Aestheta

About

Aestheta is a single player action game with a comedy theme. It was developed by AploveStudio and was released on June 4, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

Aestheta is a single-player comedy arcade roguelike strategy card game set on a desolate moon where warriors compete in a tournament to reach the top of the Tower of Aestheta and claim a wish from the fallen Star. Featuring over 60 unique cards, relics, challenging modes, and charming characters, it offers excellent game mechanics without pay-to-win elements.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

89%

Audience ScoreBased on 154 reviews

gameplay12 positive mentions

story3 negative mentions

The game offers a fun and engaging alternative to Clash Royale, with no pay-to-win mechanics and a charming pixel art style.
The character interactions and worldbuilding elements add personality and charm to the gameplay, making it enjoyable even for those who may not appreciate the suggestive content.
The roguelike elements and various decks provide replayability, allowing players to experiment with different strategies and combinations.

The AI is often unresponsive and predictable, making the game too easy and reducing the challenge, especially in higher difficulties.
There is a lack of clear information about card abilities and mechanics, which can lead to confusion for new players unfamiliar with the genre.
The game suffers from bugs and balancing issues, with certain cards and relics being overpowered or underwhelming, impacting overall gameplay experience.

gameplay
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
24%
70%
6%
The gameplay is a blend of Clash Royale mechanics and roguelike elements, offering an engaging and approachable experience with meaningful strategic depth. While the core loop is addictive and the art style is charming, some players note issues with balance, AI variability, and a lack of unique mechanics, leading to a plateau in challenge once dominant strategies are discovered. Overall, it provides a fun and polished experience for its price, though it could benefit from further content and gameplay refinement.
- “The core gameplay loop is engaging and well-paced, encouraging multiple runs and experimentation, but once dominant strategies are discovered, the challenge can plateau.”
- “The gameplay is simple but with meaningful room for strategy, the pixel art clearly has a lot of work put into it, the dialogue hints at a larger world, references are plentiful and runs are at a short enough length where you can just boot up the game when you've got nothing else going on and want something quick to do.”
- “This game captures its gameplay, enhances it with some new themes and units, and serves it to you in a roguelike formula!”
- “The gameplay isn't super unique, and the cards and relics aren't terribly balanced.”
- “A lot of polish and gameplay balancing would be needed for anyone to recommend this game over Clash Royale.”
- “But the gameplay falls so unbearably short and that is unforgivable.”
graphics
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
47%
33%
20%
The graphics of the game are characterized by a clean and colorful pixel-art style that emphasizes clarity and charm over high-end visuals, appealing to fans of this aesthetic. While not on par with AAA titles, the art is described as pleasing and memorable, with solid character designs and engaging sound design that enhances the overall experience. Players appreciate the unique and cheeky art style, which adds to the game's charm despite some criticisms regarding gameplay content.
- “Visually, Aestheta adopts a clean and colorful pixel-art style that prioritizes clarity over spectacle.”
- “The art style is extremely charming, and as a fan of anime, I love the anime-inspired variant of the characters.”
- “A great game with amazing gameplay, cool sound effects, and a pleasing art style.”
- “Not high quality like a triple-A game, but I just like the pixel-art style.”
- “Graphics-wise... it's an Aplovestudio game.”
- “I need not say more about the art style and the people it caters to.”
replayability
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
20%
30%
The game offers a solid replayability factor, focusing on smart decision-making and incremental improvement rather than competing with more complex titles. Players appreciate the variety of cards and relics, which enhance replayability, though some express a desire for additional content like new characters and custom deck options. Overall, it provides a fun and addictive experience that encourages repeated play, especially for its low price point.
- “It does not aim to compete with sprawling, highly technical card battlers or complex RTS titles, instead focusing on a tight, replayable experience built around smart decisions and incremental improvement.”
- “Very fun and deeply replayable roguelike; if you see this dev, please don't give up on the game or at least try to get workshop support done <3.”
- “A good variety of cards and relics which allow for a good amount of replayability.”
- “Custom and random deck options would go a long way and add a ton of replayability.”
- “It seems to be certainly replayable enough, but the limited meta progression means the main thing you'll be doing is just grinding up to the final difficulty.”
- “I'm sure there are more issues that I'm not remembering right now (I'll update later), but it's not a terrible investment for just 3 bucks. You get around 3 hours of content and some level of replayability if you feel like going for it.”
story
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
17%
50%
The game's story serves primarily as a thematic backdrop for its gameplay, focusing on a cycle of battles rather than a traditional narrative. While some players find the characters and overall story charming, they also note that it can feel shallow and suggest the need for deeper quests. Overall, the story is appreciated for its aesthetic appeal, though opinions vary on its depth and execution.
