7/10
A really cool mashup of Dark Souls and something more meditative like Journey. I do wish more focus had been put on what Ashen does differently than the Souls games, particularly in the last few hours of the game.
Ashen is a great looking game and a relatively enjoyable 20 hours, but there is absolutely nothing going on under the surface to make it stand out. It’s a decent experience that’s worth giving a shot if you’re interested, but don’t expect much from it. It suffers severely from it’s over-simplification, and it needed to have way more enemies, weapons, items, or SOMETHING to switch it up a bit. I mean, you can very easily beat the entire game with the starting weapon (which, if memory serves me, is just a wooden stick). There has to be more progression than that.
Played the PS4 version on PS5.
This game is a pretty rough play in a lot of ways. The boss fights are janky and largely unfun, but this is offset by the melancholic beauty of the world you're exploring. My experience was largely saved by playing it with my brother, though dumbfounding design choices around where you can match-make and where you can't caused some level of frustration.
Overall, pick it up on a sale and try to play it with someone else.
This game is a pretty rough play in a lot of ways. The boss fights are janky and largely unfun, but this is offset by the melancholic beauty of the world you're exploring. My experience was largely saved by playing it with my brother, though dumbfounding design choices around where you can match-make and where you can't caused some level of frustration.
Overall, pick it up on a sale and try to play it with someone else.
Compared to its peers, Dark Souls is already minimalist, so a game whose pitch boils down to “minimalist Dark Souls” would in theory not have much to work with, but Ashen is able to leverage the format into some considerable strengths. Certainly, there are weaknesses such as enemy and weapon variety, but walking into a new area or seeing a mythical creature is always magical when it's rendered in such an evocative art style. I wish that I could connect with the story in any way (the stylized lack of faces certainly did not help) but I had a good time with the game overall.
a primeira dugeon desse jogo e uma piada que me assombra
Fantastic indie Souls-like game with a lovely soundtrack and an emphasis on multiplayer. Kinda wish characters didn't look like lego people with their faces wiped off.
Ashen is a pretty standard, if stripped down, take on the Dark Souls formula, but it does some interesting things and has a cool aesthetic and world.
Combat is well done, though not quite as responsive and smooth as I would like. I didn't like most of the weapons, but the axe I eventually settled on felt good to use by the end of the game. There also isn't magic or really even ranged combat, so there isn't a lot to mix things up, which makes combat feel pretty one-note.
There are some tedious difficulty issues, especially with bosses and dungeons. Many of the harder encounters feel pretty unfair and expose a lot of the clunkiness and limitations of the combat. I really didn't like the final boss and it has an extreme run to get back to it, so I abandoned the game there.
I like the look of Ashen quite a bit. It is a desolate world and the flat shading gets the feeling across without really feeling wearing or as boring as it otherwise might. Some of the creature designs are very cool and the characters manage to be expressive and varied with a very limited set of elements.
The world itself is interesting as well, with some cool (if predictable) background and lore.
This is one of the better games in this genre that I have played, despite my misgivings. It is worth checking out if you are a fan of the genre.
Combat is well done, though not quite as responsive and smooth as I would like. I didn't like most of the weapons, but the axe I eventually settled on felt good to use by the end of the game. There also isn't magic or really even ranged combat, so there isn't a lot to mix things up, which makes combat feel pretty one-note.
There are some tedious difficulty issues, especially with bosses and dungeons. Many of the harder encounters feel pretty unfair and expose a lot of the clunkiness and limitations of the combat. I really didn't like the final boss and it has an extreme run to get back to it, so I abandoned the game there.
I like the look of Ashen quite a bit. It is a desolate world and the flat shading gets the feeling across without really feeling wearing or as boring as it otherwise might. Some of the creature designs are very cool and the characters manage to be expressive and varied with a very limited set of elements.
The world itself is interesting as well, with some cool (if predictable) background and lore.
This is one of the better games in this genre that I have played, despite my misgivings. It is worth checking out if you are a fan of the genre.
