Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Ahro is an interesting introspective on what it's like to deal with anxiety and/or depression portrayed in a 2D adventure style gameplay. Exploring against a timer that keeps ticking until your next breakdown, Ahro explores for the sake of finding a remedy to his condition, and you can help him.
The story of Ahro revolves around a man named Ahro, who begins experiencing breakdowns. After some testing, he finds out that the local herbal medicine store has a drug that helps prevent the breakdowns, albeit with limited success. Unfortunately the herbal medicine isn't really cutting it, so Ahro decides to go on a journey to find a legendary medicine to cure his breakdowns.
Ahro sets off to complete his new task. To do so, you must help him find pieces of a relic type object in each stage, piece it together at an altar, and then make your way to the end of the stage. Ahro is still at risk of having a breakdown however, so you need to also collect circular herbs along the way to help prevent his breakdown. If you can't make it, you need to help Ahro suppress his breakdown, whether through using an item you can find, or through doing a bit of a minigame to prevent the breakdown.
Along the way you can zoom in a little to examine certain parts of the environment. This will either give you a helpful item, a hint, a supportive message, or give you a bit of the game's background. My only complaint about this is that the lore is hidden behind QR codes. A bit of a bold move, and one I can say definitely causes me to have some gripes. I would've much preferred to read the lore as I got it, not have to whip out my phone and finagle the scanner to catch the code, and then read through it on my phone.
The gameplay of Ahro consists of walking back and forth, examining areas with a sparkle, while trying to find the piece of the relic you need. As you explore, you will also come across some prayer altars. When you interact with these, Ahro will meditate, and a floating triangle will pop out. You can use this triangle to float around, explore areas you can't reach by walking, and warp to other altars. You need to be careful though, as you only have a limited amount of time to do this before you're sucked back to the altar you left from.
Collecting more relic fragments increases the time you have in triangle/soul mode, so later areas have a sort of prerequisite of finding enough fragments, and in the right order, in order to get through the stage. There are also items to collect that can help you in various ways. Some will allow you to save your game at the relic temple, some prevent a breakdown, and some add points of interest to your map, indicating where you should look for relic fragments.
I will admit there are a few moments where I got frustrated when I just couldn't find a fragment I needed to extend my "flight time" in order to reach a different altar, or in the second to last stage where they give you a task near the end that I was distinctly unhappy with. The first issue is a combination of me being a little dumb and some areas that are slightly hidden. The second issue? It was manageable, but I think if the task requirement was lessened a little bit, I wouldn't have been quite so frustrated with it. Although perhaps that's what the developer was aiming for? A frustrating experience to contextualize how dealing with anxiety feels?
Ahro is presented in a sort of minimalist style, with both the graphics and soundtrack being rather barebones. This feels more like a design decision rather than a lack of resources however, as it adds a sort of anxious undercurrent to the game, befitting of it's theme in dealing with anxiety. As you get closer to a breakdown, dark clouds will also form around Ahro, lending to the feeling of being rushed or hurried.
While this title may be very simplistic in it's presentation and gameplay, there is something to be said about having more in simplicity. With the focus being more on the journey rather than "fancy textures", your attention is drawn to your dwindling time limit as you try and complete each stage. Ahro does a very good job at delivering a message and experience.
Overall Ahro is an interesting title focused on the effects of anxiety and how it can be dealt with and mitigated. While rather short, taking me just under three hours total at the time of writing including completing the game, it was a pretty entertaining experience. While Ahro is an extremely niche title, it hits a lot of the checkpoints you should aim for in game design. While I can't really give a blanket recommendation, Ahro is definitely worth your attention to see if it fits in your niche, albeit it more of an experience than a game per se.
Score: 7 / 10
