Astria Ascending Review – IGN

There is always something exciting about playing a new JRPG that is not from one of the popular franchises that we already know and love, mainly to see how it differs from the rest. But while Astria Ascending’s turn-based combat is excellent, its lackluster storyline and weak search design drag it down. It has a lot of fun things going for it, but those shortcomings keep it from becoming the breakout JRPG it had the potential to be.

Astria Ascending puts a side-scrolling twist on a more traditional turn-based RPG shell. You’ll explore his world of Orchanon like a 2D platformer, entering separate rooms, collecting treasure, and encountering enemies as you travel the screen. But while his presentation is novel, the setting of his story is something we’ve seen several times before: you play as Ulan, the leader of the 333rd company of Demi-Gods who tries to stop a boundless chaotic threat that wants to eliminate the harmony of the world. world. .

Screens – Astria Ascending

Each of your group members also has their own biggest motivation, but overall, the story is so clichéd. The world of Astria Ascending looks unique and its races are newly designed, but their differences are only superficial. Because of this, the main cast suffers from soft dialogue and a lack of personality, making it uninteresting to spend dozens of hours with them.

And like so many other JRPG stories, their fight is against another generic villain syndicate who wants to destroy the world for some weak and unconvincing reason. That’s not to say that this story structure never works, because it has entertaining or heartfelt moments here and there. Many members of the group have family members tied to the events in ways that could be compelling, but with many of the plot points being vague, those potential hooks were never able to capture my interest.

Unsurprisingly, completing your mission will mean venturing into a handful of puzzle-filled dungeons. Some of these require you to tap into basic elemental powers to solve them, like using the wind to move the boxes into their correct position. But most are not that attractive due to their simplicity. Dungeons are generally structured in the same way too – each has a boss known as Astrae that you can summon into battle once you’ve defeated him, followed by another boss at the end, leaving them too predictable to make your way through.

The replay is altered relatively deep in the story by a section where you shoot enemies in the sky as a side scrolling shooter, but it’s too little too late. You only see this twist between specific locations in the second half of the story, and at that point you’ve already made so much progress that its introduction feels random and disconnected.

As you explore Orchanon, you will also come across plenty of side quests, but these are just as straightforward and uninspired, and they do little to make the world feel more developed. You will often be asked to defeat a certain number of enemies or to find the quest giver for a specific item, and little else. While none of them are very interesting, additional guild missions that task you with killing special enemies for money, experience, and skill points can be. Each type of enemy has different abilities, so fighting these minibosses adds even more variety to the creatures you face, which is especially welcome when combat is the shining star here.

Focus your skills

Astria Ascending really stands out for her battles and her art style. Every area is incredibly beautiful, especially in the dungeons. Presented as a 2D platformer outside of fights, Orchanon’s world feels like it was created in a storybook – each of its characters is drawn with tender love and care, and they especially shine in the fight. Whether it’s an attack, a spell, a buff, or a status effect, everything is animated flawlessly and with purpose.

The combat itself is one of the best I’ve seen in a traditional turn-based JRPG. This is due to the excellent Focus mechanic, which causes the party to gain Focus Points when it hits an enemy’s weakness. Focus can stack, allowing it to deal a large amount of damage once it maxes out. But while collecting Focus, enemies can hit your weaknesses and doing the exact same thing, increasing the stakes the longer a fight lasts. You’ll also have to be careful, as using the wrong attack against an enemy will cause you to lose focus, adding an extra layer of tension to every fight. Mix that exciting system with art and animations and it really makes combat an impressive package.

Almost every encounter feels like a challenge that is also satisfying to conquer. An intuitive work system provides a wide variety of skills to use, and planning your team’s powers is where the real puzzles of Astria Ascending lie. Your party members start with one starting job, but will earn three more throughout the story, giving them a host of different abilities to mix and match based on their personal preferences and the weaknesses of the enemies they target. faces.

Unfortunately, Astria Ascending also comes with some horrendous difficulty peaks. This means that occasionally you will need to spend a significant amount of time fighting to get past tougher enemies. There’s at least one difficulty option that can be lowered if you’re not up for dealing with these pesky spikes, but on normal difficulty it’s not uncommon to spend several hours leveling up just to get through a specific fight only to have to do it again. for a different one not far down the road.