Bro it's just like dark souls bro it's just like dark souls
I admit, I gave this nowhere near enough chance to give a rating, I only played for maybe 15 minutes. But those 15 minutes suggested it was just the same as a thousand other games so I figured it'd be one to miss.
Somehow I am just not feeling it... The combat has no depth and the world design is just not for me.
Yes, this is inspired by Dark Souls.
Yes, you can upgrade weapons, your mannequin and healing juice with souls.
So is it any good? Well.. If your heart desires for any soulslike: yes.
But let's be honest.. this will never replace the joy and satisfaction you feel when beating ornstein/smough.
The world is too boring, the enemies too easy to beat, the bosses are jokingly easy. BUT wait for the dungeons... They will finish you. Again and again. Why?
These dungeons make no sense and are waaay to time consuming. 20 min walk, you die and have to repeat it all again? Why are there no shortcuts? Clever shortcuts made Dark Souls great.
So in this case: Mission failed.
Yes, you can upgrade weapons, your mannequin and healing juice with souls.
So is it any good? Well.. If your heart desires for any soulslike: yes.
But let's be honest.. this will never replace the joy and satisfaction you feel when beating ornstein/smough.
The world is too boring, the enemies too easy to beat, the bosses are jokingly easy. BUT wait for the dungeons... They will finish you. Again and again. Why?
These dungeons make no sense and are waaay to time consuming. 20 min walk, you die and have to repeat it all again? Why are there no shortcuts? Clever shortcuts made Dark Souls great.
So in this case: Mission failed.
Friendly
6/10
The aesthetic combines perfect black/white visuals with a symbolic myth that I find works really well only it didn't do nearly as much as it could've with it. The game was going well on most levels except I didn't like the open area fauna fighting but then seemed to abruptly end. It didn't build up or take any majorly interesting turn from the begging. A game with great ideas, fair execution and entirely missed opportunities.
6/10
The aesthetic combines perfect black/white visuals with a symbolic myth that I find works really well only it didn't do nearly as much as it could've with it. The game was going well on most levels except I didn't like the open area fauna fighting but then seemed to abruptly end. It didn't build up or take any majorly interesting turn from the begging. A game with great ideas, fair execution and entirely missed opportunities.
Weird darksouls wannabe with little to no substance
A very solid souls like that misses the mark on a few important elements, but has one of the most fun maps to explore in the genre.
Incredible use of scale and location in this game. Effortlessly flips the switch between serene and terrifying at a moments notice. Has some great fights too!
Every amateur Blender artist wet dream.
Esperei mt desse jogo, ele tem problemas de te manter interessado, mas fora isso, mt bem feitinho.
Pasamos tremendo jefe con sypha y estaba viendo la cinemática que viene luego, cuando termine me di cuenta que sypha había muerto , tremendo pete, además no podía carrearlo más.
Was so excited for this game and then the companion kept glitching over a rock and not coming back up. Just got frustrated with it from the start and put it away
Ashen es sin duda un extraño acercamiento a la formula soulsborne, se construye sobre dicha base, tomando lo esencial del diseño, pero pareciera que los cimientos no fueron suficientes para armar una experiencia solida.
El juego tiene un arranque lento que establece su bucle interno, llevándonos de la mano con una serie de tareas que crearan el punto de partida para la evolución del jugador y la narrativa: El Descanso del Vagabundo. Este Hub, al que deberemos recurrir para el almacenamiento y mejora de armas, compra de consumibles, creación de objetos y demás elementos que mejoraran las capacidades de nuestro personaje, se mantendrá como el eje principal de nuestra aventura, viéndose transformado conforme avanzamos en la historia. La idea me gusta, pues crea un incentivo palpable y representa una alegoría entrañable consonante con el leitmotiv de la narrativa central.
