#astria ascending

[gamersonthego]

GOTG Review: Astria Ascending

This is the next game in my Backlog Roulette series, where each month I spin a wheel to randomly select a game on my massive backlog that I must play (though not necessarily to completion). These wheel spins occur on the monthly preview episodes I co-host with my friends on The Casual Hour podcast.

There’s a phenomena about robots you’ve probably heard of before. It’s called the uncanny valley. The idea is the closer a robot looks and acts like a human, the more its inaccuracies are scrutinized and criticized by real humans. The reasons could be myriad — it could be the way it looks or sounds or moves or something else entirely — but the important thing is that it’s not…right. Astria Ascending lives in its own uncanny valley. But it’s not one of being human, rather, it’s one of being a JRPG classic.  

There’s another saying famous saying: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” Astria Ascending certainly looks like a great JRPG, its Vanillaware-like character design is striking, with a number of unique races from the beastly feline Arktans to the angular and serpent-esque Zeft. The art direction in general is often a sight to behold. The hub area especially has a real electricity about it, with many gorgeous structures. 

It swims like a great JRPG as well. Opening the menu reveals a wave of systems and mechanics. Each of the eight party members has their own starting class, equipment type, skill tree and abilities. Combat sees you use four of your party members at any one time, though you can swap out members mid-battle for strategic advantages. There are a suite of buffs and debuffs that can be applied to your team or to enemies. There’s a summon system. There’s even a Bravely Default-style system that lets you spend resources for more powerful attacks in a single turn. 

And hey, it even quacks like an RPG classic. The premise is undeniably cool: The world is protected by a faction of eight demigods, people from around the world who were drafted into service and given incredible power, but also given just a few short years to live. And the current group — your playable characters — are just three months away from a pretty permanent retirement as they work to protect the world fully knowing they won’t be around to see the fruits of their effort. The writing and voice acting (both in Japanese and English) are well done. And musically, composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, who has contributed to Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy XII and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim does solid work here as well.

But unfortunately, looking, swimming and quacking like a great JRPG is not enough to make you one. And it’s in the details where Astria Ascending falls.

Ulan, seen here waving her arms like some kind of wacky inflatable tube man.

The game looks beautiful…in stills. Characters’ idle animations are so fast and so wild they become distracting. Walking and running animations are awkward too. There’s a real “Live 2D” look to everything going on here that just is devoid of personality. Battles don’t fare much better as animations and effects for spells and attacks are weak and flat. It’s such a bummer seeing cool characters move in such lifeless ways. 

Astria Ascending does have a wide array or systems though…too big of an array, in fact. You start the game with your full party of eight, which means you have eight classes, each with their own massive skill tree to attend to. And before you can unlock much of anything on one of these trees, you’re given additional access to a choice of three upgraded job classes per character that open up a second full skill tree. And later you’re given sub jobs and support jobs, which create even more headaches. I love tinkering with character builds, but this is just too much. Oh, and those upgraded job choices are permanent, so you better be happy with your picks. 

This skill tree is fine, but when every one of the eight characters has two of these each (and most of the things on it are flat stat buffs), it becomes both overwhelming and monotonous.

And all of this mechanics and systems just end up making the game’s many, many fights long and tedious, often with little reward. It got to the point where I turned the difficulty down to its lowest setting just to mercifully pick up the pace. 

When you’re not fighting, you’re walking around incredibly simple and bland Metroidvania-like environments. The structure feels a lot like Vanillaware’s Muramasa: The Demon Blade, where dungeons are made up of 2D side-scrolling rooms that can branch off in multiple directions. But each of Muramasa’s screens are visually distinct and built for dynamic platforming and action combat. Astria Ascending’s rooms all look the same and you mostly just hop around to solve the most basic of puzzles. 

Every dungeon ends up looking this spartan, with identical room connecting to identical room. It's easy to get lost.

And as for the quacking part, while the premise is cool, half the game is spent going back and forth among everyone’s hometowns, solving very similar problems before going back to the main hub to report in. It feels less like a grand adventure or unravelling a mystery and more like running errands with no payoff.

The music is also CONSTANT. There are no quiet moments. There is very little up or down. The tracks are fine, but they're implemented so poorly. They're just always there, sometimes drowning out the voice acting. And those voices, while nice performances, sound awfully similar (especially for the female English voices), and since the camera is almost always zoomed out, it can be quite difficult to know who’s talking.

