I have played this mod in 1.19 with friends on a modded fabric server a while ago, I didn't know anything about the mod before that and it was selected as the main worldgen mod a bit randomly after I watched a horror video using it; My experience and point of view towards this mod is mostly tied to this experience, even if I just tried for a bit the 1.21 version before making this review

What is it ?

Regions Unexplored is a mod which adds a lot of new biomes (about 70 as of the 19th of July 2026) to the usual overworld and nether worldgen, with a lot of blocks to go with them.

What does it offer ?

New biomes with extremely detailled flora, rocks and aesthetic thingies which brings them to life. The environments are both realistic and of the fantasy type, with a lot of variety in the blocks and decorations used depending on the biome.
When I say "new biomes" I mean that with this mod there will be breathtaking overworld biomes, lushier cave biomes (list : Ancient Delta, Bioshroom Caves, Prismachasm, Redstone Caves, Scorching Caves ) and weirdly-alien hellish biomes for the Nether too (list : Blackstone Basin, Glistering Meadow, Infernal Holt, Mycotoxic Undergrowth, Redstone Abyss ).
There's also one new aquatic biomes as well.

In terms of flaws I had noticed all the way back in 1.19 that having this mod generate biomes in your world seemed to reduce greatly the frequency of vanilla biomes (which can be a problem if you have content, modded or vanilla, that is only tied to specific vanilla biomes); It seems to no longer be so much of an issue in more recent versions of the mod, and the configs are also pretty easy to figure out, which is great since you can decide inside them which biomes appear and chances of replacement of a biome by another selected one.
A second issue that I found besides some missing crafting recipes which have been added since is the fact that the new biomes often seem so detailed that the vanilla biomes not receiving any changes in look whatsoever makes them feel out of place :
Thankfully I have just now heard of Regions Unexplored: Expansion which seems to fix that issue (Look at the reviews for this separate mod for more info on the goods and bads, and a datapack-alternative that another reviewer wrote about called Regions Unexplored - Expanded), and it seems there is still some amount of decorations which gets automatically added to some vanilla biomes.

In conclusion

This mod is as of now my favorite in terms of worldgen mods which add new biomes, with the biome concepts and decorations being the main reasons why (check the mod's page for prettier pictures). One of its strengths may come from the amount of addons which exist to create compatibility bridges between this mod and other well-known ones.
It is pretty similar to biomes o' plenty in the sense that if you want a mod which adds new content and makes sure it fits with the vanilla word generation, then this mod might be for you, but if you're looking for more drastic changes , then you might find this mod's additions less interesting and would probably favour mods like Terralith or Oh The Biomes We've Gone instead.
Globally I find this mod much better than biomes o' plenty but I still wish the various decorations had more utility, I always find it interesting when even the most ambient of blocks and entities have alternate uses outside of the vibe they participate in creating. Still, this is an amazing mod , goes well in a larger pack.

Technically-speaking, this is my first review on ModDex since all the other ones made before used Modded Minecraft Community Reviews

What is it ?

This mod features a new guard illager to the mix, which is both found in raids as well as in illager structures.

What does it offer ?

A new illager-type fighter mob, which is both found in raids as well as in outposts and mansions too.
This mob is a pretty simple but efficient concept of a swordsman member of the illager group, meant to defend locations and bases with pride. They look quite nice, with a custom helmet that the player can acquire from them rarely, their global look reminding me of Zelda's guards in the Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time, and they also have nice custom-made sound effects to go with this.
The most interesting thing which sets them apart from other illager knights is their reliance on potions : they can use healing and speed potions if required, and they usually aren't alone in the fights they engage in.
I like the implications of the witches working with the illagers that this creates but maybe I'm looking too much into it idk.

This new mob gained a functional shield at some point after its 1.12 incarnation, even if I've seen small visual bugs where it doesn't show when the mob is attempting to block attacks while swimming. In recent versions (1.20) I've also sometimes seen that their helmet appeared with no texture as an item (while it still looked fine when worn).