Junto a la evolución del Hub, otro gran acierto que le veo a Ashen son los compañeros y la integración del multijugador pasivo; ambos crean una sensación de solidaridad que refuerza aun mas el eje central narrativo, creando cierta sensación de esperanza util para el contexto de restaurar la gloria de un mundo hundido en las sombras. A su vez, Ashen integra a estos compañeros con los denominados «Viajes», que son esencialmente cadenas de misiones secundarias vinculadas al trasfondo de cada compañero. Las mismas hacen bien su trabajo para expandir el universo del juego y establecer a cada personaje, pero donde entra su factor clave es cuando los mismos diseños evolucionan, creando versiones mas complejas y fuertes a comparación de la base que se nos fue presentada, que además ofrece mayores bonificaciones que podemos adquirir en el Hub. No es realmente nada extraordinario, pero lo considero una buena adición que, de forma quizás nimia, consigue contribuir a la sensación de progreso.
Llego el momento de señalar mis problemas con el juego y su bucle jugable, quizás no sean tantos, pero son la razón de haber establecido que la experiencia no es solida.
Entrando al terreno del combate y la exploración, no me parece que estén bien diseñados.
Hablemos primero del combate. Si, se siente el peso en cada golpe y hay una constante retroalimentación para cuando se acierta o no, pero el mismo se siente demasiado reducido, la profundidad escasea por lo que hacer una buena build no es algo que importe. Por hablar de mi experiencia, supere todo el juego con dos armas que conseguí en la segunda zona y sin hacer uso del escudo, sobre todo con una porra a dos manos cuyo factor de impacto hacia caer hasta a los enemigos mas grandes o con escudos de un solo golpe, lo que hacia el resto del enfrentamiento muy sencillo. Existe una muy buena variedad en enemigos con estilos de combate propios, pero si puedo solo correr, asestarles un porrazo y terminarlos en el suelo a todos, de qué me sirve que exista la variedad. También creo que los jefes no brillan lo que deberían a excepción del jefe final, son en su mayoría enfrentamientos lentos que establecen un factor de riesgo al presentarse tras secciones de mazmorra sin puntos de guardado o saturando al jugador con esbirros, pues sus ataques son lentos y demasiado telegrafiados, haciendo de la repetición un tedio absurdo.
Sobre la exploración. Creo que esta bien incentivada tras el descubrimiento de cada zona, pues siempre habrá algo para encontrar que te pueda ser útil, desde materiales de mejora, consumibles para la recuperación de salud y vigor (estamina), hasta armamento y armaduras. Pero cuando has cubierto la mayoría de una zona el backtracking hasta el Hub o un punto de guardado es un tedio gigante debido a la linealidad del diseño del mapa, por los mismo una vez desbloqueando el viaje rápido se vuelve una herramienta de uso constante a menos que quieras farmear escoria (la moneda del juego) por el camino, volviendo al mundo un mero intermediario entre objetivos. En contraposición a mi afirmación sobre que la exploración esta bien incentivada, creo que también hay una saturación de objetos en todo el mapa, con solo recorrer las principales áreas de una zona vas cargadísimo de material de mejora y otros consumibles, súmalo al lo simple del combate, da como resultado que la mejora de armas se desbalancea en cierto punto haciendo aun mas sencillo el combate y quitando aun mas dificultad a los jefes.
Haciendo un comentario general de la historia, creo que establece mejor sus elementos en el mundo del juego que en su propia narración, pues si bien el escenario y los personajes cambian, sus vidas e historias nos son únicamente contadas por el dialogo, que además es acompañado de misiones simplonas de ve a tal lugar y trae tal objeto regado por el piso o mata a tal enemigo genérico, por que si, enfrentamientos clave en los «Viajes» son en su mayoría contra enemigo típicos de la zona, lo que hizo que muchas veces hiciera que después de matar a un random viese que ya había progresado en un «Viaje» que ni estaba siguiendo, el hilo principal es el único que integra enfrentamientos grandilocuentes y misiones un tantito mas variadas. Al final, a pesar del buen intento y lo interesante del concepto, no me sentí realmente inmerso en sus historias.
