Astria Ascending

in library

3.2/5

( 9 Reviews )

3.2

9 Reviews

English & 5 more

Overall most helpful review

Posted on: October 15, 2021

singbird

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 4

Having fun enough, but something gnaws

In battle you control a party of four at a time, and you can use a character's turn to switch in and out any number of party members. The battles are turn-based, your characters have health, can attack an enemy or use special abilities by expending MP, can use items or defend. The characters have classes and progression is FFX or FFXII-style. In combat you can use special "focus" points to power up abilities. You get these by hitting enemies with attacks against which they're weak, and can lose them by hitting enemies with attacks they resist. It's the perfect JRPG formula. However, the execution is simply not that interesting. The abilities of most classes are bland. A healer, for example, might get a skill to heal one target a little, heal one target more, heal one target a lot, heal everyone a little, heal everyone more, heal everyone... A DPS mage gets a spell to attack one target with fire, one target with ice, many targets with fire, many targets with ice... There are exceptions, but mostly you get a ton of abilities to do the exact same thing, just with different damage types. In battle characters act one by one based on speed (or something). The game hides this turn order from the player, which is cool of course. The difficulty of battles is all over. You might run into a normal mob and get annihilated, and then walk over the next boss. The game seems to have all kinds of interaction bugs. If you're stunned, you cannot do anything, but if you're stunned and confused, your character will act randomly. There is a skill akin to FF8, which allows to turn enemies into the mini-game tokens. Using this in scripted battles can soft-lock the game. It's possible, according to Steam thread, get completely stuck in the game. GOG doesn't allow for actual lengthy reviews, so in short: for this money (35 €), as of this moment, pass. Hopefully they make money on it and release a diversified and spiced up version. I am having a good time with it, but...

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: October 12, 2021

Geradi

Verified owner

Games: 226 Reviews: 15

Depressing and nonsensical to the end

This was one of the most depressing stories I ever played, I go by the description above: Explore the vast and beautiful world of Orcanon It's not ugly, but calling it vast and beautiful is a bit of a stretch. We have our typical regions, like deserts and swamps, we get the obligatory sewer level out of the way quickly. Once in one region, there is almost no variety in the region itself, just mxing the same background over and over again A grand tale of fate and sacrifice You learn that all the characters you play will die in three month and are choosen to be the protectors of harmony, a state the world is in because all the different races are drugged by a special fruit to be less aggressive. It's more a tale of, who thought this is a good idea, and leads to most of the depressing parts of the story A rewarding turn-based combat system While I never really felt the risk to loose, I pushed the same buttons again and again to slowly see some meaningless opponent die in slow motion. The idea is to hit opponents with an element they are weak against, which you may or may not find out by trial and error, or scanning the opponent with a spell...which every opponent it would be useful against like mini bosses and real bosses are immune against Meet an unforgettable cast of characters Yeah, I would say something about that, but it seems I already have forgotten almost everything about these stereotypes. Whatever, they are all dead now, their job was to be a protector for 3 years and then die from the power they've been granted to do said job A hand-drawn adventure crafted with skill and passion Hard to judge about the passion. They use the zodiac signs and classic elements like fire, water, earth and air, added lightning and ice, and mixed it in a way that could either be called extremly creativ or lazy chaotic, take your pick. The races were some fish, bird and lizard people, some cat like creatures and humans All in all, the game is boring and predictable

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: November 6, 2021

TGBarighm

Games: 400 Reviews: 26

Nice art and music, but feels wasted

The art style is nice and the music is great, but something about the feel of the game...it just feels very slow and generic. Despite pulling good ideas from better games, this game somehow comes off as utterly forgettable. It's not a short game, and there is no shortage of builds to try and gear to find. Very solid all around aside from some hokey anime writing. It manages to tick off all the boxes. And yet...it just lacks that certain something.

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: March 11, 2024

CivilBindle

Verified owner

Games: 64 Reviews: 2

Good game, but a few key issues...

The game is beautiful. Both the artwork and music are reason enough to give this a try. The gameplay and story are where it struggles. GoG’s character limit is painfully low, so I’ll just post a list of points: Story: -You start with the full cast of characters and are given a brief exposition for their goals and state of the world -This method of storytelling makes character narratives told retroactively, which makes it feel like more exposition -Not enough time spent on main cast and villains, perhaps too many side characters -The cosmology is interesting and there are dark secrets beneath the bright, cozy exterior -The story works better in the broad strokes. Narrative engagement feels too spread out and thin to be as impactful as it should be Gameplay: -Class system with interesting abilities, lots to experiment with -Interesting counter table for deeper strategy -Difficulty holds it back. Swingy difficulty and hard battles will make you want to min-max your party class choices. Some classes are just flatly better than others -You can change the combat difficulty in the settings. ‘Easy’ is the sweet spot imo, ‘Very Easy’ when running back through dungeons for side quests Overall I’d give the game a 7.5/10. It was slow starting out but picked up for me. A lot of people barely scratched the surface and turned their noses, it seems. There are problems but it doesn’t deserve the negativity it’s received.

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: August 6, 2025

shaiper101

Games: 98 Reviews: 9

mid

look its a game and it works but alot of stuff is kind of not great.. the map design is annoying i find myself lost alot. combat is bad- u start with 8 characters. whole combat is very unbalanced- one character (the summoner) can solo bosses that can take out ur whole party in 3 turns. there is a huge skill tree which seems cool but why should i get hyped for it if the combat is all about finding out what weakness the enemy have and spamming it since it does double the dmg and u can always switch to the character that has it. characters are also unbalanced- alot of em suck. it just not well thought out game in terms of player experience IMO. the japanese dub is nice though

Is this helpful to you?

User reviews

Something went wrong. Try refresh page.

This game is waiting for a review. Take the first shot!

{{ item.percentage }}%

Awaiting more reviews

An error occurred. Please try again later.

Other ratings

Add a review

Edit a review

Your rating:

Stars and all fields are required

Not sure what to say? Start with this:

What kept you playing?
What kind of gamer would enjoy this?
Was the game fair, tough, or just right?
What’s one feature that really stood out?
Did the game run well on your setup?

Inappropriate content. Your reviews contain bad language. Inappropriate content. Links are not allowed. Inappropriate content. Content contains gibberish. Review title is too short. Review title is too long. Review description is too short. Review description is too long.

Not sure what to write?

Filters:

No reviews matching your criteria

English Deutsch polski français русский 中文(简体) Others

Verified owners Others

Last 30 days Last 90 days Last 6 months Whenever

After release During Early Access

Discover CD PROJEKT RED games

Highlights

Featured

Close, but not an exact hit

Astria Ascending

Other ratings

Add a review

Edit a review

Delete this review?

Report this review

Additional Details (required):

Report this review