LogFAQs > #960411943

Astalon Episode 2: Tears of the Earth (PC)

No there is no Episode 1. The title is an homage to Star Wars.

This was a surprisingly good game. I don't know what I was expecting going into it. I just knew it was a platformer in the retro style graphics. What this game is is a Metroidvania with souls-like mechanics---you literally gain souls and use them for upgrades when you die but you also have to start over with any shortcuts unlocked being permanent. There's been a few games with this formula before but unlike Rogue Legacy the levels aren't randomly procedurally-generated and unlike Dead Cells, the upgrades actually stick instead of adding to the slot machine of potential goodies. The design clearly intends you slowly build up your strength until you become OP and it is well-deserved.

Cost of the upgrades as well as increasingly costly temporary upgrades don't make it feel like a slog. Combat is solid and punishing even with basic enemies since there's hardly any way to regain life that isn't connected to costing souls you'll often find yourself dying over and over but ever so slowly inching towards mapping out the tower as you memorize enemy behavior and map hazards. Checkpoints and Waypoints are few and far in between despite being permanent---a true oasis which makes the challenge just right for me. Fuck DS-style gameplay that's thinly veiled an attempt at padding the game out. There is one bottleneck however with the first boss from which you'll be starved of souls to upgrade much unless you don't spread it out between your three characters. But when I got that down and I seriously had to think about boss patterns and whatnot because I wasn't OP yet, dying approx 10 times in the process, the rest of the game flowed smoothly.

That's right, count em. Three

It's your classic Warrior, Rogue, Mage setup which is weird for a game set in the year 20XX but yeah. Despite the drip fed story there is very little to tell and whatever is revealed is enough. You're heroes. The Dark Knight has poisoned the village with his tower. Slay him. There's also some soul stuff happening with the mage and the Dark Knight has backstory but I'll let you guys learn all about it. What little conversations the three have is endearing. You can tell these adventurers really are friends who have some pretty big shoes to fill. Lots of homages too as you unlock a Secret of Mana Merchant and a Belmont clone as secret characters if you explore 100% of the map.

And you'll want to, as that nets you the True Ending. It's also honestly very fun to eventually become OP and kick ass. Even with the best unique item you'll still feel challenged and if you don't there's 2 more Castlevania-ish modes of play where you play as someone else. There's even a Ghouls n' Ghosts gargoyle enemy that acts the same annoying way meh. And you get to play as one in another mode!

If I had a complaint it would be the character switching only goes one way which gets annoying when you unlock the secret characters. And the bosses could use some balancing but there's a Boss Rush mode so I'm not complaining for real lol. There's also because of the oldschool "enemies reappear in each new screen" mechanic, it's very easy to farm for souls if you put in like 30 minutes. I got my characters killing in 2-5 strikes as early as the halfway point.

All in all contender for my game of the year. Honestly, there's just been so much of it for this year. I'd rather not put Enderal as that's just cheating. Game automatically wins in my book.

Anyways, Astalon is also on the Switch. I thoroughly recommend it as it was kind of quietly released last July with little to no fanfare.

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.