In conclusion

This illager concept albeit quite generic is executed well enough to actually work alongside other illager-adding raid mods such as Hunter's return or Enchant with Mob, or as the evil counterpart to the smarter Villager Guards.
I would like to add to this review that there's a config file for this mod (in 1.20.1 at least), allowing you to decide exactly at which waves of raids you want the guard to appear and if you keep him in vanilla illager structures.
It's 1.12 version can also work really well for making custom raids using the Raids Backport mod.

I have played the 1.12 version of this mod the most, that said this review will also take into account newly-added improvements and content added over the years

What is it ?

Biomes o' plenty is a mod adding new biomes, blocks and decorations to your world;
This means new trees, flowers and mushrooms, all found in vanilla biomes, newly-added biomes and even the nether and end.

What does it offer ?

New biomes to explore integrated with vanilla minecraft's biomes. The new biomes add trees which resemble the way vanilla trees generate, and the decorations including custom tallgrass, mushrooms, thorns, flowers and more are also added to the vanilla biomes for consistency, which makes all of them look a bit more detailed when traveling on foot. Most of the added biomes emulate real-life environments adapted to minecraft's style, but there's quite a decent amount of interesting outliers such as the new rare safe haven islands such as the Flower Island or the Origin Island , and the magical biomes which include the Mystic Grove and the Ominous Woods .
This mod also houses unique nether content which also includes whole new biomes/blocks/decorations, even all the way back in 1.12 which lacked nether biomes other than the default "hell" one. All these biomes are often compatible with other biome mods in versions past 1.12, but there still were some amount of intended compatibility back then such as with NetherEx for the nether generation.
The newer versions bring more end content as they have reinterpreted this dimension as some sort of dead ocean featuring ghostly-jellyfish structures, algae-covered forests and large empty buildings reinforcing the weird wasteland vibe. (in 1.12, there is some amount of end content, but it is mostly ores and a custom end glowstone block; the spectral moss doesn't actually naturally generate same for the end plant(s)/tree)

Flaws ? Loss of content :

Since a long time it seems biomes o' plenty has lost content update after update and it seems a lot more focused with being available on as many versions as possible than keeping everything in place. While it is true new biomes and blocks were added since it's 1.12 version, we also lost a bit of both .
Another thing which was present in 1.12 but is lacking in recent versions such as 1.21.11 is the highly-customizable config; While the config files are still here, we can no longer tweak major aspects of the world generation through them nor through the interface before starting a world since this one no longer exists (that means no more easy biome-height tweaking, no continental worldgen option, among other things).

In conclusion

This mod is genuinely a good one on a lot of fronts as it adds new biomes, blocks to those biomes as well as decorations which can be found both in vanilla and modded biomes; That said, the world generation with this mod is pretty basic in comparison to its current competitors in recent versions, and when comparing the mod in its current state to its 1.12 or even earlier iterations it seems there isn't a lot of new and interesting content added, I would even go as far as to say it lost a bunch of exclusive content (biome-specific gems, biome finder, worldgen quirks such as the nether hives, and even more when you look at older versions of biomes o' plenty;
Edit : if you want the lost content from Biomes o' plenty the old ores are available by using Biomes O' Plenty Legacy Reborn & Croparium). It is still important to admit that some of these losses are due to minecraft directly implementing them in the base game (such as mud, bamboo and fallen leaves).
If you want a mod which adds new content and make sure it fits with the vanilla word generation, then this mod might be for you, but if you're looking for more drastic changes or more interesting new content added to biomes, then you may find this mod's additions a bit boring.

What is it ?

The tropics is a nice and calm dimension themed around a peaceful tropical environment, in which anyone would want to have spend a vacation;
It adds content related to what one might expect from some days off on some lush islands around the Equator, with some cool tracks to listen too while building your new house.

What does it offer ?

