Astral Party

About

Astral Party is a multiplayer casual role playing game. It was developed by STAR ENGINE PROJECT and was released on February 28, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

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77%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,709 reviews

gameplay58 positive mentions

monetization10 negative mentions

The game features a 'easy to learn, hard to master' map design philosophy, making it accessible for new players while offering depth for veterans.
The gunplay is responsive and tactile, with distinct sounds and feels for each weapon, enhancing immersion.
Environmental destruction adds a tactical layer to gameplay, allowing players to reshape the battlefield and create new angles.

The game suffers from connectivity issues, making it difficult to find matches and often resulting in disconnections.
The gacha system can feel predatory, with characters locked behind paywalls and limited options for free acquisition.
The lack of a single-player mode or AI opponents limits gameplay options, forcing players to rely on others for a full experience.

gameplay
217 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
65%
8%
The gameplay of "Astral Party" is a blend of casual board game mechanics reminiscent of "100% Orange Juice," featuring character upgrades and unique abilities, but it suffers from pacing issues and a reliance on RNG elements. While many players find the game enjoyable and easy to pick up, especially in PvE modes, others criticize its slow pace, repetitive mechanics, and confusing gacha system. Overall, the game offers a fun experience, particularly in multiplayer settings, but it requires further refinement to address its shortcomings.
- “The game does an excellent job of teaching advanced mechanics through subtle in-game cues, not just tutorials.”
- “Overall, if you’re into free anime aesthetics, card-based gameplay, and casual co-op, this is a fun, low-pressure game that’s easy to pick up and gradually rewarding as you get more familiar with the mechanics.”
- “The gameplay is fun and surprisingly addictive, and I’ve personally enjoyed every second of it.”
- “The gameplay itself is very straightforward; you just roll a die and pick the spot you want to go, while fighting monsters or, if you're playing PvP mode, other players.”
- “Most of the game is exactly the same as the demo, the translation errors still remain, card history is still missing, the UI is still hot garbage, and the gameplay itself is still painfully slow, with no option to accelerate it.”
- “The gameplay is boring, the mechanics are lazy, the UI sucks, the translation is gibberish, and it's all set to about 30 seconds of awful looping music that will make you wish you didn't have ears.”
graphics
98 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
54%
43%
3%
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their vibrant, cute, and quirky art style, with many reviewers highlighting the appealing character designs and lively animations. However, some criticism arises from inconsistent visual elements and a lack of advanced graphic settings, which detracts from the overall experience. Despite these issues, the visuals are considered a strong point, contributing to the game's fun and engaging atmosphere.
- “The game has a beautiful art style and nice voice acting too.”
- “The visuals are amazing and really keep you into the game, as well as the really cool character designs.”
- “Amazing graphics with a very chill and fun vibe.”
- “The game has a very significant identity crisis with several incompatible fonts, several incompatible art styles all throughout the game, and the fact that the characters are called 'pro gamer' or 'mechhero' really makes the game feel like a cheap rip-off that was designed with the only thought of selling JPGs in gacha.”
- “They don't do enough to explain the rules of the board game to you, and during playtime I realized my graphics card was regularly hitting 100% usage despite it just being a port of a mobile game, so you can't really just idle this game while doing other things.”
- “It suffers from terrible translation, bad GUI design, horrible servers, gachapons that are purely aesthetic, and being really just boring to play.”
music
58 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
58%
9%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players appreciating its catchy and lively nature, while others criticize its repetitiveness due to limited tracks that loop frequently during gameplay. Many users express a desire for a larger and more varied soundtrack to enhance the overall experience, especially given the game's lengthy match durations. Overall, while the music is generally considered enjoyable, it suffers from a lack of diversity and can become tiresome over extended play sessions.
- “Number 3: really cool, cute and quirky aesthetics and art-style plus a super good OST which reminds me of Dohnadohna LDBTT.”
- “A chill game with an amazing soundtrack.”
- “Both the music and sound design are easy on the ears, but have plenty of character and personality.”
- “The game is horribly slow, a single match can go for upwards of an hour, and you're forced to sit through long and slow movement animations, not to mention the laughably short background music that loops every 30 seconds, making you go insane.”
- “There's basically only two songs you hear in gameplay right now.”