Para terminar con una nota positiva debo decir que la dirección artística es una maravilla minimalista, pues a pesar de ser low-poly, se consigue crear escenarios y situaciones preciosos. Sobre todo con ciertas secuencias que gracias a un excelente juego de escala y magnitud entregan momentos icónicos. Una pasada.
A pesar de todo, no me la pase del todo mal con el juego, el viaje fue interesante y realmente entretenido, no fue hasta las ultimas horas que le empecé a ver las costuras al juego, terminando en mi valoración de no recomendarlo a pesar de haber disfrutado de buena parte de la experiencia. Quizás si ya te gustan los souls-like sea una parada que sientas la curiosidad de visitar, pero ya te lo digo, esta lejos de ser un buen exponente para los mismos.
TU DALE WE, ESTA MADRE ES ELDEN RING CHIQUITO, EL KBRON DE ARRIBA ESTA PENDEJO, Y LO DIGO YO... SIENDO YO.
El juego tiene un arranque lento que establece su bucle interno, llevándonos de la mano con una serie de tareas que crearan el punto de partida para la evolución del jugador y la narrativa: El Descanso del Vagabundo. Este Hub, al que deberemos recurrir para el almacenamiento y mejora de armas, compra de consumibles, creación de objetos y demás elementos que mejoraran las capacidades de nuestro personaje, se mantendrá como el eje principal de nuestra aventura, viéndose transformado conforme avanzamos en la historia. La idea me gusta, pues crea un incentivo palpable y representa una alegoría entrañable consonante con el leitmotiv de la narrativa central.
Junto a la evolución del Hub, otro gran acierto que le veo a Ashen son los compañeros y la integración del multijugador pasivo; ambos crean una sensación de solidaridad que refuerza aun mas el eje central narrativo, creando cierta sensación de esperanza util para el contexto de restaurar la gloria de un mundo hundido en las sombras. A su vez, Ashen integra a estos compañeros con los denominados «Viajes», que son esencialmente cadenas de misiones secundarias vinculadas al trasfondo de cada compañero. Las mismas hacen bien su trabajo para expandir el universo del juego y establecer a cada personaje, pero donde entra su factor clave es cuando los mismos diseños evolucionan, creando versiones mas complejas y fuertes a comparación de la base que se nos fue presentada, que además ofrece mayores bonificaciones que podemos adquirir en el Hub. No es realmente nada extraordinario, pero lo considero una buena adición que, de forma quizás nimia, consigue contribuir a la sensación de progreso.
Llego el momento de señalar mis problemas con el juego y su bucle jugable, quizás no sean tantos, pero son la razón de haber establecido que la experiencia no es solida.
Entrando al terreno del combate y la exploración, no me parece que estén bien diseñados.
Hablemos primero del combate. Si, se siente el peso en cada golpe y hay una constante retroalimentación para cuando se acierta o no, pero el mismo se siente demasiado reducido, la profundidad escasea por lo que hacer una buena build no es algo que importe. Por hablar de mi experiencia, supere todo el juego con dos armas que conseguí en la segunda zona y sin hacer uso del escudo, sobre todo con una porra a dos manos cuyo factor de impacto hacia caer hasta a los enemigos mas grandes o con escudos de un solo golpe, lo que hacia el resto del enfrentamiento muy sencillo. Existe una muy buena variedad en enemigos con estilos de combate propios, pero si puedo solo correr, asestarles un porrazo y terminarlos en el suelo a todos, de qué me sirve que exista la variedad. También creo que los jefes no brillan lo que deberían a excepción del jefe final, son en su mayoría enfrentamientos lentos que establecen un factor de riesgo al presentarse tras secciones de mazmorra sin puntos de guardado o saturando al jugador con esbirros, pues sus ataques son lentos y demasiado telegrafiados, haciendo de la repetición un tedio absurdo.