A warm world and a whole new tropical landscape for you to live in.
There isn't much in terms of progression and equipements apart from a few armor sets and tools, as well as some diving gear, as this dimension is really not at all focused on dungeon crawling nor getting geared up for the next challenge.
There some decent building block variety and ambient creatures which can give life to building projects made in this realm. The music is also quite good, especially the music discs with some that I quite like. I find it a bit weird that vanilla music seems to play in the dimension at times, but it could be an intentional choice for all I know.
I saw a bunch of critics based on the more modern dimension worldgen changes as this mod seem to bring memories to many out there, and the tropics's generation probably used to be a bit flatter than it is now which might not be pleasing to some, and that is without counting the fact that many new blocks introduced by the mod have since been simply replaced by their vanilla counterpart (such as mud or bamboo).
I know this may be just me but I don't really like the mod's current artstyle (especially regarding the mod's item textures in 1.21.8) ? I would like to mention it in case it may subconsciously affect my review. Also in the version I tried this mod in (as of this review I tried it in 1.21.8 last version), parts of the mod had some issues such as the Cowktail model being broken, and it seems quite a lot of the ambient mobs present in this mod lack unique sound effects too which is a shame honestly even if not technically required.

In conclusion

This mod somewhat succeeds at bringing to life a new tropical environnement , though in its current iteration it is a bit more nuanced than simply saying 'it works'.
I always like it when a mod brings in its own way of teaching the player custom mechanics and introduce its own content without external requirements such as JEI among others, so I quite like it when a mod brings its own book (though I prefer other means), which I find weirdly absent from the last 1.21 release I tried.
This mod is mostly a vibe more than it is anything else really, and while it is not my favorite kind of experiences I can understand the purpose of mods like these and why it grew in popularity; Though I would say the competition is tougher in current recent versions of the game and many mods out there might offer a similar or better experience, so while it may have been a really good mod in the past I don't think it currently stands a chance against 1.20+ dimension mods .

It is of note that there is a maintained fork for 1.7.10 called Tropicraft Continuation , which I haven't tried, but it might be worth checking out.

I may go back to this review in the future later on, feel free to make up your own mind on this mod and review it as well, your opinion matters

What is it ?

This is a mod which adds a new peaceful and hostiles creatures/animals, which fit in most vanilla + settings and bring interesting mechanics, gimmicks and items to play around with.

What does it offer ?

A couple of new monsters and passive mobs some of both can be tamed, since there is not too many let me give more details down here (spoilers for all the mobs added) :

Chameleon :
An ambient mob meant for forest and jungly biomes; Their drops can be used to make some camo-leather armor

Treasure Slime :
A rare slime which appears in any biome at night, they will contain goods which can be acquired by killing them until they become small; there is a variant of this mob which doesn't contain anything, and which can be sort-of tamed. Using an external loot-tweaking mod, it is possible to configure the slime treasures

Haunted Tool :
Basically a possessed item, having its stats depend on the item's durability and damage output. Using an external loot-tweaking mod, it is possible to change the type of tools they appear as

Grove Sprite :
A nature spirit that will plant trees corresponding to its forest; their sap can be useful to turn logs of one wood into another

Bewitched Tome :
An hostile cave tome which is a nice way to get enchanted books. They spawn more often in strongholds

Filch Lizard :
A desert thief lizard which will take a look in your inventory and act on their impulses; their preferences can be easily tweaked using an external loottable tweaking mod (such as loottweaker)

Brain Slime :
A beach slime that will grow larger the longer it attacks you, which it does by staying in top of your head and eat you

Rocket Creeper :
A goofy creeper which jumps in the air, exploding instantly after hitting a block or you. They can rarely drop a mysterious egg

Festive Creeper :
They won't explode, but will throw tnt dynamite-style; they are immune to explosions and fire damage. They can rarely drop a mysterious egg

Support Creeper :
Exactly what it sounds like, a creeper that will resort to its deadly explosive force only when there isn't any mob left to defend. They can rarely drop a mysterious egg

