Developer:Acme Gamestudio
Publisher: tinyBuild
Genre: Action, Adventure, RPG
Release Date: October 11th(Out now!)
Price: $34.99
Where to buy: Steam, PSN, Xbox Store, GOG
Love letters are often spoken with passion, or with words told with fierce manifests of the heart. When you play a game, and it feels solid, so darn good, your brain can not connect the dots to something so well made. Asterigos: Curse of the Stars, is a balance of Souls, meets a JRPG, or a odyssey through the eyes of a young teen named Hilda. You partake in the wielding in several weapons, of all which have something beneficial over the other. Narrative hums through your ears as you progress through narrow, story flooded streets, where everything is told with excellent voice actors/actresses. Before I get ahead of myself, let us break down the game in some sort of format, because i spill the beans right here, and right now.
The story takes place in the realm of Aphes with Awakening as Hilda, a youth whom deemed as a warrior with the Northwind Legion. you embark on a cursed city of which, you must find your fellow Northwind Legion members, and your father amongst the chaos. The realm and everything inspired in it screams heavily from Rome/Greek architecture, or mythological tones. Then layering that with monsters, heavily and armored soldiers. In the game clever elements (blue dusty clouds) hum of story stones telling you ghost stories of the recent, or of the past much like The Division. If you would like a example.
Areas link not so much as seamless as semi instance based. Where the main hub of the game features several routes of which the game guides you through as apposed to blindly trying to figure out what to do aside from “ringing a bell”. The game boasts a ton of enemies, and bosses. with a mention of over 60 unique enemies, and 22 total bosses. All spread out nicely giving you a pretty good sense of direction, with the flare of the Dark Souls combat(exampled above with the friendly Gif!) Enemies are placed throughout the game, all in hidey-holes, or in basic sight. Giving you a chance to survey and strategize your next move. I found myself often trading out weapons, until I found a pair of, that gave me what I preferred for combat. Which was a combo of Spear, and Sword and Shield. In total the game offers several weapons of which are: Spear, Staff, Sword and Shield, Hammer, and gauntlets. Which all can be upgraded over time, also being able to be given to you out of the gate to find ones you fancy the most. The experience from the intro in felt comfortable, for a veteran of Dark Souls or Action games like it, I already was overly prepared. Playing on Normal, things felt to easy. As this was not so much boring, but I was expecting more of a struggle in spots that would otherwise brutalize me. For players who struggled with Souls like games, you would perhaps find this game a breathe of air. With a damn well told story, clean well spoken voice acting in English, with a few spots where you do need to read (sorry lazy players).
It was mentioned to me the game offers mortal choices to play out for the story. Of which simple dialog plays a scrape of outplays in the long run, while suttle elements like saying yes to do something basic plays a decent outline into the game, or outcasts you into the games outline. Where the game ends about the same. Slight differences notice notable. I did usually agree to most things in the game if I seen in my head it would outplay a good outcome.
In Closing, Asterigos: Curse of the Stars is and was from my gameplay experience a very pleasant and enjoy one. If you were expecting something as brutal as Ninja Gaiden, you are not getting that, with the exception of a few times the game can challenge you, you will not feel overwhelmed and wanting to rage quit. More of a meadow strolls pace. With a firm breeze from time to time. Its a colorful hauntingly charming game, at a fair price point, with a ton of good content to do, with some quirky side quests to boot.