- “But just for the story itself, I give it a 10/10...”
- “This premise functions less as a traditional story and more as a thematic backdrop that justifies the constant cycle of battles, defeats, and retries.”
- “The characters and story are quite charming too, even if a little shallow.”
- “Story?”
- “Just make something more, perhaps a quest to find what you wished for..? a sort of double-or-nothing that allows you to earn more tickets, but scales up in difficulty quickly.”
humor
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is widely praised, with players highlighting the funny dialogue and amusing interactions that enhance the overall experience. While some users note minor bugs and gameplay issues, these do not detract significantly from the enjoyment, and many express a desire for more emotes and content to further amplify the comedic elements. Overall, the humor is considered a strong point, contributing to the game's charm and appeal.
- “Peak, funny dialogue, good gameplay. The pathfinding can be a bit questionable at times, and there are a few small bugs (why does the worm keep bouncing off the tower? Sir, I put you there for a reason), but nothing game-breaking.”
- “The dialog is weirdly really funny and very interesting, and the game itself is really enjoyable overall, with a few kinks here and there like how it's a bit too easy even on the hardest difficulty.”
- “Oh and please add proper emotes. I don't care if the game will forever be single player; emote spam is funny.”
monetization
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
40%
The game is praised for its lack of monetization, featuring no microtransactions or pay-to-win elements, which enhances the overall enjoyment and reduces frustration during gameplay. Players appreciate that it delivers a fun experience similar to Clash Royale without the typical monetization pitfalls.
- “Yes, there are attractive women, but it's just a fun, no microtransactions or pay-to-win version of Clash Royale's iconic gameplay.”
- “Offline, there are no monetization or microtransactions from someone beating you for having leveled up cards.”
- “Obviously, there are no microtransactions, and there's a lot less frustration upon losing any match.”
- “Offline, no monetization or microtransactions from someone beating you for having leveled up cards.”
- “Obviously no microtransactions, and there's a lot less frustration upon losing any match.”
music
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
40%
The music in the game effectively supports its focused tone, featuring energetic yet restrained themes that enhance battle tension without overwhelming players. However, many users note a lack of variety, with periods of silence and a desire for more musical content, despite the existing calm and charming soundtrack. Overall, the sound design is solid, contributing positively to the gameplay experience.
- “Sound design and music support the game’s focused tone.”
- “The soundtrack leans into energetic but restrained themes that keep tension high during battles without becoming overbearing.”
- “The art style is pleasing and memorable; the music is calm and simple yet mysterious enough to be charming and not get annoying, even if there isn't a lot of music in this game. The sound design is quite solid, and there's a good amount of content for you to unlock on your own, reminding you that in these kinds of games, it's nice to just have fun.”
- “The game also suffers from a lack of music; it's quiet very often.”
- “I also wish the game had a lot more music.”
character development
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
Character development in the game features charming designs that some players find appealing, though opinions vary on the level of suggestiveness. While the art and sound are praised, there is a consensus that the content is currently limited, impacting the depth of character exploration. Overall, the game is considered a fun experience for its price.
- “The character designs are charming, and the art and sounds in the game are wonderful.”
- “This game is definitely worth the 2 dollars; it's super fun and the character designs are charming.”
- “I really like the character design!”
- “The character design is a bit too suggestive for my tastes, but I think the art and sounds in the game are wonderful.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players note that while the game offers replayability, the limited meta progression leads to a focus on grinding to reach the final difficulty level.
- “It seems to be certainly replayable enough, but the limited meta progression means the main thing you'll be doing is just grinding up to the final difficulty.”
- “The grinding feels tedious and repetitive, making it hard to stay engaged with the game.”
- “While the game has potential, the excessive grinding required to progress can be a major turn-off.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is noted to be somewhat buggy, but many players find it enjoyable and worth the price, especially as a PvE alternative to Clash Royale with roguelike elements. Users express hope for ongoing updates to address stability issues and suggest that workshop support would enhance the experience.
- “A bit buggy for now, but for the price, I do think it's a nice little game to play once in a while. I always wanted a PvE Clash Royale, and someone finally made it, even with a roguelike. Please keep updating it to fix the issues, and I agree with some comments saying workshop support would be amazing.”
- “Good, a bit buggy but pretty good.”
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users express frustration with the game's optimization, particularly criticizing the "optimized for widescreen" feature, which detracts from their overall experience.
- “The most glaring issue is that I hate the 'optimized for widescreen' feature.”