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Ascendant

Have some high points, but they soon give way to glaring faults. Not the worst, but difficult to recommend.
Ascendant Game Cover
70%Game Brain Score
graphics, gameplay
story, grinding
75% User Score Based on 173 reviews
Critic Score 45%Based on 1 reviews

Platforms

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Ascendant Game Cover

About

Ascendant is a single player and multiplayer hack and slash game. It was developed by Hapa Games and was released on May 13, 2014. It received neutral reviews from critics and mostly positive reviews from players.

Ascendant is the unforgiving beat 'em up that challenges you with a new world each time you play. It utilizes a number of modern roguelike elements such as permadeath and procedurally generated environments. You are a demigod who invades a plane controlled by your rivals. They will stop at nothing to eliminate you. Only the most impressive warriors will triumph over their armies of zealots and bea…

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Ascendant screenshot
Ascendant screenshot
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Ascendant screenshot
Ascendant screenshot
Ascendant screenshot
Ascendant screenshot
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Ascendant screenshot
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75%
Audience ScoreBased on 173 reviews
graphics28 positive mentions
grinding3 negative mentions
  • Unique and appealing art style with vibrant and beautifully crafted visuals.
  • Challenging and skill-based combat system that rewards timing, parrying, and strategic use of abilities.
  • High replayability due to procedurally generated levels, a wide variety of weapons, spells, blessings, and character choices.
  • Steep difficulty curve with some bosses and rooms considered unfair or overly punishing, causing player frustration.
  • Controls can feel clunky, fiddly or unresponsive, with some issues in keyboard and gamepad support.
  • Repetitive enemy types and limited boss variety can make the gameplay feel monotonous over time.
  • graphics
    57 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's graphics receive mixed feedback, with many praising its unique, colorful, and artistically stylized visuals that create a distinct atmosphere, while others criticize the dated, flat 2D aesthetics, low asset variety, and lack of cutting-edge polish. Though the art style is often described as charming and refreshing, some find contrast issues, uninspired enemy designs, and procedural level visuals detract from the experience. Overall, the graphics are viewed as a standout artistic choice for a roguelike but fall short of AAA-level visual sophistication.

    • “The art style is gorgeous, the environments are amazing, the music is lovely, and the enemies are unique!”
    • “It looks fantastic and has a superb graphic style and atmosphere.”
    • “The unique art style and complex mechanics create an unmatched robust gaming experience among a sea of “me too” rogue-likes and p.d.l.s.”
    • “Visually, this has some fairly mediocre and dated looking graphics that will understandably be a turn off for a lot of gamers, and it's a big contributor to the failure of the game to attract gamers despite having no up-front cost.”
    • “Unfortunately, despite the halfway decent visuals, the texturing is decidedly flat, the asset variety is low, and the level design has the distinct procedurally generated feel about it.”
    • “The game features really lacklustre 2D visuals (does the developer not know 3D graphics became mainstream in the mid-1990s?).”
  • gameplay
    56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay features smooth, responsive, and fast-paced brawler mechanics that keep players engaged and offer deep strategy beyond mere reaction. While it incorporates roguelike progression with rewarding combat, some find certain mechanics, like instant-death spike rooms and occasional control issues, detract from the experience. Overall, its unique style, satisfying fights, and strong replayability make it enjoyable for fans of challenging, tactical action games.

    • “The mechanics for both combat and movement feel very crisp, and the variety of items/spells is just enough to keep things interesting while letting the player focus on the action.”
    • “The replay value is incredible, and the mechanics always work perfectly with just the right amount of challenge to them.”
    • “It incorporates brawler mechanics that keep the player engaged and consistently interested; to me it is stronger than the likes of Binding of Isaac, gameplay-wise.”
    • “The developer chose not to do the job of a real game developer and create meaningful bespoke levels, narrative-based gameplay progression, and so on.”
    • “These 'event spike rooms' represent the 'instant death' mechanics we should have left in the dark ages, even though the game tries to shine them up as 'hard challenges.'”
    • “Some of the controls and mechanics are really awkward but it could just take some getting used to.”
  • music
    29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game is generally praised for its fitting atmosphere, beautiful soundtrack, and complementing the art style and theme well. However, many reviewers note that the soundtrack is repetitive, often looping short segments that can become monotonous during extended play. Despite this, the music adds to the overall appeal and replayability, making it enjoyable especially in shorter sessions.

