Aeruta is a 2D action platformer in which players also operate a small shop. It is more dialogue-heavy than many of its peers, but the cast is charming and the combat is quite polished.

The management side of Aeruta is relatively light. You can upgrade pieces of the shop and the city for bonuses that help your revenue flow and you can send captured monsters out to gather supplies, but that's it. The game lacks farming and other such mechanics. Personally, I like not having a million chores to do each day, so the simplicity was nice.

Operating the shop is also relatively simple, but it gets quite hectic anyway. Your main tasks are to move bread from the oven to the display shelves and ring up orders on the register. However, a single customer may take half your stock all at once which not only takes a while to key in but also means you'll soon need to disengage from the register to restock. Thankfully the oven makes a very distinct sound when new loaves are ready and the indicators for where the bread goes are clearly visible even when the shop is so flooded with customers you can't see anything else. Working quickly to maximize profit and minimize waste can get the heart racing even though the game lacks deadlines and lets you explore or run your store for as many days as you want.

The combat is terrific all around. Every enemy attack has a unique wind-up animation so you will never be caught entirely by surprise, though the timing differs so there is a learning curve every time you enter a new area. Chaya the protagonist has a dodge move that grants momentary invulnerability and it's very satisfying to dash through enemy attacks and obstacles. She also has access to three weapons with distinct skill trees and playstyles. Each tree features mutually exclusive upgrades and you can only activate a certain number of upgrades at once, so there is a good amount of build variety. The variety is further enhanced with secondary equipment that provides passive bonuses that can synergize with specific builds.

Aeruta's story has a few wrinkles but feels pretty standard overall. However, the surprisingly large cast have a lot of personality that make it fun to read. The game also makes heavy use of text effects such as rainbow letters, size increases, moving letters, and so on. It's clear that a lot of effort went into it which adds to the game's charm. The game also has a really solid English translation with no glaring mistakes. It took me about 17 hours to get through the main story, but I let the calendar bonuses determine the timing of my adventures, frequently had to redo bosses due to a lack of caution on initial attempts, and replayed mini-game events multiple times.

Aeruta is a very solid action platformer. It has well designed enemies and plenty of build variety. It also has really charming dialogue and shop management elements that don't feel like a chore. I would recommend it to anyone who thinks it looks interesting.