Astria Ascending

단순 턴제 JRPG의 경우 보스별로 빌드와 전략을 잘 깎아야 클리어가 가능하게 난이도 디자인을 하여 전략의 단숨함을 극복하려는 경우가 있는데, 이 게임은 그렇게까지 어렵지는 않은 것 같습니다. 사냥 의뢰나 투기장 컨텐츠는 도전적이긴한데, 그만큼 보상도 좋은 편이라 납득이 되고요. 스탯 오브 파밍이나 SP 파밍 없이 후반으로 가면 게임이 힘들어지긴 하는데, 사실 이건 게임을 대충 진행하려는 저의 욕심이겠지요. 조금 어렵다고 느껴질 때는 난이도를 한 칸만 낮추면(쉬움으로) 적절히 난이도가 감소하는 느낌이라 만족합니다. 다양한 캐릭터와 전직에 따라 달리지는 복장, 완전한 더빙 덕분에 나름 눈과 귀가 즐거운 게임이었습니다.

Astria Ascending is a fantasy role-playing game developed by Artisan Studios and published by Dear Villagers that embraces many of the traditions associated with classic Japanese RPGs while attempting to modernize the formula through contemporary visuals and deeper character customization. Built around a large-scale narrative, turn-based combat, and a richly detailed fantasy world, the game presents itself as a love letter to the genre's golden age. Although its ambitious scope occasionally exceeds its execution, it remains a memorable adventure that offers a substantial amount of content for players who enjoy traditional role-playing experiences. The story takes place in the world of Orcanon, a land inhabited by multiple races living under an uneasy balance of peace and political tension. At the center of the narrative are eight demigods known as the Harmonicers, powerful guardians entrusted with protecting the realm. Despite their immense abilities, these heroes carry a tragic burden: their lives are limited, and they are approaching the end of their predetermined existence. This looming fate adds a layer of melancholy to the adventure and separates the game's narrative from many more conventional fantasy stories. Rather than focusing solely on saving the world, Astria Ascending frequently explores themes of mortality, sacrifice, duty, and the emotional consequences of inevitable loss. One of the game's strongest qualities is the amount of attention devoted to its world-building. Orcanon feels like a fully developed setting with its own history, political structures, religions, and cultural conflicts. As players travel through cities, villages, and remote regions, they uncover information that gradually expands their understanding of the world's complex social and political landscape. The narrative unfolds slowly, often prioritizing character relationships and lore over constant action. While this pacing may not appeal to everyone, it allows the game to establish a richer setting than many role-playing titles of a similar scale. Visually, Astria Ascending immediately distinguishes itself through its stunning hand-drawn presentation. Every environment resembles a detailed fantasy painting brought to life through animation. From sprawling cities and lush forests to mysterious ruins and towering temples, the world is filled with vibrant colors and intricate artistic details. The backgrounds remain consistently impressive throughout the adventure, creating an atmosphere that feels both magical and immersive. Even players who struggle with certain gameplay elements will likely find themselves appreciating the sheer amount of effort invested in the game's visual design. Exploration serves as a major component of the experience. Players travel across a large interconnected world featuring numerous towns, dungeons, hidden areas, and optional objectives. Progression gradually unlocks new movement abilities that allow access to previously inaccessible locations, encouraging backtracking and thorough investigation. Environmental puzzles, platforming segments, and hidden collectibles help diversify exploration and prevent the adventure from becoming a simple sequence of battles and cutscenes. Combat follows a traditional turn-based structure but incorporates enough strategic depth to remain engaging throughout most of the campaign. Battles emphasize exploiting elemental weaknesses, managing resources efficiently, and selecting appropriate party compositions. Players control a roster of eight characters, each possessing unique strengths and combat roles. The combat system rewards careful planning rather than simple brute force, especially during boss encounters where understanding enemy mechanics becomes essential for survival. A major highlight of the gameplay is the extensive job system. Characters can switch between numerous classes, each offering distinct abilities, passive bonuses, and progression paths. This flexibility allows players to experiment with countless party combinations and combat strategies. Whether focusing on powerful offensive magic, defensive specialization, support abilities, or hybrid builds, there is considerable freedom in how characters develop. The customization options add significant replay value and provide dedicated RPG fans with plenty of opportunities for optimization. The game also includes a variety of side activities designed to supplement the main adventure. Optional quests, collectible systems, mini-games, and additional challenges offer reasons to explore beyond the primary storyline. While some of these activities are more engaging than others, they contribute to the sense that Orcanon is a living world rather than a simple backdrop for the central narrative. Players willing to invest time in optional content will discover additional lore, rewards, and character development opportunities. Another area where Astria Ascending excels is its audio presentation. The orchestral soundtrack enhances both emotional scenes and major battles, helping reinforce the epic scale of the story. The music consistently complements the game's fantasy atmosphere, while voice acting adds personality to the large cast of characters. Combined with the visual design, the soundtrack helps create a strong sense of immersion that remains one of the game's greatest strengths. Despite its many positive qualities, Astria Ascending is not without flaws. The complexity of some systems can feel overwhelming, particularly during the early hours when multiple mechanics are introduced in quick succession. Certain menus and progression systems lack clarity, making character development more confusing than necessary. The story, while ambitious, occasionally struggles with pacing, and some dialogue sequences can feel overly lengthy. In addition, combat encounters sometimes become repetitive during longer dungeon sections, especially for players who engage heavily with optional content. Nevertheless, the game's shortcomings do not completely overshadow its accomplishments. Astria Ascending succeeds because of its passion and ambition. It strives to deliver an expansive fantasy epic filled with memorable characters, strategic gameplay systems, and a visually breathtaking world. Even when individual elements fall short of perfection, the overall experience demonstrates a genuine appreciation for classic JRPG design principles. For players who enjoy traditional role-playing games with deep customization, lengthy storylines, and strong artistic direction, Astria Ascending offers a rewarding journey. Its beautiful hand-drawn environments, flexible class system, emotional themes, and expansive world create an experience that stands out in an increasingly crowded genre. While it may not achieve the same level of polish as the most celebrated RPGs, it remains a worthwhile adventure that showcases both creativity and ambition. Rating: 7/10