Skeleton Warrior :
Basically a stronger and smarter skeleton, always spawning with more hp, a leather cap, a bow with weakness arrows as well as carrying an iron sword on its back to use if the player gets too close. Their drops aren't as interesting though but they are a nice challenge to have, could work well in arenas or smth

Blazing Juggernaut :
An "everywhere blaze", spawning outside of nether fortresses, but different; It has similar loot but attacks in melee by having a weird zigzag dodging pattern making it quite hard to hit and a challenging foe

Lily Lurker :
Disguised as a lilypad, it is actually an hostile swamp fish. There isn't anything else to add though

Mother Spider :
Marqued as "spider family" on multimob, they will appear with their children an attack you all at once. their drop can be exploited to trap and get a spider of your own, which you can ride and customize its eye color

Trollager :
A tough mob appearing in caves, they can see you through walls an will break them down in an attempt to reach you; they also have the ability to throw blocks to attack you from a distance, and will turn to stone if exposed to sunlight
Note that they require quite of bit of space to spawn in caves, meaning that quark's speleothems can often make them an even rarer occurence

Lost Miner :
A villager which spawns in caves, fleeing from mobs and following players to the surface. When rescued they give them a bunch of emeralds and turn into a trader out of three types, selling you ores, rocks or gems

Traveling Merchant :
A wandering trader selling a bunch of really rare items (which I often deem too rare to use them in most packs). Use the Trader backport mod if you want regular wandering traders which are more configurable

Dodo :
A unique extinct mob which can only be found in the most peaceful biome that is the mushroom island; their meat restaures a lot of hunger points, though it is compensated by their rarity and how picky they tend to be when it comes to the food needed for their reproduction

Sheepman :
Nether-NPCS which deal in gold and are scared of zombie pigmens; The alchemist sells potions made from nether materials, the scavenger sells stuff you can simply find by exploring the nether and fortresses and the thief sells mob drops (some of them being a bit to overpowered for my taste)
Note that in older versions of the mod, a special sheepman with an anvil on its back existed, which could repair your items

Goblin :
A mineshaft dweller before the rascal's mob vote even occured; they are fast and use a special mace which doesn't deal much damage but is quite deadly to your armor, meaning they can be threatening in longer fights alongside other foes

Harpy :
A mob which spawns in high terrain in extreme hills, it doesn't attack, it instead attempts to kill you using fall damage. Good concept, quite like 1.18+ vanilla goats

Flame Spewer :
A more interesting lavamonster, behaving in a similar way to The legend of zelda's octorocks, spewing fireballs like a turret from the safety of its lava lake

Void Eye :
A dangerous and sometimes quite annoying creature (I really recommend disabling its overworld spawn its a nightmare), as it can fire a blinding laser through walls. It also drops ender eyes sometimes, which can break the intended dimensional progression of the game

Summoner :
Only present in older versions of Primitive mobs, this mob directly inspired by pokemon and similar games summons creatures using some sort of capturing ball; they can then be used by the player to capture their own mobs. This mobs has its own separate mod in 1.12 called "TheSummoner", and is now an illager instead of having his previous witch look

This mod depends on a library called Multimob : it basically manages the spawning system of these mobs; That said, it is also possible and even quite easy to add your own mobs in the extra entries to the spawning system, meaning one can add mobs (note that after a certain amount of new mobs added the mod will crash , so take that into account and avoid to completely rely on this mod for your modpack's mobspawning)

Multimob also gives away plenty of informations for modpack-makers by creating txt files listing : Biomes, BiomeTypes, Blocks, BlockStates, Enchantments, Entities, Items, Potions, PotionTypes, and some Vanilla structure names (again for the spawn system you can add creatures to vanilla structures such as mineshafts and woodland mansions, so it mostly serves that purpose).

Issues ? they are mostly tied to multimob :
it seems the very last version of multimob causes problems in some modpacks for some reason (which is why I purposely use an outdated version of said mod);
I would also recommend switching the mob creature types from the new ones made-up by multimob (MULTIMOBPASSIVE,MULTIMOBMONSTER) to the vanilla ones (CREATURE,MONSTER), especially if you want them to spawn alongside zombies and skeletons at weight : 100 (if not they might override the vanilla spawns, you've been warned).

