Astria Ascending Reviews

Characters are ugly Some of the voice acting seems AI, especially pronouncing some words totally wrong Story is boring Battles take to long (cant speed up repetitive animations), or can be cheesed and tedious encountering Bought on sale, only time it was worth

Je préfère une bonne DA graphique à la vibe pixel art, donc un pouce d'encouragement. Points à améliorer: - Animation - IA en difficile: sait mettre des bâtons dans les roues mais jamais au point de nous mettre en difficulté. - Système de vulnérabilité couplé avec les mêmes groupes d'ennemis (ça devient rapidement répétitif, long et ennuyeux) - Phase de plateforme - Carte à la Valkyrie profile Lenneth, clairement une mauvaise idée reprise, il faudrait plutôt des donjons façon Castlevania. - QoL: plusieurs sorts, compétences et objets = il faut travailler vos menus et mettre en place la sauvegarde du curseur. - Une vraie fin (j'imagine que cela est dû au manque de moyens).

Not bad. A straight forward story of good vs evil. And a nice turn-based combat. It's RPG fast food.

[h2]A game made by a French studio who poured a lot of love into their project with what resources they had available.[/h2] This is a good game if you want to give people an introductory game into the JRPG landscape, should alternatives that currently exists not fancy you. It's a bit simpler compared to its modern contemporaries, but simplicity is a strength at times and not a weakness. For all intents and purposes this game is as much of a classical take on JRPG as it can be, with modern interpretations of how exploration is done (in a Metroidvania kind of way). The game has a pacing very similar to old NES rpg's more than it does its SNES counterparts, the way it explains the setting and the difficulty (at the start) are very much up there if you are not a JRPG veteran. Brute forcing your way through encounters will not be rewarded at the start of the game. [h3](As of writing, they are releasing a new game called [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2355020/Lost_Hellden/]LOST HELLDEN[/url], watch the trailers for it and the new ones on youtube, it looks INCREDIBLE, there is also a new trailer to be released on August 20th during Gamescom)[/h3] TL;DR: + Old-school JRPG style in design and pacing + Gorgeous art all around + Fantastic enemy and boss designs + Amazing music (Composer; Hitoshi Sakimoto) + Class system is fun to explore + Class outfits look amazing + Setting slowly introduces you to its world - Old-school JRPG in a modern era (not for everyone) - Class system is easy to mess up due to 0 respecs and 0 knowledge (Make a save, use a guide) - Can be difficult at the start of the game when you don't have a lot of tools to deal with enemies - Incredibly easy even on hardest difficulty once you start grinding and gain power - Hard to follow the setting if you do not like slow unraveling stories [h3]Story[/h3] The setting is thus: You are part of a legion of Demigods who forsake all family ties in order to bring harmony to everything that lives. After a set amount of days after your duty has been accepted, you are fated to completely fade away from the world. You play as Ulan, captain of the 333rd Demigods, and your journey takes an unexpected turn as there are forces working against the harmony that currently exists. The setting starts of confusing and quite difficult to follow to a start, but the game throughout its many chapters explains the setting slowly if you are willing to delve into it. The setting isn't trying to explain it to you like you are stupid, since realistic writing is missed on a modern audience nowadays; Why would you explain to an inhabitant of that world as if they are dumb and new, who has lived in the world for so long as if they were oblivious? As difficult as it might be to follow the setting, it's believable how the way its all unfolding and how you get to learn about the world-- you are playing a character who already knows these things-- but you get to learn all of this slowly through everyone and others you meet. While us the player might want to know everything from the start, we also need to accept that realistic writing will always have this kind of pacing. (Examples; Michael Moorcock, the Elric saga. And Robert Jordan, The Wheel of Time.) The biggest cliche that people hate in games/television is when exposition is happening and they explain the setting and world in great detail despite these things being something everyone in the room itself already knows. [h3]Art&Music[/h3] What should immediately stand out to you is the art-style of the game, it's a fully handcrafted 2D world made by some incredibly talented artists (LOVE YOU GUYS), it evokes the old-school VanillaWare + Final Fantasy Tactics art-style something fierce and this is as much of a love letter to how JRPG's used to be made and how much they wanted people to have a unique feeling in their world. Every city with its sprawling and gorgeous background followed by the bellowing tune of the music blends together to create a sense of awe befitting the setting itself. I honestly wished I could explore more of the city, it's so gorgeous to look at. The class outfits are such a thematic joy too, each class exists on 2 characters each, and they are consistent in their looks between the characters they exist on. I honestly wished there were more classes if only to see what the artists of the game could come up with, they are just that cool to look at and so incredibly creative: From the Harnessers Fish/Ice theme, to the Chronomancer Clock theme, the outfits are all so incredibly cool. The Astria's (the bosses of the games namesake) are all real cool to look at, and they have a unique appearance that will initially make you wonder what is going on, and then completely surprise you. Everyone loves Shala :) [h3]Combat[/h3] People seem averse to grinding as much as they seem averse to trying to figure out a strategy, so the combat might seem a bit difficult at start (There is a beginner boss who is a bit overtuned due to a lot of stuns, but it's not impossible to beat even without grinding). However all of these difficulties can be overcome with grinding just as much as any JRPG. Personally I like a game that is well designed around its encounter design and where difficulty remains relevant and grinding is a choice, not mandatory. A game where the intent of the developer is that you are gate kept by your power by the area you are in rather than by the intent of scaling up your own power through grinding it out. (Examples; Sea of Stars, Chained Echoes, Cross Code). This game is closer in design to FF1-3 and the Romancing Saga series when you start out (Try the remake of Romancing Saga: Revenge of the Seven). As mentioned before this game is very much a classical take on the games that came before it, and so your power is only limited by strategy and knowledge, then grinding. If you don't have knowledge on what it is you are up against or fighting, or the enemies are resistant to what tools you have at your disposal, chances are you can grind it out and brute force your way through it afterwards. While this might not seem as obvious to someone who doesn't play JRPG's, for those same people it might come up short of frustrating. Be patient, because just like any game where you can grind, when you find an incredibly cheesy way to grind you will become so powerful everything seems way too easy. For example, you can turn the difficulty all the way down and grind out enemies then turn it back up to your preferred difficulty. There is also an early game boss by a statue in the desert that can be encountered if you use Kaydin's encounter ability, who gives a ton of SP for little risk if you turn down the difficult if you have problems figuring out the strategy for the enemy. So if you are struggling with the first 5-10% of the game, know that the rest might seem incredibly easy even on the hardest difficulty should you decide to grind. On a low-level setting, knowledge and strategy goes an incredibly long way and is quite fun. [h3]Closing thoughts[/h3] I love a studio that pours their heart and soul into a project, and this game has it in spades with what they could work with and what they were given. The artists of the game deserves all the love in the world for how much time they spent handcrafting everything from start to finish, it's the equivalent to how an animation studio spends months just to make a 20 minute animation or years to make a full movie. The games premise is simple yet the story is complex, and I am all here for it. I couldn't be more excited to see what the future holds for this studio and what they will make, because they have a lot of they want to try and a lot to show, lo' and behold they are actually releasing another game called LOST HELLDEN. I sincerely love how much passion these people have and I love them for it, so never stop making games. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2355020/Lost_Hellden/