Astral Throne Steam Charts & Stats

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Fun game. Each run feels different.

Astral Throne does a great job blending the SRPG and roguelike genres. I'm writing this review mainly as an SRPG player who doesn't have a ton of time to commit to long campaigns anymore. As an SRPG player, you'll want to give Astral Throne a shot if you enjoy: - Highly customizable characters, e.g. skills, weapons, mounts, skills, subclasses - Minimal but meaningful preparation between chapters - Replayability; no two runs are the same and you will need to adapt to the RNG - Low overhead; no hub world - Low commitment; max 11 chapters per campaign - Low-moderate unit count, 4-10 deployment slots You may want to skip this one if you want: - An incredibly engaging story - Lengthy conversations between cast members - Minigames between chapters In terms of difficulty, I'd place Astral Throne somewhere around FE Fates Conquest hard/classic. Not too bad once you get used to the mechanics but there's definitely a learning curve.

It's... a decent attempt at mixing the core gameplay of the fire emblem series, with roguelike features like multiple runs, random maps and progression. It does 50% of things right, but equally 50% of things are not so good. This would result in a NEUTRAL review, but since steam doesn't have that, I do lean towards positive if only considering that this is one of the first games that tried to do this mix, and there is potential in this crossbreed of genres, so I'll give props to the developers for daring to try.

[b]TLDR:[/b] Recommend if you like TRPGs and are okay with the quirks that come with a small-scale indie game. [b]The Good[/b] It's extremely obvious a lot of care and intention went into this game. The systems work well together, and it definitely has that "one more round" feeling that sucks you in. Combat is enjoyable, and controls in the actual game work quite well. I feel invested in my characters, but also feel that when I've lost them in combat, it was fair. The artstyle is nostalgic and modern in a good balance. While this game had some serious bugs at launch, the devs fixed them quickly and are continuing to improve the game in communication with the communities needs. I really enjoy how much control I have over the character's growth. The selection of random abilities you get on each level-up makes each character feel full of potential and surprises. [b]The Rough[/b] At launch this game had a lot of bugs, which have mostly been fixed. That said, if you are on controller/steam deck you will still find a fair amount of either unintuitive or messy controls for menuing/item management. I don't think I'd play this game on a controller, unless it was a steam controller. On my steam deck, I have the touchpads mapped to the mouse and scrollwheel, and I use those for menuing/item management. It feels like character deployment at the beginning of a map is an especially rough spot. It's extremely unintuitive to grab units from your roster using the controller, and not all of the information you need is available to you unless you do some menu diving. I do think this may be fixed in the future. I think this game would have been slightly better as a 20hr long campaign rather than as a rogue-like. It works well using a slay-the-spire type run system, but I think a linear game could have let some systems and story shine more. That said, the randomness of abilities/items do feel well implemented and rewarding. [b]Summary[/b] This game isn't for everyone, but if you like fire emblem, roguelikes, and can handle a small amount of jank you'll get more than your money's worth of enjoyment from this little gem. While the game is a bit rough around the edges, that roughness is indicative of a game that likely would not have existed were it to have required a bigger studio. I'd rather this game exist as it is now, than not at all! Cheers to the devs, this is a fun game with a lot of potential. May it sell well!

This game is a gem. I got totally sucked in very quickly. It has a really fun loop and its a tough game that rewards a lot of thought and planning. Pros · Great encounter design. For example, a library that starts on fire, fires spread, enemies set more fires. · FTL-like systems design manages to hit the right curve for complexity, difficulty, and fun. · Pick from three options leveling system and combination of unlimited passives and limited actives allows for compelling build strategies. · Weapons are not tied to classes and have an interesting double RPS advantage system. Cons · Facing of units does not matter · No story worth mentioning if you care about that · Active abilities are not much fun