Issues with primitive mobs ? mostly balance :
The mobs are all cool and interesting, but as mentioned before many give away items that can ruin the game's progression if you do not tamper with the mobs's loot tables (using loottabletweaker or other outside mods).

In conclusion

I really like this mod, and since most issues are tied to its library (which again, using the 1.0.4 version seems to solve everything for some reason), I would consider this mod to be quite good at what it does : adding new vanilla + mobs in your world .

This mod is also now present in at least 1.20.1 as it has been forked by tatoling under the name PrimitiveMobsRevival ; though I don't know how complete the mod is right now;
There's also Primitive Mobs (Reforged) in 1.20+ versions which I've personally tested (still relies on a fork of multimob which still has some issues though).
I also have to add that this mod is also currently being maintained and bugfixed in 1.12 under a fork called Primitive Mobs Wondersapped by Jasmine_Mogadam.

If you are looking for more 1.12 mods adding useful entities such as these I recommend Fish's Undead Rising , Beast Slayer and Eerie entities , though more might be out there .

If you are looking for other Multimob equivalents there is a craftweaker addon known as Spawntabletweaker which is quite simple to use but doesn't allow for much complexity, and there also is InControl! (which I don't know much about but it seems to be quite good at what it does as I've mostly heard good things about it).

What is it ?

A mod adding new structures to the world in each dimensions, even working in modded ones;
This mod also serves as a tool for modpack makers , allowing you to create, export and download structures to add to the game (you can even disable the mod's default structures in the configs altogether if you only wish to use custom ones).

What does it offer ?

New structures to the game which includes small ruins as well as bigger dungeons, custom trees and rocks, new village houses and so on; most of them using custom loot made for them.
The structures look cool and don't impact the performances in any notable way (or at least not in any way I could notice).

The best part of this mod is its structure making system , and while it is true that other structure mods such as Ruins also allow you to add your own structures to the game too, this one goes a step further and allows for a lot of possible types of structures generation such as :
Natural : the basic selection allowing randomized generation on every x chunks
Vanilla Decoration : the generation for making custom naturally-generating trees or rock-type structures, or more generally a structure generation which seems to mimic the way certain structure generates in vanilla minecraft
In structures : if you want to add structures to villages or overwrite vanilla village structures with your own this is the way to go
Sapling : should generate when a specific sapling grows into a tree (I never quite understood how it works, but honestly I never really wanted to use it)
Static : will only generate in specific coordinates in given dimensions; you can then make the structure repeatedly appear from that point after a certain amount of blocks, which is close to the way stronghold generation works in the game.
Structure Lists : A structure within a list of possible structures; a script block is required to generate them, which means you'll have to generate a structure containing a script block which itself will generate a random structure among said list.
Maze component : A room in a bigger Maze complex (think corridors in mineshafts and nether fortresses); it will only naturally generate if the global maze is generated, such as with a script block.

For each of these ways for structure generation you can limit your structures to specific biome ids/biome tags, dimension names/dimension ids, blocks to spawn on, use special natural floors blocks in the building for it to auto generate a floor based on the biome it generates in and adapt it to the terrain a bit better, or negative spaces to make sure some air blocks are not counted as part of the structure (which helps in making it feel less square and is more or less a requirement if you want your structure to appear at the bottom of the ocean floor without generating air blocks in the water); there's also the barrier that I've been using more and more to contain entities and prevent them from escaping the structure before I export it (the solid barriers added by the mod disappear when the structure generates naturally).

There is next to no limit to how big structures can get, and one can even use the script block in order to add smaller structures within bigger structures (I don't really like making mazes so this is usually what I experiment with when wanting to add variety in structure generation); the script block basically exploits the Structure List feature in order to generate a random structure within the chosen list once the bigger structure containing the script block(s) generates.

