The only thing able to suppress Ahro’s anxiety is a calming herbal tea. When the village herbalist runs out, Ahro makes the decision to find a permanent cure. It’s a journey that takes him to the neighbouring villages and beyond, following mountain trails, walking across rickety wooden rope bridges, and even pitching up in a tent for the night. All the while, Ahro must keep his negative thoughts in control to prevent his mind from becoming clouded.
Like a few other recent Switch releases, such as A Boy and His Cat and Drowning, Ahro is a personal experience, with the focus here on the impact of anxiety. Our hero isn’t, well, a hero – he’s a typical person simply trying to live his life and find something to ease his ailments.
The journey is spread across five locations, taking the form of a side-scrolling adventure that’s exploration based, mostly testing navigational skills. Ahro isn’t restricted to merely walking left to right; the locations have multiple routes, with staircases, ramps, and caves that lead to new areas. If you find yourself lost, you’ve likely overlooked an interior exit or a path leading in a different direction. It’s vital to explore fully as Ahro needs to gather small white fragments, with a handful to find in each location. These allow Ahro to mediate at key areas and let his spirit fly free, swirling through the air. The more fragments collected, the further his spirit can travel – with the idea being to locate far away meditation spots that Ahro can ‘teleport’ to. Combined fragments form a glyph which must be taken to a shrine, and once whole, the path to the next area will unlock.
As Ahro traverses the lands, occasionally conversing with strangers via animated scenes while also taking in the sights and uncovering the history of the world, his mind becomes clouded. This can be resisted by gathering small white collectables, but over time these become fewer – especially if you find yourself backtracking after becoming lost. Should the gauge fill, the journey pauses for a few seconds for a brief mini-game involving collecting negative energy. At first, only a few shards are present, making for an easy task. Over time though, they start to multiply, to the point where there may not be enough time to mop them all up before darkness looms. This results in a lost life, with three lives given per stage. In addition to navigating the multilayered locations, this is where much of the challenge lies.
Attempts have been made to make progression easier, such as a ‘power-up’ that reveals a fragment location on the map. And of course, the map itself. If you become lost though, then you’re in for a good five minutes of backtracking, as well as trying to find a meditation spot while manoeuvring Ahro’s spirit in all different directions. Some of the airborne sections feature maze-like tunnels, so you’ll need to experiment with different routes to find the next location.
Ahro’s journey is unique, to the point where it takes a while when starting out to comprehend the means of progressing. This uniqueness extends to the game’s visuals, which are mostly flat shaded and constructed using basic geometric shapes, as if the game world was forged from various MS Paint tools. Some flourishes are present, such as wild animals and animated thought bubbles that occur when Ahro sleeps, but it’s still apparent that it has been made on a small budget. The kindest thing I can say is that the animated mid-location cut-scenes recall the techniques used in the ‘90s classics Another World and Flashback, using flat shaded shapes.
While it’s pleasing to see that gaming has evolved to the point where solo developers can make personal experiences to share with like-minded individuals, detailing their plights and roads to recovery to weave heartfelt and emotional tales, Ahro’s unique nature makes it feel considerably niche. It mostly consists of exploring locations fully, even occasionally double-checking areas for not very well indicated exits, and with the bleak topic in mind it likely isn’t going to appeal to a huge audience. But then, that’s kind of the point: it’s intended for people who may also suffer from anxiety, or at the very least have an empathic mindset. If even merely knowing Ahro exists helps somebody sleep easier at night, then it has arguably achieved more than most games out there.
Ahro is published by Nakana.io and available now on Switch. Developed by Oeh Interactive.