- “The lack of sound effects, music, maps, no voice acting, proper translation and card variety.”
humor
45 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
98%
7%
The humor in the game is widely appreciated, with players highlighting its cute animations, funny emotes, and creative player names that contribute to a lighthearted atmosphere. Many reviews mention the joy of playing with friends, where shared misfortunes and quirky gameplay mechanics lead to laughter. Overall, the game is described as entertainingly silly, with a blend of humor that appeals to both casual and dedicated players.
- “The community's sense of humor often comes through in creative player names and clan tags.”
- “The game concept and characters' visuals are so good, with funny action and cute chibi designs.”
- “It's really hard at first, but it's funny and I had a great time with other people.”
- “Not funny.”
- “The humor fell flat and didn't resonate with me.”
- “I expected more laughs, but the jokes were stale.”
story
37 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
70%
8%
The game's story is largely criticized for its lack of depth and engagement, with many players noting that it feels non-existent, especially due to the absence of a single-player mode. While environmental storytelling and seasonal events add some connection to the world, the overall narrative experience is deemed uninspiring and overshadowed by gameplay mechanics and gacha systems. Players seeking a compelling story may find this game disappointing, as it prioritizes missions and rewards over narrative development.
- “Environmental storytelling sometimes crosses over with seasonal events, making the world feel connected and alive.”
- “I played this game for the plot, I swear.”
- “You can play with bots like a normal game, but if you're into story, this game isn't for you.”
- “However, its story and atmosphere lack depth compared to genre staples.”
- “Couldn’t even play a single game with this (since the game only has online matchmaking and not a single story mode).”
- “The reason why I said if you love the story, then this game is not for you.”
character development
29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
66%
24%
10%
Character development in the game is highlighted by its appealing and diverse character designs, which many players find visually stunning and engaging. While some critiques mention a focus on aesthetics over gameplay improvements, the overall sentiment is that the character designs, animations, and voice acting contribute positively to the gaming experience. However, there are concerns about the reliance on fan service and the need for deeper gameplay mechanics to match the quality of the character visuals.
- “The character designs are cute, their voice actors fit well, smooth-clean consistent animations, typical gacha stores + pay for game currency, but gladly it's usually fair enough to grind enough to get premium item(s) from the store.”
- “Character designs, sprites, and especially the hand-drawn art are beautiful.”
- “Amazing artworks (and pleasant sprites in-game) with exotic character design, fun board game, really have a lot of fun playing it especially with PvE...”
- “Ever since I started playing this game, I've had this nagging feeling that it's been prioritizing graphics, character designs, and churning out new events (and, more recently, crossovers too) all the time over actually improving the gameplay.”
- “They love to use character designs and alternate forms as fan service, but they still can't get the enemies to evade properly.”
- “On the bright side, I do like the character designs, but that's not enough to maintain my interest.”
monetization
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14%
41%
45%
The monetization of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players expressing concerns over its reliance on a gacha system and microtransactions, which some perceive as a cash grab, especially given the high prices for in-game purchases. While some appreciate the ability to unlock characters through events rather than solely through gacha, others criticize the misleading claims about the nature of microtransactions, noting that essential gameplay elements are tied to these purchases. Overall, the monetization strategy has sparked debate about its fairness and impact on the gaming experience.
- “Can't speak on the monetization since these are mostly first impressions, but I appreciate that characters can be unlocked through events and not just the gacha system.”
- “The only thing microtransactions got you were cosmetics, skins, or extra currency to get the characters a little faster.”
- “Astral Party is a free game that makes its income off of microtransactions in the form of battle passes and skins.”
- “Let me start by saying I have no problem with the gacha mechanic itself, after all this is a free-to-play game, it must make money somehow, although I can't avoid thinking it's kind of a cash grab since the game itself is crowdfunded on top of that, especially since the prices are outrageous: almost 15 USD for 10 rolls.”
- “Just feels like a cash grab at that point.”
- “Locking characters behind gacha, despite previously claiming microtransactions are cosmetic only.”
grinding
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7%
22%
