On the surface, Astria Ascending intrigued me with its wonderful hand drawn artstyle. Now it's back with a new adventure, Astria Ascending. The studio’s first project was Super Neptunia RPG, a 2D entry in the Neptunia franchise. It’s entirely possible that the final release could do a better job of easing the player into things, but right now, it’s just a little bit too much.Artisan Studio is a French and Canadian developer that specializes in 2D RPG games. Perhaps the preview just wanted to give me a taste of the gameplay mechanics and its expansive world and job system, but in doing so, it’s inadvertently left me feeling overwhelmed with no desire to dig deeper into its systems because I don’t have any attachment to any of its eight characters in the first place.

If you enjoy turn-based combat in your JRPGs, you’ll likely feel right at home in Astria Ascending.Īs I neared the end of the preview build, I was left feeling somewhat indifferent towards the game. On the flip side, hitting an enemy with the wrong attack could heal them up and you’ll lose your chance to rack up Points. Successfully hitting an enemy’s weakness will reward you with Points, which can be used to enhance your skills and make them more effective. The battle system takes inspiration from other popular JRPGs like Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler, where you can earn Focus Points during battle to boost your abilities. The dungeons themselves are pretty, the enemy designs are pretty striking, and the combat’s pretty much what you’d expect. Jobs and dual-classing systems are always a fun time, but again, Astria Ascending throws too much at the player too soon that it’s difficult to wrap your head around everything before you’re thrown into your first dungeon.īecause the game is presented on a 2D plane, this lends itself well to some light platforming and puzzle-solving sections in the dungeons. Add in the fact that they all have special abilities you need to learn, and you might even feel discouraged from experimenting with them all because there’s just so many.Īnd on top of them, each character gets a main job, sub job, and a support job that you can assign to them. Having so many characters to play around with is nice, but introducing them all at the same time might be a bit too much. There’s barely any time to get properly acquainted with each of your main characters because they’re pretty much all thrown at you right from the get-go. Past that strong first impression, I quickly found myself getting a little overwhelmed with everything the game started throwing at me. It’s a great premise and the game looks pretty, but unfortunately that’s about all the praise I can give to Astria Ascending. It’s a grim setup, but one that’s immediately interesting as it sparks up all sorts of discussion about how much these characters value their lives against the safety of the world. Your party is made up of eight Demigods who have been chosen to protect and save the world before inevitably marching off to their deaths once their three months are up.

The voice acting does leave a bit to be desired, but the character designs are simply beautiful, and the story setup is intriguing, too. It looks way too similar to VanillaWare’s own distinct art style to be considered truly unique, but hey, having your game look like a VanillaWare game isn’t a bad thing at all. I was immediately drawn into its very aesthetically pleasing world, thanks to the gorgeous line art and detailed environments. Right off the bat, Astria Ascending makes a hell of an impression. That’s exactly what Astria Ascending is, but during my time with the preview build, I couldn’t help but feel like the game was buckling under its own weight. Bonus points if you tell me that it’s being worked on by members of the teams that made Final Fantasy, NieR: Automata, and Bravely Default. But show me a JRPG with a light watercolor palette and pretty hand-drawn art, and I’m sold. I love the genre, even if I can be picky about what I play at times. It doesn’t take much to convince me to check out a new JRPG.

Astria ascending