The speech bubbles are also of little assistance when it comes to knowing who's speaking.

At this point, I suppose it’s clear that I didn’t like Astria Ascending, but I do find it to be an interesting case study for what makes a JRPG good or bad. Astria Ascending pretty strictly follows the formula of classic JRPG design, but while it hits the right notes and plays them in the right order, there’s just no soul to this music. Even if developer Artisan Studios addressed all of the issues I listed above, I’m still not sure the game would be good. Because it would still be missing a thousand little details that even I can’t so easily put my finger on. 

Astria Ascending is not a bad game, not in a technical sense anyway. It’s just one that lacks heart and passion. It’s a photocopy, an amalgamation of good things from other games without the understanding of what those good things mean or how they should interact.

It’s uncanny. And once you see it, you can't unsee it.

[weatherman667]

Astria Ascending

A game that harkens back to the traditional turn-based RPG's or yore. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, it inspects the best made wheels and runs with it. I will separate this into the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, (or meh).

Good:

Four-fold class system that in theory allows and extreme level of customization, (I'm still too early in the game to actually be able to use any of it).

Classic Turn-Based RPG

Ability to swap any number of characters at any time, and this includes KO characters.

One of, if not THE best grid-based leveling system.

The game explicitly tells you about the various, novel races during the introduction. Rather than having them be mentioned, with the player have no idea what they are talking about.

Bad:

Combat is not balanced. This is largely because the game includes the Focus ability. If you hit a target's weakness, you gain focus. This can either by used for summoning, and the skills of the summoned beings, or to magnify an attack. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this means the game's strategy is build focus and then max-out an attack with an element the enemy is vulnerable to. This is the same bullshit that Xenosaga 2 used, which absolutely crippled the game. Astria Ascending is no where near as bad, but it still fails to balance it.

If you actually use your skills, then you will quickly run out of MP. This means that you default into many battles where you only use your basic attacks. Although, there are abilities that regen MP, so maybe it's early-level boringness, where your characters can't really use any of their abilities. The next logical step is to give you extremely powerful abilities that don't work on bosses. As I said, it doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, just copy it.

Field movement is akin to Valkyrie Profile, and is just terrible. Just as it was in Valkyrie Profile.

Meh:

Art style tries to copy Vanillaware without ripping them off. End up nowhere near as good as Vanillaware.

Story has an emotional hook, but quickly devolves into generic fare. The answer to why things are happening is usually Plot.

Job system becomes extremely complicated, and is irreversible. I suppose this adds replayability, while easily messing you up.

While you can swap characters at any time, it seems you can only revive characters in the main lineup. This means you have to swap them into the lineup, and hope another character's turn comes before the enemy.

The first boss introduces a number of elements before you can do anything about them.

[henlp]

Astria Ascending

I don’t know why this game has gotten so little attention, especially compared to others that’ve come out in recent years. While not breaking any molds or doing things uniquely, it’s a perfectly serviceable, functional turn-based RPG. 

Chances are that I’ll never pick it up again, and I didn’t 100% all the journal entries busywork, but I spent 20 bucks for it and was satisfied, and I’m sure you can get it for cheaper and enjoy the pretty art and straightforward experience.

Gameplay

As mentioned above, there’s not much I can say about the gameplay: combat uses an action boost system kinda like Octopath Traveler, and it’s fine; the overworld platforming and exploration skills are there; the bootleg Tetra Master minigame is fun enough as a post-endgame distraction to extend your playtime if you so choose.

The major complaints I have are: 1) the difficulty/challenge balance is non-existant, there was no work done besides numbers changing depending on your choice, and it’s no wonder that the devs allow you to change difficulty at any point;

 2) the bullet hell minigame that at times you have to do to progress is so token, it hurts, and is also affected by the crappy difficulty balance;

3) my BIGGEST gripe, which might also be the most petty, is how you have to choose where to assign each of the character’s three extra jobs, and not only are these locked to the slots chosen (main job, sub job, support job), and you can’t change it at all in a playthrough; but your choice of main job also removes your base job’s equipment options.

If this game was spectacular and quick, maybe it’d be understandable as a means to offer replayability. But I’m not gonna play it again, and I doubt many would. If you wanna limit things, then at least make it an endgame option to switch between jobs, or that you need to fill out a skill tree before you’re allowed to switch which job is assigned to each slot.

