Astral Ascent review. Likely my roguelite game of the year for 2023.
In this game there are four characters you can play as (unlocking them after the first) who have their own tales and purpose facing down both Zodiac enemies and a big bad one in the end. You get story segments similar to Hades where before and after runs characters in your camp will have a symbol next to their head showing they will talk and give some more dialogue or some unlocked options. The story is OK enough for all of them, but it's not a strong suit of the game. You can learn more about why the characters are fighting amongst each other (the four, the zodiacs and the big bad), but so much of this is in unlockable souls found when playing the game. After you unlock the soul you get a bit of story for said character in a more reference form. I have only checked out a few and stopped checking them. It's cool there is any story and motivation for runs, so even though it's poor, it still has something.
The graphics in this game are drop dead gorgeous. The pixel art is excellent and the way everything animates especially your attacks is great. The graphics do get a bit clogged at times with effects from various enemies and your own attacks. Enemies do flash red in anticipation where they will attack so you can dodge. The dodge has very slight invulnerability frames so dodging some boss attacks and many enemies attacking you at once is very, very hard. The sound is also excellent with attacks and all sounding great and the voice acting being pretty solid as well. The music is also action packed as well.
This is a 2D action platforming/arena fighter game. The levels themselves are arranged where each has a zone where a zodiac or the big bad is at the end of it. Each step in the zone has you choosing rooms to gain many things including spells (your attacks you can have 5 I believe), money, passive abilities (very strong), augments for your spells, keys to either level up spells or get passive buffs like strength, and quite a few special rooms which I wont spoil. It is very similar to Hades where you choose your favorite rooms. The control with a Series X controller is excellent. It felt very natural and I wouldn't recommend the game without a controller. It is very twitchy and dodge based so those with bad reflexes will likely have trouble in the game. The game is very, very hard and after 38.4 hours I've likely beaten it about 10-12 times maybe. It like many other rouge lites has difficulty levels you unlock, which are fully customizable just like Hades. It's worth doing as higher difficulty get you more currency for unlocking things after you die including the rare and very grindy to get resources you only get from bosses.
The full on run takes about an hour and a half or so as you move very fast through areas and can make it to the big bad at the end pretty quickly. The action never lets up and there is quite a few different rooms and challenges you may face and you will be unlocking stuff for quite a while too. The four characters play differently, and it's worth using them all to get more dialogue options, try out different spells (some are unique to characters), and to experience the game in a slightly different way. This was easily my action rogue lite of the year with it's very high production values, great action, amazing controls, and just a great feel to the game. The characters and story are the weakest part, but they're not super, super terrible either. If those were stronger, I would raise the score of the game a bit. Overall it gets an 8.5/10 from me and is well worth it bundled or with a slight sale. It got slept on in game of the year lists and should be played by more people.
