Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi (Demo)
Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi is an upcoming story-driven action-adventure game whose mechanics blend environmental puzzles, light combat, and cooperative gameplay. You control two characters, Lili and Sadi, each with unique abilities that must be combined to overcome obstacles and free their world of the corrupting void.
Pros:
✅ Cooperative puzzle design that requires combining Lili’s martial prowess with Sadi’s magical abilities
✅ Fun to figure out puzzles: some require exploration, while others are hinted by subtle environmental clues.
✅ Engaging worldbuilding and Zelda-style dungeon-like structure, with rooms unlocking in a satisfying sequence
✅ Beautiful art style, inspired by the works of Studio Ghibli and Studio Chizu
✅ Generous checkpoint system, as long as you don’t return to the main menu (this preserves the completion state of the puzzles you solved so far, but doesn’t preserve the player’s position)
Cons:
❌ Minimal guidance on game mechanics, progression, or character ability usage
❌Underwhelming narrative with little emotional resonance or depth
❌ Sparse autosaving: returning to the main menu resets your position to the start of a bigger section, even if puzzles / rooms belonging to that section are fully solved. You will have to traverse all rooms you previously solved to reach the point where you were before.
❌ Terrible controls, particularly the sluggish camera rotation adds to the frustration
❌ Numerous bugs in the demo version, which will hopefully be addressed before the final release
Final Thoughts:
Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi shows a lot of potential with its art direction and puzzle mechanics, but it still requires significant refinement in terms of usability, storytelling, and polish to deliver a truly memorable experience at launch.
On the other hand, it doesn’t reflect well on the game that part of their marketing strategy is paying a shady service to get fake Steam wishilst entries, right next to several trashy smut games.
Please note that these points reflect the state of the demo that was available during Steam Next Fest (June 2025). The actual gameplay experience may vary upon release.