Performance

A small token acknowledgement that, at least on Switch, the game is a bit slow with its loading screens, in-between areas and getting in and out of combat. Nothing compared to fuckin’ Cris Tales, but still worth bringing up. Maybe it’s different on PC or other consoles, but I find it an important factor in turn-based games to be expedient and to not waste your time. 

Also, the game is severely lacking in its options menu, and some areas can be WAY too dark to make anything out. A serious problem, when considering there’s still some platforming elements to deal with.

Story

Astria Ascending’s story is just there. It’s very basic, it’s not particularly engaging, and the characters don’t have enough to them that made me like them any more or less. Especially when you have 8 playable characters right out the gate, but you don’t have to use all of them, you get nothing to have you connect with the protagonists of this game.

That being said, SPOILERS: I find it kinda stupid/funny how the story is set in a totalitarian, dystopian world, where everyone must abide by the governing body’s mandates... and you’re playing as the enforcers of this system, without ever once questioning if their world and society is fucked up. A system where people are chosen to be given superpowers for three years, serve as enforcers, and then die, and if they refuse or attempt to flee, are hunted down. And that it all leads to the utter destruction of the whole thing. Nah, it’s the disinfranchised escapees not eating their brainwashing Harmelons that are the problem, not our authoritarian theocracy that’s giving rise to dangerous anarchists looking to burn it all down.

Zero self-awareness, and I can’t help but laugh. The complete opposite of a conventional JRPG story.

[talonabraxas]

Astraea “Astraea, Astrea or Astria (Ancient Greek: Ἀστραίᾱ; “star-maiden” or “starry night”), is the daughter of Astraeus (Dusk) and Eos (Dawn).She is the virgin goddess of justice, innocence, purity and precision. She is closely associated with the Greek goddess of justice, Dike (daughter of Zeus and Themis).Astraea, the celestial virgin, was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the Golden Age, one of the old Greek religion’s five deteriorating Ages of Man.According to Ovid, Astraea abandoned the earth during the Iron Age. Fleeing from the new wickedness of humanity, she ascended to heaven to become the constellation Virgo.According to legend, Astraea will one day come back to Earth, bringing with her the return of the utopian Golden Age of which she was the ambassador.”

[satoshi-mochida]

Hand-painted Japanese-inspired RPG Lost Hellden announced for PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Switch, and PC

From Gematsu

Astria Ascending and Super Neptunia RPG developer Artisan Studios has announced Lost Hellden, a hand-painted Japanese-inspired RPG featuring music and audio direction by Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy XII, Tactics Ogre, etc.) and illustrations by Takeshi Oga (Gravity Rush, Siren, etc.). It will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG in 2025.

Here is an overview of the game, via Artisan Studios:

About

Lost Hellden is a unique hand-painted JRPG from Artisan Studios, enhanced by dynamic lighting and weather effects. Take control of eight unique highly customizable characters through an epic mature story where the 7 Deadly Sins guide your fate. Witness a new Deep 2D technology allowing you to play in 3D in hand painted artworks with dynamic lighting and weather. On a planet called Era, people are bound to one of the Seven Deadly Sins before their first birthday via a religious ceremony called the Nexus Ritual. All their life, the inhabitants of Era have to fight against their urges. Should they fail and succumb, they transform into mindless and aggressive beasts. The Unio religion representatives – the Arkhons – ensure that everyone follows the rules and put down any monsters that appear in the cities. One day, a woman gives birth to twins, something that never happened before. The Prime Arkhon, supreme leader of Era, conducts the Nexus Ritual himself. However, something goes wrong, and one baby is bound to all seven sins, while the other receives none. The twins are taken to the capital, Avilah, where they are brought up as Arkhon apprentices. They are never allowed to leave the walls of the sanctuary… But one day, Leht, the twin bound to the seven sins, manages to leave the city. His brother Cyphel is sent on a mission to find and bring him back. He is accompanied by two seasoned Arkhons, Gram and Enki. The journey of Cyphel and Leht is one of self-discovery, one that will allow them to grow and become the people they were destined to be.

Characters

Cyphel Fyrbrand – Since Cyphel was not bound to any Sin during the Nexus Ritual, his childhood was significantly easier than his brother’s. He grew up to be a kindhearted, yet naive young man. Cyphel is usually obedient but he willingly follows Leht when he is up to some mischief.