Sobre la exploración. Creo que esta bien incentivada tras el descubrimiento de cada zona, pues siempre habrá algo para encontrar que te pueda ser útil, desde materiales de mejora, consumibles para la recuperación de salud y vigor (estamina), hasta armamento y armaduras. Pero cuando has cubierto la mayoría de una zona el backtracking hasta el Hub o un punto de guardado es un tedio gigante debido a la linealidad del diseño del mapa, por los mismo una vez desbloqueando el viaje rápido se vuelve una herramienta de uso constante a menos que quieras farmear escoria (la moneda del juego) por el camino, volviendo al mundo un mero intermediario entre objetivos. En contraposición a mi afirmación sobre que la exploración esta bien incentivada, creo que también hay una saturación de objetos en todo el mapa, con solo recorrer las principales áreas de una zona vas cargadísimo de material de mejora y otros consumibles, súmalo al lo simple del combate, da como resultado que la mejora de armas se desbalancea en cierto punto haciendo aun mas sencillo el combate y quitando aun mas dificultad a los jefes.
Haciendo un comentario general de la historia, creo que establece mejor sus elementos en el mundo del juego que en su propia narración, pues si bien el escenario y los personajes cambian, sus vidas e historias nos son únicamente contadas por el dialogo, que además es acompañado de misiones simplonas de ve a tal lugar y trae tal objeto regado por el piso o mata a tal enemigo genérico, por que si, enfrentamientos clave en los «Viajes» son en su mayoría contra enemigo típicos de la zona, lo que hizo que muchas veces hiciera que después de matar a un random viese que ya había progresado en un «Viaje» que ni estaba siguiendo, el hilo principal es el único que integra enfrentamientos grandilocuentes y misiones un tantito mas variadas. Al final, a pesar del buen intento y lo interesante del concepto, no me sentí realmente inmerso en sus historias.
Para terminar con una nota positiva debo decir que la dirección artística es una maravilla minimalista, pues a pesar de ser low-poly, se consigue crear escenarios y situaciones preciosos. Sobre todo con ciertas secuencias que gracias a un excelente juego de escala y magnitud entregan momentos icónicos. Una pasada.
A pesar de todo, no me la pase del todo mal con el juego, el viaje fue interesante y realmente entretenido, no fue hasta las ultimas horas que le empecé a ver las costuras al juego, terminando en mi valoración de no recomendarlo a pesar de haber disfrutado de buena parte de la experiencia. Quizás si ya te gustan los souls-like sea una parada que sientas la curiosidad de visitar, pero ya te lo digo, esta lejos de ser un buen exponente para los mismos.
TU DALE WE, ESTA MADRE ES ELDEN RING CHIQUITO, EL KBRON DE ARRIBA ESTA PENDEJO, Y LO DIGO YO... SIENDO YO.
I think this game has potential but it tries too much to be a souls like that ends up being something like Lords of the Fallen, clunky and slow
Marking this as completed despite bailing out at the final area - I make the rules here.
For the most part I absolutely loved playing this game, its a soulslike that is quite gentle and relatively peaceful. It has a beautiful art style, the open spaces feel fun to explore and climbing around the world with your JUMP button is always great fun, and always scary! The game would be getting closer to 5 stars if it wasn't for the following issues:
-There is a lack of enemy variety.
-I found the upgrades lacking after a certain point, once I'd maxed out my weapons I felt like I didn't care about collecting Scoria anymore because there was nothing else that I wanted to buy!
-I think the dungeons absolutely suck, they're far too long and difficult. I know this sounds a bit whingey but the first time I got to a proper dungeon I was absolutely loving it, when I died it drove me insane because I hadn't reached a save point. Fine, I'll get there this time. Unfortunately there are no save points in the dungeons until right before the boss room. You have to do it all in one and after dying about 20 times I was just not having fun any more!
I wanted to be able to say that this game was amazing because when it is good it really is amazing. I love the way the town changes as you play through the game, the quest system felt really rewarding despite being simple, and I found exploring the overworld (the bulk of the game) really exciting and cool! Get rid of those shite dungeons and caves and then this is a much better game. Gonna play Elden Ring when I feel like I am good enough at games again :)
For the most part I absolutely loved playing this game, its a soulslike that is quite gentle and relatively peaceful. It has a beautiful art style, the open spaces feel fun to explore and climbing around the world with your JUMP button is always great fun, and always scary! The game would be getting closer to 5 stars if it wasn't for the following issues:
-There is a lack of enemy variety.
