Astalon: Tears of the Earth

I've just finished the game for the first time and it is one of the best metroidvanias I've played, for sure. Artwork, OST, design are all great, and the gameplay is demanding but really satisfying. At first I was a little intimidated by other reviews saying it's very difficult, but it gets easier as you explore and open shortcuts. Also, dying offers the chance to get a lot more QoL and strenght improvements. It does have some tough spots, but can be overcome with a little practice and patience. A strong recommendation in general, and a must-have for metroidvania lovers! My only complaint is lack of achievements here on GoG.

Game is really well made for what it is and it perfectly fits my taste. Works great on Linux and performance is great. There is a lot of extra content available so make sure not to miss on it.

I understand half the fun of Metroidvanias is revisiting earlier areas with newer abilities. The three-character switching in this game, however, only adds tedium to the formula. I think there was one area a few hours in that I had to use the knight, then immediately go back three screens to get the wizard to unlock the next passage, and then literally the same screen, go back AGAIN, three screens, to go get the archer. That was about when I realized I owe this game nothing more and thanked my friend for his copy. I can't complain about the overall sprite presentation and audio, as it's all very nice and reminiscent of the NES era. I just wish the gameplay had overcome all the technological shortcomings of the era, as well, and learned something from the last 30+ years of game design. Astalon is a huge step backward from Castle in the Darkness, which I understood that one of the devs from that game worked on this one. So, I ended up massively disappointed here.

At first I thought this would be your regular metroidvania but the truth is that this game is a jewel, it has everything you would want from this genre. Game starts a bit easy for the first hours, a good way to introduce it.. then after you beat the 2nd boss the difficult boosts and I love it. Every retro gamer (as myself) will feel at "home", one of things a love most is the music, is awesome!! very ninja gaiden style. My first 5hrs were a bit rough as I found a glitch in the 2nd boss (details in the forum) and I had to start again but then I got to where I was in a bit more than half the time of my previous game. Overall I would really recommend this game to anyone looking for an 8 bit original classic adventure and for 7usd this game is really under priced.