Great game! Some of the quests can be annoying but overall really solid.

I only got it because of the wonderful artstyl and the hot furry women, but the main cast is so boring it made me quit the game.

[h1]Okay, brace yourself guys; this one will be freaking long and honest![/h1] I'm writing this review only after achieving the Completionist Achievement, almost 70 hours later. I'll break this review down into topics: Story, Gameplay, Achievement System, Art, and Overall Score. So, let's get this train running! [h2]Story[/h2] It honestly starts pretty well! You control demigods who protect Harmony, and you need to maintain this Harmony status. You do some missions that are completely related to that; it fulfills its role with excellence during the early and up to the midgame, but then starts to get very cyclical and goes nowhere after the midgame, During the midgame, you need to investigate the Zodiac Temples, and they follow a weird structure in general. The setting of each temple time is just right; the time is so wrong that it seems that they messed up the story hard! For instance, Leo Temple is PERFECT! But Taurus Temple, WHAT IS THAT?! That was supposed to be Scorpion, not Taurus! The setting is FULLY WRONG! And that repeats itself constantly until the very last dungeon! Still speaking about the main topic of the campaign, the temples, they lose their meaning in the second half of them! The game gives up around the 7th temple you visit, leaving no boss behind, just some weird story follow-ups! And the ending, ARGH! It's one of the worst ones I ever saw! I've played some really bad RPGs; you guys can check on my profile, but this one takes the cake for the worst possible ending! I'm not spoiling, but the ending is so bad that, according to the game's own statistics, less than 5% of everyone who ever played this game seen through to the end! Story-wise alone, this is bad. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] Okay, let me be honest here: if you ever want to finish this game, suck your gaming skills up and open up a few skill tree guides. This game, as one, it's unrefundable, and it's very unbalanced. If you're in just for the story, set the game to Very Easy and play as you want, but the Normal setting is very challenging alone- those badly balanced 8-bit-era RPGs' difficulty. Each character has 3 different options for Main, Sub, and Support Roles, and they work like this: [b]Base Job[/b] Everyone starts with this one freely available! The first 4 that the game auto-puts in your party are pretty good; the other 4 are situational. Alasia and Alek are basically the same on their base job; Eko is the only Healer available Early Game; Alasia, his counterpart, is way more focused on Summoning and Neutral Magic than Healing; Dagmar is the only Full Magic DPS available early game, and Elemental Magic is a MUST! No matter the difficulty setting, he's a fixed spot on your team, unless the mob or boss is fully Immune or Resistant to every single kind of elemental magic. His counterpart, Dress, is a magical fencer. She can deal magic elemental damage, but she must deal physical damage before, and a lot of enemies nullify or are Resistant to that, and this is very bad for you! Lastly, you have Kaydyn and Arpajo; one is a regular Fencer, and the other a Thief, whose particular uses that overlaps eachother! [b]Main Jobs[/b] This is where the game gets very unbalanced. The first four characters and Alek combo with excellence with some main jobs, while the other 3 lack compatibility and fall behind HARD! And you need those combos, or the game's regular difficulty will eat you alive! Main Jobs will give you ALL THE NODES of the skill tree! Skills, Status, and Hard Status! So you need to set the right ones, or the character will be useless! [h3]Now talking about the gameplay itself[/h3] The monsters use the same skills that you can use, and some are exclusive to them, which will make this game easier sometimes and way harder than it should be in other scenarios! During the fights, as in almost every JRPG, you can have the Initiative, a regular fight, or a Surprise Attack from the enemy. If you get a surprise attack, you'll face a Game Over; deal with it! Unless