Asguaard
- April 10, 2015
- Aldorlea Games
- 100h median play time
Get on Steam"Asguaard" is a single-player Role Playing game with a good plot that offers around 100 hours of playtime. In a magical world facing devastating plagues, a human is summoned to save Asguaard through acts of friendship, passion, and heroism. The game features 500+ locations, 150 secret places, and Aldorlea's most popular experience.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features a nostalgic gameplay style reminiscent of early RPGs, appealing to fans of the genre.
- There are numerous hidden areas and secrets to discover, providing a sense of exploration and adventure.
- The battle system is engaging and offers a variety of abilities to learn, adding depth to character development.
- The story and dialogue are poorly written, often feeling juvenile and lacking depth, which detracts from the overall experience.
- Controls are frustrating and unresponsive, making navigation difficult and leading to a disorienting gameplay experience.
- The game suffers from technical issues, including a lack of resolution options and audio controls, which limits accessibility and enjoyment.
- story68 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 56 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
The story in this game is widely criticized for being poorly written, lacking depth, and often resembling low-quality fanfiction, with many reviewers noting its juvenile and simplistic nature. While some players found charm in the character-driven aspects and exploration elements, the overall narrative fails to engage, with abrupt character development and a lack of coherent plot progression. Despite these shortcomings, the gameplay remains enjoyable for fans of old-school RPGs, especially when played in easier modes.
“So much thought and detail goes into these games, and they always have a great storyline and lots of secret rooms and discoveries to make.”
“The story is good, I just don't like how it ends (and don't blame it on the unicorn, please).”
“As with other works from Aldorlea, the story is perhaps somewhat childish, even naive, but hey, old-school JRPG fans like myself will still get plenty of kicks out of the smooth, almost beautifully chaotic battle sequences and the nearly endless hunt for treasure and secrets.”
“In line with the other RPG Maker asset flips, there's barely any real plot or interest apart from badly translated high school anime club tier fanfiction writing, sloppy encounter design. This 'developer' has pumped out over 100 RPG Maker asset flips, and to nobody's surprise, they're pretty much all the same thing.”
“Tldr: extremely poor story, dialogue, plot hooks.”
“Story boring and juvenile, cinematics drag on forever with poor development.”
- music22 mentions
- 36 % positive mentions
- 45 % neutral mentions
- 18 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it repetitive and tedious, particularly criticizing the lack of audio controls that prevent them from turning it off easily. While some appreciate the charm of the mood music, others feel it lacks excitement and fails to enhance the overall experience. Overall, the soundtrack is seen as a weak point in an otherwise solid RPG, with some players suggesting it does not justify the game's price.
“These kinds of games have it all - exploring and dungeon crawling, character and party development, cool equipment, skills, and spells to create a party to your style, quests, adventure, and you even get a story and often enjoyable music.”
“Music is reasonable and doesn't exhaust you as you hear so much of it.”
“It's a solid retro RPG with very high production values, from art to music to game mechanics.”
“Bewilderingly, the game doesn't include proper audio controls, so you can't turn off the annoying sound/background music; you'll need to alt+tab out and stop it using the Windows sound mixer.”
“Each area's soundtrack consists of short, repetitious melodies that quickly become tedious.”
“From its amateurish character art to its lackluster music and poorly executed guide, the game is a disappointment.”
- graphics20 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
The graphics in this RPG Maker game are widely criticized for their low quality, featuring untextured, low-polygon assets that evoke a retro aesthetic reminiscent of early 1990s games. The lack of resolution options and graphics tweaking capabilities, combined with inconsistent art styles, detracts from the overall experience, making it unsuitable for modern gamers seeking high-quality visuals. Many reviewers feel that the minimalist approach is a cover for a lack of effort and talent in the game's design.
“I like the artwork, and so far the story is fine.”
“It contains about four different art styles, interspersed randomly - enemy art in particular often seems to come entirely out of left field.”
“Graphics: 5”
“As with all RPG Maker games, the poor quality engine displays badly in fullscreen and doesn't have full HD support or any graphics tweaking options, making this unacceptable for any dedicated modern PC gamer.”
“The lack of textures is a method that lazy developers often use to disguise their lack of talent or interest in doing the graphics properly, trying to disguise it under the name of 'art' or 'we made it look bad on purpose', which really isn't something gamers should have to put up with.”
“The developer's failure to guide players on using graphic card scaling to maintain the game's original aspect ratio in full-screen mode is a glaring oversight.”
- gameplay16 mentions
- 19 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with some praising its nostalgic elements reminiscent of early Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior games, while others criticize it for low-quality graphics and repetitive mechanics typical of RPG Maker titles. Despite claims of high production values and extensive gameplay hours, many users find the overall experience lacking and not worth the investment.
“Gameplay style is nostalgic of the early Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior games.”
“It's a solid retro RPG with very high production values, from art to music to game mechanics.”
“100 hours of gameplay?”
“Like most RPG Maker shovelware and asset flips, the game features extremely low quality copy-pasted 2D retro pixel art, looks awful, and has even worse gameplay.”
“While I didn't mind the overall idea and gameplay, the storyline was painful.”
“Regardless of whatever the story or gameplay I wrote a review on was about... these games are just not worth playing.”
- grinding6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding in Aveyond to be tedious, as it involves excessive backtracking and exploration of repetitive environments, which can make the game feel unnecessarily prolonged. The short, repetitive soundtracks further contribute to the overall monotony of the experience.
“Each area's soundtrack consists of short, repetitious melodies that quickly become tedious.”
“The other thing this leads to is searching every nook and cranny, which quickly becomes boring and tedious.”
“There's enough grinding and backtracking to make Aveyond seem like the length of a comic book.”
- monetization4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game is heavily criticized, with users labeling it a cash grab that relies on low-quality, stock assets and minimal development effort. Reviewers express concern that such practices tarnish the reputation of amateur developers and contribute to the proliferation of subpar content on platforms like Steam.
“This kind of cash grab construction kit shovelware from bad actors like Andorlea gives amateur developers a bad name.”
“It's horribly basic, riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, full of stock copy-pasted RPG Maker assets... no real game development has taken place here, this is just a cash grab, it's shovelware polluting Steam for profit.”
- character development4 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Character development in "Asguaard" is marked by a unique twist through the use of skill trainers, but overall, it is criticized for being abrupt and lacking depth. This feature, while interesting, does not sufficiently enhance the overall experience.
“The game's use of skill trainers offers a unique twist to character development, enhancing the overall experience.”
“Character development in 'Asguaard' is abrupt and lacks subtlety.”
“The game's use of skill trainers offers a unique twist to character development, yet this feature alone can't carry the entire experience.”
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is notably hindered by a lack of variety in the audio landscape, which many users feel diminishes the overall experience.
“The lack of variety in the audio landscape significantly detracts from the game's atmosphere.”
- optimization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The optimization aspect of the game has been criticized for lacking a coherent and efficient route, instead providing a disorganized list of hidden items and locations, accompanied by outdated maps and ineffective screenshots. This has left players feeling that the guidance offered is not helpful for navigating the game effectively.
“Rather than offering a logical, optimized route through the game, it merely lists hidden, trainer, and rune locations at the end, with nearly useless screenshots and outdated world map links.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by casual references to amusing human activities, such as techno parties, which adds a lighthearted and relatable touch to the overall experience.
“So you casually mention techno parties and other such funny human activities.”