Gram Stoneheim – This strong woman taught the art of fighting to the twins. She can be harsh sometimes, especially with Leht, because she sees great potential in him. She is an Arkhon and works closely with Enki.

Enki Taillevent – Enki is an Arkhon and a teacher to the twins. He is less strict than Gram, sometimes he can even be seen as lax. His kind demeanor and his sense of humor make him a great person to be around.

More to be announced.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery. Visit the official website here.

Announce Trailer

[mnx3e]

今年もいろいろやりました、という事で、Switchで遊んだゲームの記録。Games played on Switch in 2023.

…

▲Aka

ほんわか絵本タッチが可愛いほんわかスローライフ‥と思いきや、メインストーリーが見た目より案外重い。そして気ままなスローライフ、ではなく必要に応じて行動するほぼ一本道なのは少し思ったんと違かった。RPGとかの重めゲー後の箸休めに丁度いいボリューム感。

▲BATTLE CHASERS NIGHTWAR

アメコミスピンオフゲーム、原作を知らなくても何とかなる。日本ならではの媚がないのがとても良い。バトルはスタンダードかつ硬派でハード、遊び応えはかなりある。移動速度がもっっっさりしているのが玉に瑕。日本語ボイスがあるのは凄いがかなり下手で盛り下がる。エンディングは「続く」で終わる、続編が出るなら遊びたいかも

▲Bear and Breakfast

森のクマさんがモーテルを運営する。手書き風な絵が可愛い。素材集めや内装コーディネートが楽しい。部屋割りも決められるので、結構好きにチマチマ・こねこね出来て時間が溶ける。メインストーリーはよく分からないが話はオマケ。UIがちょっと不親切、止まりバグは勘弁して。

▲Coffee Talk 2（コーヒートーク エピソード2）

ドリンクを提供しながらなんてことない雑談を楽しむゲームの2作目。前作のその後の話で顔馴染みも続投。新キャラは少なかったが各々が濃かった。やる事は大体同じだがそれで良い。前作より的を絞ったストーリー展開だったが、他愛無い話を楽しむ良き読み物ゲームなのは変わらずでした。コンプリートまでは行かずとも結構やり込んでしまった。

▲ASTRIA ASCENDING（アストリア アセンディング）

常にサイドビューの2Dアニメーションで構成されており絵が綺麗で音楽も良いRPG。海外製だが翻訳がちゃんとしている。主人公が8人居り、細い文字で情報過多なのでとっつきにくさはある。難易度は易しくはない、というか敵が強い。ジョブとスキルツリーが奥深い。完全な勧善懲悪ではない雰囲気が個人的には面白いが、少し引っかかる所もある。強敵に立ち塞がれてお休み中。オチが気になるのでクリアはしたい。

▲【体験版】 NICHE 遺伝子サバイバルゲーム

生物の遺伝子に関与しながらより強い個体を模索しつつ、サバイバルで生き抜いていく。タイル状のフィールドで、タイルごとに移動や行動を行うボードゲームのようなシステム。予期せぬ外見の子が産まれたりして面白い。「生死の管理」が個人的にしんどそうで体験版止まり。もくもくとやるスルメゲーになりそうな気はしてる。

▲スーパーマリオRPG

個人的今年の目玉。マリオのRPGシリーズの根源がまさかのリメイク復活！画質の向上はさておき、デザインや台詞、操作感などがほぼそのままで驚いた。今となってはかなりクサい芝居もそのまま。まさかキノピオが平たいままとは。新要素もあり、懐古は懐かしくも新鮮に楽しく遊んでいる所です。あのシーンがムービーに、は感動しちゃう。たぶんエンディングは泣く。

…

今年は少し少な目ですが色々やりました。でも目をつけているゲーム全ては出来なかったなー。‥というのも今年後半、ブログでプレイ記を始めたのでより鈍足になった、というのがあります。ゲームを進めたいけど書くのが追いついてなくて進められないというセルフ悪循環。向いてないのでは？（もし見かけたらそっと見守ってください笑）

ともあれ今年もゲームは面白かった。来年は今年触れなかったものもやりたいし、また新しい出会いがあると良いですね。

[playpeep]

Astria Ascending

[veebs-hates-video-games]

I've only been playing one of them for a couple days, but I think I'm ready to declare Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Vampire Survivors my favorite games of this year, both that came out this year or just that I've played this year.

