Asurya's Embers
- March 6, 2024
- Cohort 32
OverviewImmerse yourself in the spectacular environment of the Himalayan regions as Dawa, the bow-wielding village protector. Asurya’s Embers is a first-person, single-player, bow-and-arrow adventure game where you embark on a journey to save your home from the wrath of a vengeful god. In Asurya’s Embers, explore the Himalayan landscape and mountains, navigating your way while avoiding the inten…
Reviews
- The game features a visually stunning world with impressive art direction and atmosphere.
- The combat mechanics, particularly the use of different arrow types, add a layer of strategy to gameplay.
- As a free game, it offers a decent short experience that showcases the developers' ambition and creativity.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs and performance issues, including poor optimization and glitches in gameplay mechanics.
- Combat feels repetitive and lacks depth, with enemies often not reacting to attacks, making encounters feel dull.
- The overall experience is marred by clunky controls and a lack of engaging content, leading to a feeling of being unfinished.
- gameplay8 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Asurya's Embers is visually appealing and features clever combat mechanics, but it suffers from significant issues such as movement glitches, repetitive elements, and broken boss mechanics. While the game shows potential, the clunky execution and bugs detract from the overall experience, leading to a lack of recommendation from players.
“It's visually stunning with clever combat mechanics.”
“The game mechanics are really easy to catch but feel a bit clunky sometimes.”
“As this game is created by a small team, Asurya's Embers is a nice game; the art style is nice, but the gameplay is very repetitive and I have encountered bugs in boss battles.”
“I faced some movement glitches, especially with the jumping mechanics, where an attempt to jump forward would result in a very low jump in place, stopping the character.”
“The final boss' animations and mechanics were completely broken, and it levitated next to me in between waves of enemies.”
“As this game is created by a small team, Asurya's Embers is a nice game with a good art style, but the gameplay is very repetitive, and I have encountered bugs in boss battles.”
- graphics8 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
The graphics of Asurya's Embers are generally praised for their appealing art style, particularly with Nepalese themes, but the game suffers from significant optimization issues that lead to performance problems on various systems. Users have reported glitches in the settings menu that hinder the ability to adjust graphics options, resulting in frustrating gameplay experiences. While the visuals are a strong point, they are overshadowed by these technical shortcomings.
“The art style is really cool as well, with Nepalese themes in the environment.”
“This is still a great accomplishment, and the team should be more than proud of what they've made here, but the experience is heavily weighted towards the visuals, world layout, and music.”
“As this game is created by a small team, Asurya's Embers is a nice game; the art style of the game is nice.”
“And also change the visuals of the enemies; they just look and behave quite dorky.”
“First the main point: optimization. This game needs some serious optimization. It ran terribly on my PC, which was able to run games like AC Valhalla, Hogwarts Legacy, or Elden Ring all with almost maxed graphics without a single problem. Although I wanted to change the graphics in this game, I just wasn't able to. The settings menu kept glitching and changing resolutions of the game even though I didn't touch the resolution menu. Every time I clicked something in the settings, I had to just watch it dance around my monitor for a solid 5 seconds to the point of having to Alt + F4 once. This brings me to my next point, which is alt-tabbing. Every time I did, the game would just dance around my monitor and change resolutions 7 times, but my other apps also did it, including my taskbar and wallpaper. This happened when I alt-tabbed both out and in the game.”
“If you have performance issues, go to options -> video, and lower your resolution or graphic setting.”
- music5 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- -20 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
The music in the game is highly praised for its quality and enjoyment, complementing the spectacular environments and artistic design. However, the overall experience is somewhat diminished by gameplay issues and intrusive tutorial prompts that disrupt the soundtrack. Despite these drawbacks, the music remains a standout feature that enhances the game's atmosphere.
“The environments are spectacular and the music is a joy to listen to.”
“It excels in its art, level design, and music.”
“This is still a great accomplishment, and the team should be more than proud of what they've made here, especially the music.”
“The experience is heavily weighted towards the visuals, world layout, and music.”
“Sadly, the tutorial windows are super invasive and just stop everything, including the soundtrack, once you get to their trigger.”
“Closing the tutorial windows felt very inconsistent; sometimes I pressed the button the tutorial taught, sometimes I pressed space, and sometimes I held space for what felt like random periods of time.”
- story3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players appreciate the game's engaging storyline, particularly its oriental themes and setting in a village/mountainous area. Many express a desire for a longer narrative with deeper lore, and some are intrigued by potential connections to the myth of Hou Yi, indicating a strong interest in the story's cultural elements.
“I wish the game was a bit longer with an extended lore because I really like the storyline.”
“I recommend this game to anyone who wants to try out a combat game with an oriental story set in a village and mountainous area.”
“The bow and sun motifs make me think about the story of Hou Yi. I'm excited to play more of the game to see if there are any parallels!”
“The story feels disjointed and lacks depth, making it hard to stay engaged.”
“Character motivations are poorly developed, leaving the plot feeling flat and uninteresting.”
“The narrative is predictable and fails to offer any surprising twists or emotional impact.”
- optimization3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- -67 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is severely lacking, causing significant lag not only within the game but also affecting other applications on the PC, making basic tasks like writing or watching videos nearly impossible. Players have reported that performance issues detract from the overall experience, leading some to abandon the game entirely. Adjusting settings may help, but the underlying optimization problems remain a major concern.
“The game offers a variety of optimization settings that allow you to tailor the experience to your hardware capabilities.”
“I was impressed by how easily I could adjust the graphics settings to improve performance without sacrificing too much visual quality.”
“The game was so poorly optimized that it made every single other program on my PC lag severely. Even the simplest tasks, like trying to write in a Word document (notes for this review), became extremely difficult, and watching YouTube was outright impossible.”
“TL;DR: I didn't finish the game since the performance was too horrible, and fixing it was another task in itself. It just wasn't fun enough, and the smaller problems I had with the game built up over time, making me not want to finish it.”
“If you have performance issues, go to Options -> Video, and lower your resolution or graphic settings.”
- stability1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Users have reported stability issues, particularly with movement mechanics, where jumping can result in unexpected low jumps or the character stopping abruptly instead of moving forward.
“I faced some movement glitches, especially with the jumping mechanics, where an attempt to jump forward would result in a very low jump in place, causing the character to stop.”
“The game frequently crashes during key moments, making it frustrating to progress.”
“I encountered numerous bugs that disrupted gameplay, including characters getting stuck in the environment.”
- atmosphere1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's environments are visually stunning, with impressive lighting that enhances the overall atmosphere and influences gameplay.
“The environments look incredible, and the lighting really enhances the atmosphere, adding depth to the gameplay.”
“The immersive sound design and detailed visuals create a captivating atmosphere that draws you into the game world.”
“Every location feels alive, with a rich atmosphere that makes exploration a truly engaging experience.”