Astral Ascent

“The main selling point seems to be the graphics and voice acting, both of which are in fact very high quality, but the gameplay is more than sufficient to carry the experience as well.”

“- amazing visuals (this is probably the best looking 2D game I played), the cinematics and boss intros are very cool.”

“The graphics are beautiful, the characters are rad, enemies look great and are really cool and fun to fight and dodge, the animations are fluid, the art is great, the voice acting is solid, the spells are sick, the gameplay is tight, the audio is clean and will make any audiophile's eargasm, I could go on.”

“Astral Ascent is the perfect balance of a roguelike being difficult but also making you feel overpowered at the same time with its different ways to upgrade your character on each run. The variety it provides the player to choose between spells and weapons to make every run unique is so plentiful that even if you use the same character over and over again you will not get bored because of the many options and different ways to build your character for every new run. The music and the ambiance of the game is really well made as well as the visuals. The relationship progressions of each encounter with the zodiacs as well as every character in the game really helps immersion with how the dialogue progresses with your in-game progression, giving each zodiac a unique personality and a nice backstory that unfolds as you progress. Astral Ascent is one of the very few roguelikes I would give a 10/10. Only thing I wish for this game is online co-op and hopefully more DLC in the future. Congratulations to Hibernian Workshop, they made a masterpiece.”

“The story unfolds gradually through dialogue and progression, with layers that encouraged me to keep playing.”

“The storytelling is delivered in a thoughtful and measured way, not overwhelming the action, but giving it context and heart.”

“Absolutely beautiful pixel art, an amazing soundtrack, fast fun gameplay with tons of options and multiple characters to play.”

“The music - ah this is where the charm lives, the soundtrack is lovely, for an action game it feels like it wouldn't fit but honestly it is just so relaxing there has been times mid run where you can stop at benches and sit and I have my characters do so for a while just to listen to the track and marvel at the art.”

“The soundtrack is excellent, seamlessly complementing the game's different areas.”

“An amazing roguelike with a staggering amount of content, replayability, buildcrafting, variety,... the list goes on.”

“The insane meta progression, spell combinations, affinities, characters, their weapons and other systems, makes this probably the most replayable action roguelite ever.”

“Astral Ascent maintains the legacy of the roguelike genre with polished and satisfying combat, vibrant pixel retro inspired visuals, unique concept, fantastic voice acting, and incredible replay value that will have you longing to return to the game before your latest run is done.”

“This does make each New Game+ run feel fresh and not tedious.”

“Awesome 2D action platformer (90% action, 10% platformer) with a unique spells system, not very grindy meta progression, and still getting free updates after 1.0 that deserves more attention than this.”

“Characters all feel different from each other. I like that they have different variants you can unlock for each character. Bosses all felt very different from each other. Very addicting gameplay loop, I like the randomness but still some choice in how you progress by picking your next room to go in. Not a deep story but really good concept and character design, very smooth and fluent movement.”

“The character designs, from the main cast to the 12 zodiac bosses, are excellent and all super cool and full of personality.”

“Character design is unique, dialogue is quick and funny, and the voice acting seems just perfect, like I couldn't imagine a different voice on any of the characters that exist.”

“The devs are on top of any and all issues impacting the experience and even pushed out a week-1 patch to increase performance after several complaints with more fixes on the horizon.”

“High ceiling to optimization.”

“For those with a Steam Deck, it's optimized for it!”

“It's the most well thought-out and also beautiful - the game has its own atmosphere, the characters are engaging, this feels very well polished and I wasn't sure at first from watching the videos, I thought it looked cheap and dumb, but the overwhelmingly positive reviews weren't lying - it's amazing.”

“The atmosphere of the game and the interaction between the characters is superb, the gameplay is fluid and captivating, in short one of the best rogue-like games played.”

“One of the most atmospheric games I've ever played - art and sound are gorgeous, gameplay is fluid, overall an incredible game.”

“Lots of fun and funny panicking moments with friends or solo.”

“First of all I just want to say I love Kiran so much. I played him instantly when he was unlocked. I love his character, his lines, his everything. He's just so funny, and I've never laughed so much just hearing his banter, his reactions, his thoughts. He's perfect as a funny stereotype dumbass you see in media without being annoying or insufferable.”

“Character design is unique, dialogue is quick and funny, and the voice acting seems just perfect, like I couldn't imagine a different voice on any of the characters.”

“In a gaming landscape often dominated by high fidelity graphics and intricate physics, Astral Ascent emerges as a luminous testament to the power of atmosphere and emotional storytelling.”

“What sets Astral Ascent apart isn't just its gameplay mechanics or roguelite structure; it's the emotional tapestry woven throughout your journey.”

“The playable characters, NPCs, and bosses all have backstory, emotional stakes, and voice acting.”

“It runs great on the Steam Deck.”

“Runs great on Steam Deck.”

“I also own this game on the Switch, where it runs great!”

“Astral Ascent scratches a very particular itch for me. Both the progression and the environment's theming make me feel like I get to experience endgame raid/bossing party content in a classic lite MMO like MapleStory or RuneScape, without the hundreds of days of grinding (and paying for microtransactions or subscriptions) first.”