The music is a standard chiptune music affair, but what really shines through ultimately are the detailed sprite animations, especially during cut-scenes. The key artwork is brilliant too, coming from famed manga illustrator Ryusuke Mita. While you will die and die again, each death is also an opportunity to get better at the game, both through experience and authentic upgrades.Īlthough made to resemble a classic NES game, Astalon: Tears of the Earth looks anything but dated, as the various character sprites animate with great fluidity, especially the running animation of Kyuli. Certainly, it would have been cool to swap between characters on the fly rather than only at save points, and yet the idea of choosing the right character to uncover a new area is part of the rewarding puzzle challenge. The thing about Astalon: Tears of the Earth is that as challenging its systems may be, every bit of it is intentional and comes together cohesively as part of the rules of the game. This is an interesting design choice and ensures that dying and retrying feels less of a setback given that you can spend them making the characters stronger and versatile. More than that though, it is also an opportunity to use the various collectible orbs as currency for upgrades, where most upgrades are shared between the three characters with some upgrades and abilities being unique to each of the three. Players can expect to die a lot, but thanks to Algus’ deal with the devil, death simply means a quick trip to the underworld. The game is tough, especially when all three characters share the same health bar and players can only switch between them at bonfire sites which also serve as sporadic save points. Unlike a typical Metroidvania, there is no wasted space or area here as every section feels like a tightly designed level from the NES era of gaming. All three characters are versatile and adaptable to most situations, and yet their unique abilities lend nicely to the level design of the game as players need to figure out how to reach new areas and solve environmental puzzles in the process.Īlthough Astalon has a world structure similar to a Metroidvania-style game, the experience feels more akin to Castlevania III on NES, in particular the emphasis on having multiple playable characters to traverse some tight and challenging platforming segments, while also battling a range of really tough monsters. In Astalon: Tears of the Earth players take control of three heroes: Arias, the typical well-rounded knight armed with a sword, Kyuli who, as a rogue, has a long-range bow attack has a more agile jump, and finally Algus the wizard who can cast spells, and also so happens to be the one who made the aforementioned deadly deal with Epimetheus.
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