*This review is as of you reading this only tailored towards the 1.12 version of this mod, but I might come back to it later after it updates a few more times/if a port is made,

it is also a mod I have much less experience with than other mods, feel free to correct me by sharing your own point of view on this site*

#What is it ?

**The Aurorian** appears to be a dimension growing in the moon’s cold glow under a sky of endless night cycles;

It has a dreamy feeling which is reinforced by its **global ambience** , especially the short dreamcore-ish intermission tracks, but besides that it is still a world of mysteries with ruins and buildings to explore hidden away deeper in the woods.

#What does it offer ?

A new and **calmer realm** to explore with a couple of biomes containing ruins and dungeons, with various creatures you might encounter along the way.

It adds quite a few content in terms of **custom made** stuff such as crops, ores and **simple machines** in order to obtain/make things out of these various resources available within this world.

In terms of **art style** and aesthetics in all honestly it **isn’t my favorite** , but it is good enough and has grown on me quite a bit, and it accompanies the mod’s ost **calming feeling** pretty well in the end.

It runs quite **smoothly** and I haven’t spotted any bugs in my short personal playthrough.

The **downsides** of the mod in its current version are mostly related to the **lack of content** which is due to it still being **under making** or even discontinued, and I wonder if custom game mechanics exclusive to that dimension will be planned later on.

Small quickfire **suggestions** on things I noticed while playing :

I would like it more if the **lockpicking mechanic** was less luck-based and a bit more skill-based, like a minigame of sorts.

**Ambience** . What I mean by that here is adding more custom sound effects and a general sound ambience playing in the background while being inside of the dimension.

**Make mobs less generic** in terms of behaviors/AI (especially for the bosses, the ||spider|| is pretty basic, the ||dungeon keeper’s arrow barrage|| simply lasts for way too long and the last boss has a bit too much in terms of melee reach) and looks. Most of them unfortunately feel like *Minecraft Zombies but slightly modified* and I know **fighting isn’t the core focus** of the dimension as the author themselves talked about mostly making it feel **cozy** , but I believe since it has already stepped into the realm of **combat** with its structures and bosses (and the new combat-related items such as the ||sticky spiker|| ) as well as the various abilities being given to armors and weaponry it could very much focus a bit more on that and improve/add systems related to **enemy-encounters** .

Making it so you **automatically respawn** inside the dimension by default (or at least giving a config option for that) could really be interesting as mods like these which aim at making it so you don’t need to even go back to the overworld anymore immerse you better in their world when they don’t force you out after a single death.

#In conclusion

This dimension does gives off a **unique feeling of peace** which could be improved upon in following updates, and its take on things while certainly interesting is much less interesting than other mods I know as of today.

The **dungeons** are **alright** though they could be much better, especially the bosses, but again there is the exception of the **last dungeon** which I quite liked, and the boss mechanic is much more interesting than the previous two in my mind.

This mod does have an **in-game wiki** if you play it alongside **Patchouli** (which is added on top of the advancements in the default mod), detailing everything one might want to know on how to start their journey through this underrated mod. I would have preferred if it had this wiki independently of Patchouli’s installation, but hey that’s personal preference and doesn’t really impact my review. Besides, there is still some decent amount of **tutorial inside the mod itself** with for example ||item tooltips|| , ||block interactions with the player|| as well as some **structures hinting at features** , which I’ve seen in The Betweenlands too and I always love it when I see things like that in dimension mods.

Overall this mod has great potential if it continues receiving updates, and in its current state its **already average** .