The way to add custom loot to structures being from within the game makes things easier , to the point I've managed to understand how this works before I understood how to customise correctly existing loot tables in Loottweaker (not a bad mod; it's just to show how intuitive it felt to me); there also an artifact generation tag to add to your larger loot tables (which generates randomly-named and possibly-enchanted items) as well as a book generation tag (which features randomly generated books, sometimes even readable) .

In conclusion

This mod is most 1.12 modpackmaker's dream , as it allows you to effectively add your own custom structures with customized loot to the world.

The main flaw this mod has is how time-consuming it is for anyone to learn how it works most of the time; Yeah sure there is a very detailed wiki but I vividly remember taking a long time to end up where I am now in understanding how recurrent complex works, and it having little to no video tutorials detailing the structure making and exporting aspect does not help in making things easier; that said, all I just said is not nearly enough to dethrone this mod as the best way to add custom structure within your modpack , without resorting to making your own mod(s) that is. Also, Sparkyspace made some good tutorials on this mod, you should check them out if you're interested; There is also a continuation made of the original wiki here https://github.com/NoMoreUsernames999/Recurrent-Complex-Wiki which is more up to date than the one on fandom that I used, and while some things may not be covered in the new one, it is still one that is easier to understand.

I would like to update this review in order to add the information that as of 13/04/2026 there is also three forks/continuations of recurrent complex on Curseforge with Recurrent Complex Unofficial by miradae which offers a 1.7.10 version of recurrent complex with a few bugfixes and corrections, and there is also another fork which appeared called Recurrent Complex Volts by Akiak which forks the 1.12 version and fixes issues, his discord can be used as an alternate unofficial Community Structure Repository to upload and download structures , the fuller original one being at https://complex.ivorius.de/ ; There is also Recurrent Revived by EmeryTheModder which is a 1.20.1 improved port of recurrent complex, and Reccurent Complex Volts also recently updated to 1.20+ versions.

What is it ?

A mod making its own pillage update on top of the "village and pillage" one, adding and tweaking content mainly related to raids and illagers;

What does it offer ?

Tweaks and changes in how raids are started : they are now caused only by burning ominous banners , meaning starting one is something you intend to do, no longer something you accidentally cause (note that at the moment of making this review this mod isn't in 1.21+).
Changes in behaviors to pillagers making them slightly smarter by shooting you from further away, while still being pretty easy to deal with in melee; another change was made to the evokers now receiving a temporary shield from their totem if killed by a projectile (preventing you from sniping them in woodland mansions or raids), and vexes having received a necessary tweak in health making them still dangerous with how much damage they can deal while reducing how annoying they were. Evokers now also sometimes drop an item allowing you to use their fang attack, which gives them a new drop on top of totems (of which are now shared with a new mob we'll see down there afterwards).

This mod adds a couple of new illagers and features related to them which I'll discuss here :

The Iceologer is pretty much the same as in minecraft dungeons , though he does receive a new attack which can make the first attack stronger as if you do not manage to dodge it you will get slown down and will have a hard time dodging the falling ice.

The Griefer is by far my favorite added by the mod -> this mob is tied to a rework of the creeper's behavior which is closer to mojang's current philosophy for new hostile mob concepts, while bringing to life a theory many had on the creepers's goal when exploding. The Griefer is also pretty interesting combat-wise has it will never stay "out of reach" for too long as it will eventually attack you in melee a bit if it has thrown too many spores (their foot-kicking animation is so funny to me and I don't know why I find it that hilarious). You can also use these spores and blast-proof plating to make blast-proof blocks as well as a griefer armor set which makes you resist explosions and their knockback better (the Griefer also sometimes spawn using some pieces). There is also some other stuff related to more directly using the spores like a new type of arrow and spore tnts.

