Astral Ascent: All you need to know about this upcoming rogue-like gem on Nintendo

After successfully completing the Kickstarter fund goal, Nintendo Switch’s Astral Ascentis is finally all set to be released on a global scale. Featuring a blend of pixelated yet lively art style and a unique take on the rogue-like genre, Astral Ascent has the potential to become the next indie gem on Nintendo Switch.

The potential release date for the game is expected to be November 14, 2023. But before it hits the shelves, let’s dive into everything we know so far about the title and consider whether Astral Ascent would be worth the hype or not.

Astral Ascent had a Kickstarter campaign, which was launched on March 29, 2021, and successfully funded. The Kickstarter campaign for Astral Ascent offered various rewards for backers, including digital copies of the game, artbooks, and soundtracks. The rewards were divided into different tiers, with higher tiers offering more rewards.

For example, the “Early Bird” tier offered a digital copy of the game for a discounted price, while the “Collector’s Edition” tier offered a physical copy of the game, an art book, a soundtrack, and other exclusive items. Backers could also add extra items to their pledge, such as additional copies of the game or a digital art book.

Astral Ascent is a 2D platformer rogue-lite game set in a modern fantasy world. It is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. The game was released on November 14, 2023, and features four heroes with different personalities who must escape from the Garden, an astral prison guarded by 12 powerful bosses called the Zodiacs.

This game also has dozens of unique spells, and players can optimize their own build or try out new ones to take down the bosses. The game is infused with narration, and replayability is part of the story, which will be unraveled piece by piece. It also has a local co-op feature.

The gameplay and setting of Astral Ascent is heavily inspired by other rogue-like hits, such as Hades and Dead Cells. Just like the Gods in Hades, Astral Ascent also features powerful characters that bestow the character with many power-ups. But this time, players can also fight these powerful beings.

The combat system and the art style can be compared with Dead Cells. Both of them have pixilated visuals and hard but not unfair combat. Much like weapons and abilities in other rogue-likes, Astral Ascend has spells.

Spells are the active skills of the player, and they are used to inflict damage, apply buffs to the player, or apply debuffs to enemies. Spells can be found in the Telluric Ruins or The Forge, at the Peddler’s shop (in Andromeda’s Bar), or randomly in Explore Rooms at a Spell Altar. Different spells consume different amounts of mana, between 1 and 3.

The gameplay includes platforming mechanics, combat and spells, rogue-lite elements, and cooperative play. The game also features local cooperative play, and players can do all the spell-casting online with their friends via Parsec. The gameplay includes platforming mechanics, combat and spells, and rogue-like elements.

In the end, if you are a fan of the Roguelike genre and you enjoyed games like Hades and Dead Cells then the chances for Astral Ascend to dissapoint you is very low. The pixelated visuals may not be very pleasing for some players, but the dynamic sprites, mixed with a beautiful story and some amazing music could make the Astral Ascend a strong contender for the Roguelike crown on Nintendo Switch.

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Feature image source: Astral Ascent

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