Astral Ascent Review (Aerix Bay)
After countless hours spent in many roguelikes and roguelites, I genuinely believe this one has the potential to be among the top kings. As many people have already stated, the art is just phenomenal, I can't get enough of the immaculate flow it pulls off along with the vibrant and mesmerizing colours. 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.
In regards to combat, not only is it incredibly addictive, but its also Fair. Enemies are easy to pinpoint and their attacks are telegraphed just enough to dodge and not get upset if you're hit. No matter how I look at it, getting hit and dodging in this game is a pure skill aspect, even through the NG+ ascension aspect (albeit im only 6 levels in, this could change). This isn't something I can say about a lot of games, one that many people know that will stick out is Dead Cells, you could be the best player in the world on that game but if you're caught by a random grenade, you're almost certainly done for. Being caught in this game is virtually non-existent, you can always dash, you can always move, you're not restricted by anything other than yourself. Movement is fluid, dashing feels nice, jump resets are enjoyable, and wall climbs couldn't feel better.
Something a lot of people will mention that they dislike is the spell system and that normal attacks don't feel strong, and I can't really blame them because it is quite unique. I think what some of these people fail to understand is that your normal attacks aren't meant for damage, yes they DO damage, but their main use is to refill mana so you can cycle through spells faster. You have 4 spell slots and can switch each out with new spells you find along your journey, all spells have a mana cost ranging from 1-3 with the more expensive ones naturally doing more damage or having a super useful aspect to them like invulnerability. It's up to you to figure out if you want to sacrifice some cycle speed for those big hitters or if you want to stay cheap and cycle faster for a constant stream of smaller impact, or even a mix of sorts. (I personally love doing 1-2-1-2)
I'd say my one complaint, which fixes itself as you progress/reach higher difficulties, is that healing is *very* hard to come by. In my initial runs (first 5-10) I often had moments of going through an entire map without acquiring a single health crystal. Most often this would be in stage 2 after i beat the first boss, I wouldn't get an opportunity to heal until I got to the Bar before the 2nd boss, which really put a lot of my runs at risk. This isn't an issue anymore with where I am, as you get to purchase upgrades to make health crystals more common, but it did frustrate me just a bit when I was starting out.
Overall I'd give the current version of this game a solid 8/10. It's a bit difficult to adjust to at first with it's unique combat system, but after just a couple runs it felt almost natural. Once they release the final few bosses and maybe touch on multiplayer (I haven't played, but I've heard some bad things), I can see this game becoming a 10/10 for myself and many others. It may even become my #1 if it continues receiving the amazing care it's been getting so far.