The Executioner ends up being my least favorite . let me explain. This mob while looking quite good doesn't have much in terms of custom sounds nor AI, it is just a buffed vindicator , it just so happens to look much better in my opinion. The concept of its custom blade (the cleaver) is that you can behead players and it's cool, but it's not nearly as interesting as it sounds if you're mainly focused on playing alone with this mod (it really will look like a "slower deadlier sword" to me to be honest).

The Trickster is a bit of an in-between to me; that jester-looking fella does what you might expect from its name : it performs tricks, exchanges places with you, slows you down and prevent you from jumping when inside its spell, and I think this mob looks better than the Griefer (and sounds better too, I have something for mobs with unique sounds); it's purpose in raids is basically to get you in harder positions as slowing you down will make you really vulnerable when it comes to vindicators ( and the executioner's deadly blade ) and teleporting you in its place is more likely to get you near enemies too. I feel like this mob could have done more, but for a mod aiming to be vanilla+ it makes sense why the Trickster wasn't given more abilities. They do give a nice mask to get sneaky around mobs and players, which is nice.

It is of note that this mod also overhauls the Pillager Outpost by changing a bit its looks, adding a few vindicators here and there, more loot chests and also sometimes integrating the Griefer with its own creeper enclosure , adding another chest here with custom loot. That overhaul is also somehow compatible with Town and Towers even though you will probably find much more towns and towers-type outpost than savage and ravage ones
There's also another which rarely replaces skeletons (and can appear more regularly in abandoned villages) called the Skeleton Villager : basically an undead mob with the ability to use a crossbow, kind of like the sunken skeleton in Minecraft Dungeons.

In conclusion

I quite like this mod, and it works well with other illager mods such as it takes a pillage if you want to double down on the medieval atmosphere, or illage and spillage / illager invasion if you simply wish to add as many illagers as you possibly can to raids.

Like many illager-adding mods I wish there was simply more in terms of config options especially when it comes to the presence of each of the entities in raids, and I would have liked it better if the executioner had more going for it too;

That said this mod is very good, idk go play it or smth

What is it ?

A mod adding a new illager to raids and mansions , alongside a custom mechanic related to enchanting and entities;

What does it offer ?

An enchanter mob straight from Minecraft Dungeons which can bewitch its allies to make them stronger in various possible ways; The mage himself isn't that strong nor resilient and I think it's for the better, as he ends up playing more of a support role , which works quite well with other mods adding their own raiders such as savage and ravage or illage and spillage : respillaged .
Many if not all of these enchantments can also be found naturally on mobs upon spawning at times, which will make your journey through the world a bit more dangerous as you will find stronger and more resilient mobs more often (not too much to be impossible though, and a lot of things about the mod can be configured, there's even a whole system of Ancient Mobs just like in Minecraft Dungeons which is completely optional).
Best of all : you can enchant mobs and even enchant yourself to some degree by finding mob enchant books in various loot tables (including the vanilla woodland mansion, adding another reason to go there).

(This new enchanter mob also has great animations in its 1.20.1 iteration too just like hunter's return, and I haven't noticed anything negative regarding the mod's impact on performances)

In conclusion

This cool mod adds another interesting mage to the illager group, which has managed to get his own seat in vanilla mansions and role in raids.
The mob enchanting is quite interesting and even before Minecraft Dungeons was a even thing, I always wondered what it would be like to enchant yourself and other entities in the game.

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 beside 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 some 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 .

What is it ?

A full revamp of four biomes (+ a few smaller features on beach biomes) including aesthetic improvements through diverse and often useful flora, fauna with interesting mechanics and related items, building blocks and features adding content to other systems such as enchantment or redstone;
There is also one added structure for each biome overhaul.

What does it offer ?

A complete vanilla-style update on four biomes : Mushroom islands , Badlands , Swamps and Roofed forests

Spoilers down here for the first biome they improved :

The Mushroom islands

In this biome upgrade they added glowshrooms underground, lots of decorative mushroom patches, plenty of mushroom related building blocks (+ new white tree as well, added way before the pale forest was introduced to vanilla minecraft) as well as two new entities being the glowfish and the mushroom trader. Beside that there simply isn't much to add to the mushroom island revamp and since it is a biome on the rarer side it makes sense to me why they might not want to lock away more interesting features for those who have yet to find it .

