This is definitely a title made with a lot of love and attention to detail, and while it’s hardly a flawless production, I think it’s worth checking out for people who sit on either side of the fence. If you’ve always wanted to love a Soulslike title but never quite got there, this might help get you over the hump; if you love them but don’t mind something being a bit more Souls-lite, this will delight you. It’s not going to make it on to my short list of worthy Game of the Year contenders, but it’s a solid outing all around, and that’s not nothing.
Asterigos: Curse of the Stars is just plain fun. It's a solid, enjoyable and well put-together action-adventure game where my biggest complaints are largely nitpicks and a few qualms about the exploration. Sure, you can point to various things it was inspired by, but it manages to stand out on its own merits, and it's an enjoyable experience. The distinct art style and combat help it define itself, and the story is engaging enough to keep you interested. It's well worth a look if the concept remotely interests you.
In short, this game is definitely worth playing for any action game fan in general (not just soulslike) but it's not 10/10. I gave it 10 to offset all the rated 0 reviews from idiots who keep complaining about the key bindings which I am pretty sure will be fixed very soon by the dev team. Given this is from a indie Taiwanese dev, it's actually more fun and polished than many action games I have played recently (Soulstice, Valkyrie Esylum)
Asterigos Curse of the Stars is a non-innovative, but fun and solid action role-playing game. It offers a good amount of content at a budget price, an interesting story that can be deepened if you invest time in narrative collectibles. It has no major flaws, but at the same time it does not excel.
Asterigos: Curse of the Stars does everything discreetly, but nothing really well. It is a full-bodied production in practice, because it combines an extended narrative with a playful system full of interesting features. However, his very appreciable desire to be easily usable is not able to combine a good underlying complexity. The simplicity and immediacy of the individual game elements often represent more of a limit than an added value, with the adventure that just can't shake off that feeling of enjoyable but inconsistent lightness.
Asterigos: Curse of the Stars had the potential of being one of the most exciting ARPGs influenced by the Souls series, with its ancient Greek and Roman influences, cartoonish art style, unique approach to story choices, and a more gamey approach to combat and character customization. Sadly, it falls flat mostly due to the mediocre level design. If you can look past this significant issue, however, you'll find a decent enough game with an acceptable story and serviceable combat with some interesting twists.
Overall, Asterigos: Curse of the Stars is a passable quality experience that excels when it leans into its Monster Hunter/Dauntless-esque multiphase boss fights, interspersed with more solitary bouts of exploration and subsequent discovery. Had the developers leaned further into this hypothetically simplified formula, while offsetting it with the existing rich and dense progression system, Asterigos could have proved its mettle as a more-than-worthy contender in the market. However, its poor control responsiveness, its often-needlessly ham-fisted approach to forcing linearity where it's not needed, and its debatable narrative quality, also collectively hold it back from reaching its full potential.
Asterigos: Curse of the Stars
To my own surprise this is another game I finished! I could call it action adventure, where you play as young girl Hilda in kinda ancient Greek looking world. Many reviews say Asterigos is Soulslike game, but I don't think so. Yes, there are some features copied from Dark Souls, like bonfire system, respawning enemies if you die, weapon upgrades, big boss fights. But really emphasis here is on the story. And the story is quite good, at least it kept me finish the game. It starts very traditional, when you are to track your father, but soon it slowly opens up and takes you into this new strange city, its politics, history and actual problems. From typical errand runner you become a local hero. Of course nothing extraordinary, but nevertheless the presentation of story is good. It has the right pace - there was a point when I thought the big surprise is awaiting me ahead, but unfortunately in the end story took safe traditional route. Too bad they didn't went that way.
On the negative side there is too mach of unnecessary text and lore, NPCs talk and talk even after you got what they want from you - I bet many players start skipping all unvoiced dialogs and avoid reading lore texts at half of the game. It is understandable that authors wanted to make everything clear and comprehensible, it is obvious they put a great effort in the world and story they created, but really it is a bit overdone here, it would be no harm if they cut half of it out.
Combat, which is most of what you do in game, besides talking with NPCs, reminded me more of Kingdoms of Amalur than Dark Souls. You have given set of weapons, which you can upgrade for better damage, and you can choose to use two of them at same time, like daggers and spear. Some weapons are more OP than others, especially staff, which turns into sniper gun. They all have their own special attacks and skills, which you can learn along the game. Some of those skills are also OP to the point when you become immune to damage while continue beating enemies. This turns boss fights into easy cheese, so no Dark Souls here.
I liked main character and especially her voice actress - must say voice acting in Asterigos are top notch! While Hilda is obviously a powerful girl, who can beat almost everyone and everything and there are other main characters women of power, I didn't felt like it was some of that modern diversity crap forced on players, it really felt right in place without any hidden "message" lurking behind every corner.
Another bad thing for me was that there wasn't enough armor or dress for such a game, especially when main character is a girl. As any other man I have soft spot for those bad ass sexy looking women, too bad you can get best looking armor only after you beat the game :-(
In conclusion I give Asterigos 9/10, being one of rare games I ever finished! It took me 56 hours to complete it, playing mostly few hours at evening for 3 weeks. I was afraid, as with many other games, there will be a point where I had no more will to load it up, but somehow story and combat kept me going. So if you like action adventure it is worth a try!
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worth it full price but not worth to buy DLC even DLC free.
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- 25 - 45 hour long.
-repetitive combat, little enemies type, stupid enemy ai, interesting story but boring long dialogs,they give u teleport late game and bad glory ending.
-side quests hard to navigation and must remember what they said there's no side quests list to remember. -good content, u have 6 different weapon type, good main and secret bosses.
Pretty solid TPP action RPG game with lite Souls elements. It's very accessible and fairy easy compared to some others Soulslike game. Combat is not bad and level design is pretty good. But its just lack some depth both in the story and gameplay.
The game is incredibly mid. Fighting is boring and too simple, skills are boring and pointless, level design is sub-par, with every level being a labyrinth where everything looks the same, and you don't get fast travel until the half-way point of the game.
But the worst is the story, with the typical mary sue little girl being stronger than men and loved by everybody except one-dimensional evil men. There are also other cringe characters and little stories. I drew the line and uninstalled when in this one apartment there were noises and dialogue of a dominatrix beating up a guy and calling him a useless pig. It had nothing to do with the story and it completely didn't fit the tone of the game which is supposed to be this magical adventure. And think what would happen if the roles were reversed.
SummaryWelcome to Aphes – a city-state full of magic and wonder inspired by ancient Rome and classical Greek designs. From the mist-covered bazaar streets to gloomy sewers, the enigmatic forests at the city’s outskirts to deep chasms full of glittering crystals, the landscapes of Aphes are full of beauty and dangers. Choose from a variety of ra...