    • “The art style is gorgeous, the environments are amazing, the music is lovely, and the enemies are unique!”
    • “Ascendant is an excellent roguelike platformer with beautiful art and design and wonderfully tailored music.”
    • “It has a unique vibrant art style and amazing soundtrack to support the theme of a demigod fighting to become a god.”
    • “The only real criticisms I have is that the soundtrack, whilst suiting the visuals most of the time, is repetitive and lacking in variety.”
    • “The music being the same loops over and over forever is rough.”
    • “Although it fits the theme of the game, the music can detract somewhat from wanting to play it, and because of that I give a warning to those who are easily bothered by repetition to not purchase this game.”
  • replayability
    14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is praised for its high replayability due to diverse upgrade combinations, unlockable content, and procedurally generated worlds that offer fresh experiences each playthrough. While some find repetitive boss encounters reduce replay value, most highlight the variety of powers, challenging mechanics, and character options as driving factors for its addictive and engaging replay appeal.

    • “There are a lot of combinations of upgrades you can get, as well as some unlockable content, which lends to the game's replayability.”
    • “The replayability in Ascendant is absolutely brilliant as each playthrough generates a completely new world, with new enemies in each room that are waiting for you.”
    • “The replay value is incredible, and the mechanics always work perfectly with just the right amount of challenge to them.”
    • “Boss rooms being a big part of the game, the lack of variety easily halves replayability for people who don't have the patience to wait for Son of Grunty's shield to go down for the millionth time.”
    • “Replay value????”
    • “Replayability.”
  • story
    13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story is generally described as minimal or nearly nonexistent, lacking depth and character development. Players find it hollow and comparable to basic or superficial story modes in other games, with little to engage those seeking a rich narrative experience.

    • “The plot of the game is simple.”
    • “Each demi-god has its own story and reasons for wanting to be god.”
    • “It reminded me a lot of the kinda-story-mode in Super Smash Bros Brawl except it was fun.”
    • “The game feels hollow and empty, almost without a story.”
    • “The story is nonexistent for the most part, the music is nothing but about 15 second loops.”
    • “There's no story at all.”
  • atmosphere
    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game features a unique and vibrant atmosphere that stands out for a platformer, complemented by superb graphics and a delightful soundtrack. Its aesthetic balance creates an engaging and immersive experience, although some found the combat less satisfying. Overall, the atmosphere is praised as a strong and distinctive element of the game.

    • “But I have to say the aesthetics and general atmosphere of the game is really unique for a platformer.”
    • “The music and atmosphere are great, and there's a wide variety of items to be had.”
    • “It looks fantastic and has a superb graphic style and atmosphere.”
  • grinding
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Grinding in the game involves unlocking achievements and collecting spirits or weapons through RNG, which can be tedious, especially with some boss fights. Occasional minor technical issues with controllers occur but are easily resolved with a restart.

    • “Grinding achievements: yes, unlocking all spirits and weapons that drop with RNG.”
    • “Some of the bosses are obnoxiously tedious.”
    • “Issues with controller working properly occasionally, though fixed by restarting the game.”
  • optimization
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game generally runs smoothly with good optimization, providing fluid character movement, though occasional crashes can occur.

    • “Pretty good optimization. The game feels smooth, although sometimes it can crash. The character movement is fluid and enjoyable.”
  • emotional
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The emotional aspect is not well addressed in the reviews, with users focusing more on technical details like controller compatibility rather than the game's emotional impact.

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45%Critics’ scoreBased on 1 critic reviews
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25h Median play time
25h Average play time
24-25h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs
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Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Ascendant is a hack and slash game.

Ascendant is available on PC, Mac OS, PlayStation 4, Windows and others.

On average players spend around 25 hours playing Ascendant.

Ascendant was released on May 13, 2014.

Ascendant was developed by Hapa Games.

Ascendant has received neutral reviews from players and neutral reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its graphics but disliked it for its story.

Ascendant is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.

Similar games include Wizard of Legend, Caveblazers, Lost Castle / 失落城堡, Vagante, UnderMine and others.