Spoilers down here for the second biome they improved :

The Badlands

In this biome upgrade was added cowboy pillagers, ghost towns with a new poltergeist block acting as a redstone randomizer through possession of nearby blocks which I find a cool take on this concept, terracotta decorative blocks, new cactis and a little critter which allows for the craft to an antidote against poison. A nice detail I like and isn't mentioned often is the dirt variant near badlands lakes, containing gold nuggets at times; it really gives you a taste of the amount of gold you will find in caves under this biome

Spoilers down here for the third biome they improved :

The Swamps

In this biome upgrade (which btw they did before Mojang's wild update like many) they added sunken witch ruins, two new types of exclusive swamp trees being the classic willow tree and the cool swamp cypress (anew flower is here too); they added peat, which is a both a good block to dry and use then as a furnace fuel as well as the best ground to use to grow crops on. They also added a bunch of critters in this biome, such as the useful lightning bug, to be used as a light source or a throwable electric flask depending on the method for its collection; That said beware as the swamps house a surprise within its sometimes deep pools : the decayed, a shield wielding undead using the depths to its advantage. The best feature for this update has to be the witch quest system : by disguising yourself as a witch you can accept item fetch quests for rewards, with the rarer the items the better the gift, including exclusive potions combining sometimes several stronger versions of vanilla potion effects in one bottle

Spoilers down here for the fourth biome they improved :

The Roofed forest

In this biome was added some new flowers, a glowy one being added on dark oak leaves with itchy ivy slowing you down, discouraging people from traveling above the trees and producing enough light to attract a new hostile flying creature being the moth. Small cute plant-like living creatures are added in the forest and serve as a sort of crop/mob which can get you most if not all types of dyes in minecraft. There's owls too. Crystal clusters can be found on the biome's surface, those crystals are needed for an a new take on going beyond the enchantement max levels which does not involve an anvil (unlike quark's ancient tome system which isn't bad, but honestly the anvil really needs a rework), as a random enchantement on an item can be improved past its limits at the cost of of a random curse (with new ones added by the mod too, and probably compatible with modded curses). Changes were made to pillagers too, as they rarely can now drop crude fragments and crude cladding which can be used in one of two ways : upgrading minecraft's leather armor into a cladded armor, reducing and sometimes ignoring arrows and projectile related damage. the second use of crude cladding is for making stone golems out of cladded stone, those golems being crossbow wielding turrets. One thing I have to say is that unfortunately their aim is not that good and they take their time between each shot, making them not that useful for the cost they require. Instead of a new structure, this biome actually replaced the woodland mansion with its own overhauled version, which contains some of the things mentioned earlier as well as new content that is only found there : a special decoration type similar to banners is found here, depicting mostly minecraft mobs. Now not only the mansion houses a few floors, but it also contains a dark basement with a new boss at the end; this boss in terms of attacks and behaviors really seem like a "vanilla +" boss and doesn't go too crazy with his patterns, but it is nice to finally see a new basic illager boss which isn't tied to raids in any way

This mod's performance is good, its content are to me really interesting and add a lot to their respective biomes.

In conclusion

So far my favorite content has to be what's been added for the fourth biome as it is clearly the one with the most in terms of features, and I do hope somebody else makes a fork of this mod and make the desert update they were planning on adding before stopping updates (check their discord server for info). I really love this mod, and it is probably my favorite fabric mod (even though this mod is now available on forge too)
They have their own official wiki detailing everything one might want to know if advancements aren't enough so that's always a plus in my books.
I would like to finally precise that the fact this mod covers these four biomes stated earlier makes it quite compatible with Ecologics , as they add content to different biomes and both do it in a vanilla+ style (throw-in Environmental for the best biome-improvement experience, though they will have overlapping content which may break your immersion a little)