Anuchard is the striking new bell-bashing indie game from the folks over at stellarNull that is hitting a near-perfect tune. This RPG is an action-adventure sharing the qualities of a puzzle game and a brawler. Clang your way through dungeons as a charming little bell-tolling battler, in search of a way to restore the land.

As an indie RPG, Anuchard is quite a charming release featuring a stylised array of characters and a setting that is certainly pleasing to explore. Playing as the Bellwielder, you set about restoring the sole village on the last of the floating islands of Anuchard. You wield the Audros Bell, a weapon that’s somehow capable of restoring the villagers that have been turned to stone. When you aren’t in the quaint town, you’ll dive into dungeons and dong your way through. The game tells this clever little story that is so appealing, setting you up with a quest to save the town after all the guardian’s disappeared in the prologue.

The game’s story pulls you in with a call to action as you wield the bell weapon. It’s not long before you are recovering the villagers and begin to see the pieces of the story pull together. While text-heavy, after a shaky beginning, the game finds the tracks and the pace starts to feel more in tune with the action in the game. I found it all quite endearing, and it does move towards interesting territory when it becomes apparent why the guardians were forced to leave and what their return will mean for the settlement.

Anuchard plays surprisingly well, which is to say that while the movement in the town area is quite basic, the dungeon areas are where it really comes into its own and feels good to control. The dungeons are also great to explore, featuring varying layouts and increasing difficulty. This was quite surprising as it’s definitely not uncommon to see dungeons become monotonous when the focus is on the role-playing game elements. 

Where the real fun combat begins is when you have to take on the guardian boss battles. These feature superb and varied attack patterns. The combat is quite simple and yet it manages to be so satisfying. While it’s no souls-like, each enemy feels fun to take on, and adjusting your strategy to suit them is a neat experience. The boss battles remind me of what you’d face in a Mario game, though with a meaty health bar and top-down art style. Part of me wishes there were more boss-style encounters within the dungeon areas of the game since they prove to be so fun to complete.

When you aren’t bashing enemies with the bell, you’ll find yourself up against puzzles in the dungeons. Honestly, these were all fairly straightforward. On occasion, you’d be hunting down switches to unlock the next area, or sometimes you’d be batting crystals through levels to hit target points to progress. The puzzles aren’t going to have you stumped for long, but going through the motions for each at least does come with the reward of progress through the level. 

Anuchard is quite a great title that’s worth a look if you’re not picky about the little things. The combat, boss battles, and pixelated art style are what sold it to me as a game I’d keep playing. I do believe some elements here aren’t quite tuned correctly though, so it’s a bell you’ll want to consider before ringing. But that didn’t stop me from appreciating it a lot. My only disappointments come from unclear objectives that are hard to find. Even so, if you can handle walking around blindly and talking to everyone, then you’ll soon enjoy Anuchard just as much.