you're WAY OVERLEVELED or not in the Special Post Game Dungeon. Kaydyn has a node to avoid Surprise Attacks during fights; grab that node ASAP! But there's a catch! There are some Trapped Chests that will always result in a Surprise Attack, similar to Final Fantasy 2. Some good equipment is locked in those chests, so you'll need to constantly swap equipment on your party just for those, so you can absorb the surprise attack magics, but some enemies will straight out uses OHKO attacks on you, like Assassin's Assassination Skill, and well, suck it up! You'll spend a TON of resources for a single chest! This is the main reason that nobody plays this game on the regular difficulty; it's just stupid! The secret dungeon, OH MY GOD WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT?! The sheer number of fights is so damn high that you'll be max level with ease, but the enemies will still deliver your ass to you in a silver plate, no matter how maxed you are! This is straight out evil! You CAN finish the game, but you'll struggle so hard that it's not worth your time for such a cheap game! [h2]Now let's talk about the elephant in the room: the bugs![/h2] There are so many, it's game-breaking! The Journal is buggy; it won't record your pickups like 50% of the time, which forces you to save before you pick ANYTHING UP! A lot of times, the fight spoils bugs too, and it shows that you earned nothing, and sometimes you earn nothing for real. Save scum over and over! Quests progress won't progress until you overtalk with the NPCs, Quests NPC's vanish into thin air and you need to reload the game or retalk with them when they're in a map do they move to their supposed spots. Fights with Noises occur at double or triple the time with the same Noise in the wild; the Noises on Archipelago ALWAYS give you a Surprise Attack unless Kaydyn uses her preventive Node. Idk if this happens over console too, but here on Steam, it's really, really bad. Enough for you to ask for a refund. I've paid cents for this game, so I can accept it, but if you paid more than a single dollar, it's bad! [h2]Art[/h2] It's majestic to put it simple. I have just one complaint. Is the Artist a Furry? Why did he have to sexualize ALL THE FEMALE ARTKANS? Ultra-sexualized, almost Hentai! But censored. But the rest is incredible good, and hand drawn too!!! I'm writing this in September 2026, when everything is flooded with AI. This is such a good breath for my eyes! The enemy variation is as good as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Bosses are different, but the mobs are just recollor after recollor, but all very well made! 9/10, only due to the Artkans problem. [h2]Achievements[/h2] How good of a masochist are you for trophies? Around 30 of the 51 are decent to achieve, but the others you will need to grind, A LOT. And have a lot of patience with the bugs! Save scumming is a must if you want the Completionist like I did! Consider this those old school Point and Click converted to Steam, where you need to save at every action due to the branches. This is similar. It's not as hard as any Final Fantasy post X to have them all, but still an ordeal! [h1]General Opinion[/h1] This game won't fish you in any aspect, It's that bland RPG that everyone played on their lives and forgot about. If you pay cents for this or play for free like in a subscription service, it might be nice to spend some time on it. Otherwise skip this game entirely. The studio gave up on this, and the community is weak, so there are not many fans patch for this game. You would need to face this bug storm head-on. This game is bad gameplay-wise and bland story-wise. The only high aspect is the art, but if you have furries, this will be bad too. Not suited for kids in ANYWAY! I would rate this one 18+ as you need some deep knowledge of builds for this game, and the Artkans problem is real. If you want a more sexual oriented game there are plenty here on Steam. [b]3/10 general score[/b]

堪称JRPG反面教材集合，剧情寡淡如水，战斗看似构筑套路很多，实际玩法并不多。任务设计的人都不用进厂打螺丝了，建议直接投胎。游戏数值崩坏严重，技能看似很多，实际能用的并不多，BOSS都是各种状态免疫，DEBUFF基本完全无用。打到通关居然还藏了3分之1左右内容。游戏战斗不能加速，普通难度被怪偷袭基本都可以重开了。剧情对话也不能快进，直接大段直接跳过。这款游戏能让我玩这么久的动力一是美术，二是我想看看到底有多烂。结果真的是震惊到我了。所谓一帮大厂员工，完美诠释了别拿平台当自己能力。