmospheric, slipping into each codex with an appropriate elemental flavour, though I’d be lying if I said any particular track stayed with me after the credits rolled. The music is ultimately good as you play through the game, but perhaps not something you will have on shuffle afterwards. Combat audio is punchy and satisfying in the moment, even if Ariana’s repeated little battle barks and healing chirps do begin to grate over time.
Given the game’s premise, it should come as no surprise that Ariana and the Elder Codex’s main hub is a library, where she can traverse into each of the codexes in whichever order she desires. Each codex is fairly linear, with progression broken up by Repair Points: short, self-contained challenges that make up the bulk of the moment-to-moment action. Some are arena scraps against the clock, others are timed traversal runs from one end of a screen to the other, and both are graded A through D for rewards. The metroidvania side of things, however, sits a little softer than genre purists might prefer. New traversal tools like a double jump, a mid-air dash, and a downward stomp arrive at a steady drip, and there is a degree of backtracking as you go back with new abilities to obtain new goodies. It’s a gentler loop, however, and the backtracking is for the most part optional, rarely gating story progression.
Combat is more than servicable. Ariana’s magical sword does the heavy lifting as her reliable melee option, fast, cooldown-free, and with a satisfying aerial launcher built in. Six equippable spells round out her arsenal, split across loadouts that can be swapped on the fly, with many spells to unlock. The magic element system is your typical elemental affinity system, and stacking enough hits of one element on an enemy triggers an Elemental Burst. The whole loop is fast, fluid, and genuinely enjoyable in bursts.
The catch, perhaps inevitably, is that once you settle on a build that clicks, much of the standard combat trivialises itself. Elemental Bursts are the worst offender, often reducing encounters to button-mashing and the same approaches every time. Granted, the bosses do shake things up: multi-phase, varied, and demanding of your dodge timing and loadout choices. A few sharp difficulty spikes do crop up. At roughly a dozen hours for the main story, and a rather affordable price, all things considered, Ariana and the Elder Codex is priced well for the experience it offers.
Looking back, Ariana and the Elder Codex largely lives up to the charm of its concept, even if it doesn’t quite reach the heights its clearest inspirations might suggest. It’s a delightful little adventure with combat that sings in the right moments and a visual presentation that is an aesthetic delight! There are some elements I hope they’d revisit should Compile Heart and HYDE ever go for an encore, which I hope they do. But ultimately, this is a game worth taking down from the shelf, especially for anyone with a soft spot for hand-drawn 2D adventures and a touch of patience for the chatter that comes along with them.
Final Score for Ariana and the Elder Codex
This review of Ariana and the Elder Codex was conducted on a PlayStation 5 copy of the game, with a digital code provided by Idea Factory International to facilitate this review.
Ariana and the Elder Codex is now available to purchase on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.
