There are also no random battles in Astria Ascending. There were times when the platforming felt clunky however, especially during sections where you had a very short amount of time to jump onto a rising or moving platform.
Later dungeons will even have you combine powers to progress, but the puzzles are never too overwhelming. As you go through dungeons, you will gain new abilities to use while exploring that will help you with the puzzles, and open up new paths to explore. Every song felt appropriate for the area I was in, or for the tone during the various cutscenes.Īstria Ascending is completely 2D, and as you explore all of the various areas in the game, there is some platforming and puzzle-solving involved. I found a few of the songs (particularly the main battle theme) stuck in my head while playing through the game, and there were no songs that I disliked. The game has some pretty solid music as well. While the game reuses many of the regular enemy models as you progress through the game, all of the bosses have a completely unique design from each other, allowing their appearance to match the mechanics of each fight. All of the various locations you explore throughout the game feel unique and have a lot of detail behind them, and spells and abilities look and feel appropriately powerful. While the character models personally reminded me of something you’d see in some mobile gacha games, the environments and spells look great. There is a cutscene and some dialogue about the results of the final battle, and then it cuts to the credits.Īstria Ascending features completely hand-drawn art for every aspect of the game. I didn’t feel like there was a proper resolution to the stories of these eight characters I just played with for around 25 hours, and we don’t get to see the aftermath of the main conflict. Throughout the story there is a gradual buildup, and the stakes get high, but once you beat the final boss, it kind of just ends.
However, there were times when it felt weird that these companions who have been working together for almost three years did not know some of this information about each other already.ĭespite a strong setup for the main conflict, the ending does not stick the landing. Luckily, as you progress through the story and visit the characters’ hometowns, you start to learn more about their backstories, and their connection with the ongoing conflict. When Astria Ascending starts, you are giving almost no information about the Demigods in your party. As you try to figure out what’s causing them to attack Harmonia, you find a group that can control them as well as take control of the Astrae, powerful beings that will only grant their strength to a select few. You are introduced to all eight of your playable characters at once, and the game wastes no time putting you into conflict with the Noises. The game puts you in the 333rd Demigod cycle, which is being led by Captain Ulan Meyer in their last three months. After their time is up, another eight champions are chosen, beginning the cycle again. The Demigods are eight chosen heroes that gain incredible power, but at the cost of dying after three years. This utopia is maintained in part by everyone eating fruits called harmelons, and by the Demigods, who are tasked with protecting everyone and fighting off Noises (monsters in the world that want to destroy its Harmony). The story takes place in a world called Orcanon, where the Goddess of Harmony watches over the peace and happiness of the many races that live there. With an amazing development team behind the game, how does Astria Ascending hold up? While the game was a very fun experience, it wasn’t without its flaws. The visuals for the game are from CyDesignation, a team lead by Hideo Minaba (FFVI, FFIX, FFXII) with contributions from Akihiko Yoshida (FFXII, NieR: Automata). Kazushige Nojima (FFVII Remake, FFX and FFVII) helped shape the game’s narrative, and Hitoshi Sakimoto (FFXII, Vagrant Story) composed the entire soundtrack with Basiscape. As a huge fan of JRPGs, particularly the Final Fantasy series, I got excited when I heard about the development team behind Artisan Studios’s upcoming game Astria Ascending.
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