This review is for the demo version of The Arms of Reverie released on March 8, 2012.

The current demo for The Arms of Reverie left a fairly unusual impression upon me by the time I had completed it in that it simultaneously felt like an underwhelming demo while also leaving me with a desire to see the finished product. There are many high points in this demo, but they are often counterbalanced by design decisions which could use some noticeably improvement. However, as I do think the demo was a success over all, I will start by getting the weakest element out of the way first - the plot and characters.

To put it simply, this demo is almost complete devoid of storytelling. The demo starts in a cave with the protagonist, Faeroe, searching for an artifact known as the Lunar Bell. As the demo progresses, Faeroe will find the bell, team up with Adelaide, go back to the nearby town to give the Lunar Bell to his boss, and then the demo simply ends with them sailing away. While the main page for The Arms of Reverie gives some incite into the world, the plot, and the characters, the demo itself does almost none of this. With the exception of some very brief exposition after the demo's boss fight which explains how the world's version of magic works, no incite is given into the world itself, who the characters are, what their motives are, and just what the Lunar Bell is, assuming it's anything other than a plot MacGuffin. From what little dialogue the characters do get, Faeroe is established as a kind, naive youth and Adelaide is established as a magical, mysterious traveler with at least a minor case of amnesia; the demo itself is very short, so there is plenty of time for these characters to grow in the full game, but for now they are no more than archetypes which anyone familiar with RPG's has come across countless times before. While this demo has enough in the way of other strengths to carry it, a line or two of exposition to more firmly establish the world and/or the characters and possibly a hint or two as to which direction the plot is heading in would have gone a long way.

A much more evenly balanced aspect of the demo is the aesthetics. The demo relies very heavily upon RTP graphics, but they are used well with none of the maps looking particularly 'blocky' and the only consistency issue I noticed during my playthrough was the distinct difference in artstyle between the character portraits for Faeroe and Adelaide. I also did not notice anything in the way of layering issues other than a minor perspective-based one of some crates and roofs in the town not allowing players to walk behind them. Music also relied heavily upon RTP assets, but was quite well-chosen and always seemed to fit the map.

Speaking of maps, map design here is also rather balanced between great decisions and some which definitely need work. On the plus side of things, the cave itself is compact enough that it doesn't drag on, but it contains a nice amount of variety with plenty of branching paths to explore (often with rewards at the end), a boulder-rolling puzzle, and a lake which needs to be navigated by using rocks to move between islands. To be clear, this isn't a particularly astounding dungeon, but it is a very solid one and the length and variety feel just right for a first dungeon. Unfortunately, the overall solid design of the dungeon is significantly hurt by the complete lack of any sort of healing location; players start with no consumable items, it is not possible to exit the dungeon and heal up back in town, there are no SP-restoring items, and players will need to rely upon potions they find from chests and enemies. This inability to heal or even restore SP other than through small amounts upon leveling up results in the majority of battles becoming a matter of either running away or trading normal attacks with enemies and, while it never became an issue during my playthrough, there is an ever-present feeling that a player's success or failure in the dungeon depends more upon how lucky a person is when it comes to obtaining potions from enemies more so than anything else. Furthermore, while the dungeon layout is impressive, the same cannot be said of the 'port town' which consists of an inn, a pub, an item shop, and nothing else; the lack of even a locked house or two significantly hurt the sense of immersion and made for a disappointing final stretch for the demo. As a more positive side note before moving on, I did not encounter much in the way of flavor text within this demo, but items were hidden in a wide variety of objects, such as crates, barrels, and skeletons, and this went a long way towards making me, and likely other players, want to explore and interact with every part of both the cave and the town.

Lastly, the combat system came across as the most overall positive aspect of the demo, though it was not without a few flaws. For most of the demo players only have control over Faeroe, who starts with the Steal ability and does not seem to learn anything else. Steal as an ability tends to always be a nice touch in games as it adds a layer of risk vs reward to combat and helps to diversify enemies and it is certainly no exception here, perhaps especially so both because stealing potions from slimes and frogs is vital to survival withing the scope of the demo and because the main character having access to Steal eliminates the issue found in many games of needing to choose between a useful party member and a mediocre party member who happens to have Steal and not much else. Steal is not without its faults in The Arms of Reverie though as an oversight allows Steal to be 'cast' outside of battle, which does nothing other than waste 4 valuable SP. Furthermore, while stealing potions may be essential, the majority of enemies within this first dungeon only hold items for alleviating various status ailments which never come into play; the relatively high encounter rate also means players will likely be reduced to not having enough SP to steal at all other than once or twice after each level up and it feels like it would have made more sense to have simply made Steal not cost any SP. As for the combat system itself, battles move at a pleasantly fast pace and the only abilities used by enemies other than normal attacks is an agility-decreasing debuff used by spiders and a (very brief) stun used by frogs which more often than not misses and both of these abilities seem suitable for a first dungeon.

The real draw of the combat system is introduced when Adelaide joins the party. At this point, it is revealed that most magic can be used not only to target either enemies or party members, but can also be switched between a focused single-target version and a slightly more costly, slightly weaker multi-target version. On top of this, the boss of the demo drops an item which teaches Adelaide a new spell and several items which permanently boost a stat for a party member can be found both in the dungeon and the town. While there is no pressing need for these stat boosting items nor for choosing between a single or multiple targets for spells (and certainly not for attacking party members with one) within the confines of the demo, these systems go a long way towards hinting that a fair amount of strategy may be required for later parts of the game and that there may be plenty of hidden abilities scattered throughout the world for the party.

In the end, the demo may be severely lacking in terms of plot and decisions such as the exclusion of a healing location in the dungeon may harm the demo itself, but the overall solid dungeon design and many elements of or related to the combat system definitely go a long way towards making players interested in seeing more of The Arms of Reverie.