Started Astalon: Tears of the Earth
Apr. 22nd, 2025 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkAfter a long day of classes (on a bank holiday, too) I treated myself to some grapefruit + nougat ice cream and then planned to spend some time reading, do some housekeeping in preparation for hosting a guest (very exciting), and then write some overdue review posts, maybe prepare some recs if I'm feeling ambitious.
Instead I spent most of the evening continuing to play Astalon: Tears of the Earth. I'd seen it recommended quite a few times on r/metroidvania and I was very curious, so when I saw it was on sale I bought it even though it's not entirely smart to start a new game 2.5 weeks before an exam. Ah well.
You play as a group of three adventurers in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that investigate (read: fight their way through) a tower from which comes a substance poisoning their village. One of them sold his soul to the titan of death, and in exchange every time you die you are transported back to the entrance of the tower.
I also saw it described as a "metroidvania with roguelite elements," which made me a bit skeptical because the other game that claims that is Dead Cells and that didn't convince me when I briefly tried it. But that description isn't really accurate because it doesn't have the procedural generation of a roguelike, it has the exploration of a metroidvania, and that's my favorite part of the genre. It just doesn't have checkpoints and very little healing. But there's plenty of shortcuts to unlock so landing back at the beginning is much less frustrating than I'd feared. And unlocking shortcuts is very satisfying; the exploration is satisfying in general, with plenty of secrets to discover. Plus, there are not that many but enough character interactions that I care about the characters as well.
After about eight hours I've beaten three bosses (one of them I'm pretty sure is optional) and discovered around 35% of the map. I found some cool power-ups, like the mirror sword and the magical boots for Arias and the cloak of levitation for Algus (fingers crossed I get an updated wall jump for Kyuli soon), and right before stopping for tonight I found the bell that allows me to switch characters on the fly. Very convenient! There were enough areas where I needed a specific character that so far I leveled up all of them (though I did focus on Algus for the two gorgon fights, while Arias beat the blue cyclops prince easily), but maybe now that switching is easier I could change that, idk. Algus also has an orb of his face next to him, very curious what that's about.
(That reminds me that I forgot to buy the second part of the Black Knight's backstory, next time.)
I've also recruited Zeek to the party. I hesitated for a bit because he's rude tbh ^^ and I liked the trio of characters I had, but he's clearly written like that on purpose so I hope he'll become more sympathetic later.
Instead I spent most of the evening continuing to play Astalon: Tears of the Earth. I'd seen it recommended quite a few times on r/metroidvania and I was very curious, so when I saw it was on sale I bought it even though it's not entirely smart to start a new game 2.5 weeks before an exam. Ah well.
You play as a group of three adventurers in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that investigate (read: fight their way through) a tower from which comes a substance poisoning their village. One of them sold his soul to the titan of death, and in exchange every time you die you are transported back to the entrance of the tower.
I also saw it described as a "metroidvania with roguelite elements," which made me a bit skeptical because the other game that claims that is Dead Cells and that didn't convince me when I briefly tried it. But that description isn't really accurate because it doesn't have the procedural generation of a roguelike, it has the exploration of a metroidvania, and that's my favorite part of the genre. It just doesn't have checkpoints and very little healing. But there's plenty of shortcuts to unlock so landing back at the beginning is much less frustrating than I'd feared. And unlocking shortcuts is very satisfying; the exploration is satisfying in general, with plenty of secrets to discover. Plus, there are not that many but enough character interactions that I care about the characters as well.
After about eight hours I've beaten three bosses (one of them I'm pretty sure is optional) and discovered around 35% of the map. I found some cool power-ups, like the mirror sword and the magical boots for Arias and the cloak of levitation for Algus (fingers crossed I get an updated wall jump for Kyuli soon), and right before stopping for tonight I found the bell that allows me to switch characters on the fly. Very convenient! There were enough areas where I needed a specific character that so far I leveled up all of them (though I did focus on Algus for the two gorgon fights, while Arias beat the blue cyclops prince easily), but maybe now that switching is easier I could change that, idk. Algus also has an orb of his face next to him, very curious what that's about.
(That reminds me that I forgot to buy the second part of the Black Knight's backstory, next time.)
I've also recruited Zeek to the party. I hesitated for a bit because he's rude tbh ^^ and I liked the trio of characters I had, but he's clearly written like that on purpose so I hope he'll become more sympathetic later.