One of these days I’ll make that XC3 post, but in the meantime Vampire Survivors is great. I know that’s a brave and controversial opinion. It’s completely chaotic but still feels like it’s usually pretty easy to tell what’s going on and what you’re working toward, the progression is really well tuned, and the entire thing is one giant reference to the older Castlevania games.

@solunderscore said that it’s a game about setting boundaries after I shared a screenshot that I described as “you have now entered the no touchy zone”, but I’m going to go a step further and say that it’s a better game about setting boundaries than the game I played this year that’s explicitly about boundaries, Say No! More. Vampire Survivors wins for me because I both enjoy playing it a lot more and because you can enforce your boundaries with exotic magical weaponry.

I don’t think there’s really much competition for those two for my favorite things I’ve played this year unless you count XC2, but it loses points for not being from this year and for me also having played a good chunk of it already before this year (and then stopping for a while because Tora). Gris is probably up there too, and if Radiant Historia keeps doing things as well as it has so far until the end that definitely will be too, but I still haven’t finished that one. Also Hades, which I’m almost done with, but I still feel not done with it because there’s a bit more stuff I haven’t done yet.

Bleed 2 and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle might be the next ones down. Astria Ascending I definitely liked a lot and spend a ton of time with, but it’s enough of a mess that I can’t recommend it as highly to just anyone. Egglia Rebirth is kind of in that zone too, and I still haven’t finished that one either because it gets a little repetitive trying to do too much at once, even if I like all of it.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore and The World Ends With You Final Remix both have things about them that are as good as anything else I’ve mentioned, but I haven’t finished either yet and both also have enough frustrating things to knock them down a bit overall. Bravely Default is in the same boat with them, which I love a lot of stuff about but also am very frustrated by some other things. I would like to go back and finish all three some day though, because when they’re good they’re great.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes might be my biggest disappointments this year. I like a bunch of stuff about them but can’t really bring myself to play more of either. FE3H is one of the only games to ever cause motion sickness for me, and also it just feels really janky to me outside of battles, and FEW3H doesn’t feel as good to me to play as any of the other Nintendo Warriors games.

Next to those I definitely had even more and bigger problems with Injustice 2 compared to the first game in that series, but I also wasn’t expecting quite as much from it as from the FE games. Borderlands 3 can live here too I guess. So good in some ways, completely unbearable in others.

And then there’s stuff that seems perfectly fine but that I bounced off really hard like Celeste and Hollow Knight. Nothing against either, they just didn’t feel right to me at all.

Video games ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[goineedsleep]

would people rather watch me play Astria Ascending or Time on Frog Island?

I bought Astria Ascending and got this funky lil game for free!

[guncelkal]

Video game for Switch Just For Games Astria Ascending

If you’re passionate about IT and electronics, like being up to date on technology and don’t miss even the slightest details, buy Video game for Switch Just For Games Astria Ascending at an unbeatable price. Gender: Terror Role Adventure PEGI Classification: 12 SKU: S7164449

[gameoteca]

Astria Ascending completo ! Comentários da Luna IA Gamer #shorts

[stepphase]

Best rated pc game in 2022

We've still had some pretty awesome game launches in 2022.

Immeasurable games are flocking onto our screens and into our libraries across a mess of platforms. Taking the United States of America on new adventures. And discovering epic characters, fascinating stories, and, above all, much fun with friends. Because the year attracts to an in-depth. A number of you'll have pondered what games hit a high note with fellow players.

Here, we've placed along with the highest fifty laptop games of 2022. As rated by gamers/users on Metacritic - to seem back on that AAA. And Indies are well-received this year, besides some wise words from the critics too.