71%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and time-consuming, particularly when trying to level up multiple characters or max out friendship bonds. The limited daily refresh of the star coin store and the controversy surrounding cash-only collab characters exacerbate the grind, making gameplay feel like a chore rather than an enjoyable experience. While some players appreciate the social aspect when playing with friends, the overall consensus is that the grind can detract significantly from the game's enjoyment.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “The game can get very grindy if you want to bring multiple characters to their highest PvE level or get the friendship bond to max. It also doesn't help that the star coin store refreshes daily and has only 8 items each time.”
- “Playing this game, even if you're not grinding for characters or items, quickly becomes a chore.”
- “I will admit that there's really not much to it other than grinding for PvE character level ups and buying gifts for character bond to unlock their emotes and prestige skin.”
optimization
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
Overall, the game's optimization is highly praised, with many users noting its smooth performance across a variety of hardware and consoles. The inclusion of a benchmark tool aids in tailoring settings for individual systems, although some players have reported issues with optimization on specific platforms like SteamOS and minor UI concerns. Despite these criticisms, the game is generally considered lightweight and efficient.
- “The game's benchmark or performance test tool helps you optimize settings for your specific hardware.”
- “The game's optimization is superb, running smoothly on a wide range of PC hardware and consoles.”
- “Performance-wise, the game is lightweight and runs smoothly.”
- “My biggest gripe is gacha, poor optimization on SteamOS, no single-player mode outside of quick matches, and needing internet access for single-player matches; part of me feels like I would rather buy it or character packs, especially if it meant having arcs to play through.”
- “Idk why it's mixed; it looks like they fixed a lot of the performance errors.”
- “UI is not well optimized.”
stability
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with numerous reports of bugs, freezing issues, and connection problems that significantly hinder the gameplay experience. Players frequently encounter crashes, long loading times, and disconnections, leading to frustration and a perception of low quality and effort in development. Overall, the game's stability issues are a major detractor from its enjoyment.
- “The game didn't even launch properly on my friend's side and required troubleshooting with unofficial help on the Discord.”
- “Ever since then, my loading freezes randomly between 20% and 80%, then it just stops and never finishes, sending us all back to the lobby after a few minutes.”
- “This game is buggy beyond belief; RNG is busted, connections and netcode are broken, and overall it ruins the experience.”
replayability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game offers good replayability through various modes, loadouts, and character options, but current issues significantly hinder the experience. While some players see potential for improvement, others feel that it lacks the content necessary for lasting replay value compared to similar titles. Overall, the game's replayability is mixed, with both positive aspects and notable drawbacks.
- “Different game modes encourage different loadouts and strategies, enhancing overall replayability.”
- “+ good replay value with different boards and characters.”
- “There are playable cards which affect stat points, lay traps, or attack enemies at a range.”
- “I could easily see this game becoming an 8/10 if they fix the issues mentioned; it would make replayability so much better!”
- “In its current state, however, it is quite literally unplayable... how was it more playable before the official release?!”
- “With less content than other games, I don't see this game having that much replay value compared to them.”
atmosphere
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
67%
The game's atmosphere is praised for its immersive ambient sound design, effectively enhancing tension through environmental noises. However, some users feel it struggles to balance player communication features and lacks the depth found in other genre benchmarks.
- “The ambient sound design, from distant gunfire to environmental noises, creates an incredibly immersive and tense atmosphere.”
- “They get the atmosphere wrong, or they don't figure out a mid-point between having full freedom chatrooms and no player-to-player communication features at all.”
- “However, its story and atmosphere lack depth compared to genre staples.”
emotional
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players express mixed emotional responses to the game; while some appreciate the reduction of toxic communication, creating a more wholesome environment, others report feelings of distress and frustration, leading to a reluctance to engage further unless prompted by friends or new content.
- “While it removes the ability to properly communicate with team members during matches and set strategy, I feel like it makes the environment far more pure and less toxic than others, so people can never show their ugly side and everyone seems pure like the anime characters they are playing as, which is really heartwarming.”