5.4/10 Farming Simulator 22 - 5.4/10 5.8/10 INDUSTRIA 5.8/10 The Good Life 6/10 Astria Ascending 6.1/10 JETT: The Far Shore 6.4/10 Jurassic World Evolution 2 6.4/10 Solar Ash 6.5/10 Riders Republic 6.8/10 Time Loader 6.9/10 FORZA HORIZON 5 7/10 Killsquad 7/10 After the Fall 7.1/10 Football Manager 2022 7.1/10 Chorus 7.1/10 Halo Infinite 7.2/10 Bright Memory: Infinite 7.3/10 Crysis Remastered Trilogy 7.3/10 Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One 7.3/10 Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story 7.4/10 FIGHTS IN TIGHT SPACES 7.4/10 Lemnis Gate 7.4/10 Exo One 7.5/10 Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade 7.6/10 AWAY: The Survival Series 7.6/10 Unsighted 7.7/10 Ruined King: A League of Legends Story 7.8/10 Gloomhaven 7.8/10 Unpacking 7.9/10 The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes 7.9/10 AGE OF EMPIRES IV 8/10 In Sound Mind 8/10 Happy Game 8/10 Archvale 8.1/10 Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon 8.1/10 Aeterna Noctis 8.2/10 The Eternal Cylinder 8.2/10 Hot Wheels Unleashed 8.2/10 The Legend of Tianding 8.2/10 Blue Reflection: Second Light 8.2/10 SHADOW TACTICS: BLADES OF THE SHOGUN - AIKO'S CHOICE 8.3/10 Grow: Song of the Evertree 8.4/10 Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan 8.4/10 Lone Echo II 8.4/10 Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster 8.5/10 Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye 8.5/10 Impostor Factory 8.5/10 Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy 8.6/10 The Riftbreaker 8.7/10 Inscryption 9.5/10 FINAL FANTASY XIV: ENDWALKER

We are here to hear from you

Of course, you can contact us to let us know if we are missing something on our stepphase.com page. I hope you like it and by the way, thank you for your visit.

Have a good day! See you all soon.

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[henlp]

[satoshi-mochida]

Game Informer and IGN have each gone up with new previews of side-scrolling RPG Astria Ascending, which include new gameplay footage.

Here is an overview of the game, via publisher Dear Villagers:

About

An epic adventure with the charm and pedigree of a classic Japanese RPG, Astria Ascending tells an expansive story of fate, sacrifice, and new beginnings.

The game was developed in partnership with publisher Dear Villagers and boasts contributions from world-class JRPG developers, with a score by Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy XII, Vagrant Story), narrative by Kazushige Nojima (Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy VII Remake) and art from CyDesignation (Akihiko Yoshida and Hideo Minaba).

In a world where chaos looms, players take control of the Demigods—a motley crew of eight heroes charged with the fate of the world. Each character has their own story, explored across five cities, twenty-five dungeons and thirty hours of gameplay up to fifty for 100 percent of completion. Along with the finely tuned turn-based combat, players can try out a range of side quests and mini-games, including an original fantasy-themed token game.

Key Features

Epic Tales – Fight for the future while you reckon with the past; sacrifice everything, relinquish nothing. The story of Astria Ascending was developed in part by writer Kazushige Nojima, known for his work on Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Living Landscapes – Travel the world of Orcanon, a richly imagined and fully animated 2D landscape with five cities and a dynamic weather system.

Unforgettable Characters – Pick from eight customizable player characters spanning a range of fantastical races and skills, and assemble a diverse team of heroes.

Rewarding Combat – Work together to save the world, waging strategic turn-based battles using the innovative focus point system.

A Treat for the Ears – With music and SFX from composer Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy XII, Valkyria Chronicles), Astria Ascending is a heart-swelling joy to listen to.

Astria Ascending is due out for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store on September 30.

Watch the footage below.

Game Informer

IGN

[eienias20]

Astria Ascending!

Been looking forward to this game since I saw it at a Nintendo Direct. Originally i wasn’t going to get it cause I limited my purchases for the end of the year. Advance Wars was gonna be my last pick up but that got delayed to 2022 freeing up one slot so here we go!

I went physical because the ps5 is primarily my sister’s and i don’t like putting a ton of digital stuff on it. I should’ve asked her cause the nonsense i had to go through just to get a physical copy of this game was insane. If i went digital I would’ve been playing for a week or two already.

That said, now that it’s finally here and I’m finally playing it, I’m having a blast! Gave it about four and a half hours tonight. Good ol’ rpg turn based action, a varied cast of characters. The bosses are really challenging, the focus system in place is really useful. Having a lot of fun!

Delivery woes were nuts but I’m glad the end product is enjoyable :D

With Tales of Arise completed (and Scarlet Nexus completed again on PS5) its time to dedicate myself to something new!