-I found the upgrades lacking after a certain point, once I'd maxed out my weapons I felt like I didn't care about collecting Scoria anymore because there was nothing else that I wanted to buy!
-I think the dungeons absolutely suck, they're far too long and difficult. I know this sounds a bit whingey but the first time I got to a proper dungeon I was absolutely loving it, when I died it drove me insane because I hadn't reached a save point. Fine, I'll get there this time. Unfortunately there are no save points in the dungeons until right before the boss room. You have to do it all in one and after dying about 20 times I was just not having fun any more!
I wanted to be able to say that this game was amazing because when it is good it really is amazing. I love the way the town changes as you play through the game, the quest system felt really rewarding despite being simple, and I found exploring the overworld (the bulk of the game) really exciting and cool! Get rid of those shite dungeons and caves and then this is a much better game. Gonna play Elden Ring when I feel like I am good enough at games again :)
One of the few indie soulslike games that I can recall enjoying for a limited time. As someone who generally dislikes soulsborne type games, the art direction on this one made me play it for longer then I probably should have. Didn't have the paitence to see it to the end however. Would try something by this Dev again.
Surprisingly good Souslike that might be the overall best one I've played, but suffers some serious problems. The game boasts a pretty and very cool art style quite unlike anything we've seen before and that stays strong throughout most of the game, perhaps one area excluded. It has combat that's similar enough to Souls to be comfortable and recognizable, but also distinct enough to feel like you're playing a retread, with the major difference being that there are more encounters with multiple enemies, tailored for this game's more co-op-focused design. The world is enjoyable with many things to find in every corner, leading to satisfying and fun exploration, especially once you find the ability that lets you throw spears to teleport to certain statues, which really changes how you view and investigate the environment around you.
The best part deserves its own paragraph; in this game, your goal is to establish a village and help out other survivors for some vague story reason I've forgotten. As you complete missions and recruit new citizens to your village, it will change and grow as you return to it to complete quests, and the most charming part is that you can see the characters working on the houses as they're being built. You start with just a campfire and finish with a full-blown little village of houses of various styles and sizes. You also begin with nothing and end with several different types of smiths and workbenches to do various things with. I love it and want to see things like this in every RPG!
When the game works as intended, which is most of the time in the overworld area of the game, it's addictive and enjoyable. When the game is at its best, it's probably even the best Soulslike out there. Traversing the normal world, with the exception of the third, ash-filled, area that is just a drag to both explore and look at it, is always enjoyable as the world is pretty and there is a reasonable amount of enemies placed in locations that are interesting to search. The combat isn't quite Dark Souls level, but it's good enough for what it is, and most enemies reach at least a base level of enjoyable to fight, with only a few exceptions. Basically, and in short, the first half of the game and up until you reach the infamous Matriarch is a joyous experiences.
However, the game has a few too many problems, mostly related to the focus on co-op and how bad the AI companions are. They are mostly fine and often quite helpful, which makes it even more frustrating when they decide to just despawn out of nowhere and for no reason, walk off a bridge and die while leaving you alone for the rest of that mission or just stand there and stare at a wall while you scream for them to stop it and come help you. It really doesn't help that the worst areas for AI survival are also the hardest dungeons, since they're unnecessarily filled with thin walkways and pitfalls that your programmed friend just can't handle, and this issue is made even worse by the sheer size and length of those dungeons. Dark Souls never makes you play stretches this long without a single bonfire in sight, forcing you to replay a solid 45 minutes to get back to where you were and regain your "souls", but this game does it in several places. Since the game is so heavily co-op focused with many fights that are unfair without help, the poor companion behavior brings the's game score down quite far. The most frustrating part is that this seems like developer pride, and that they really needed to accept that their companion code was a bit shit and that they should have offered more respawn stations for the AI in the tougher areas to make up for it just wandering off a bridge and ditching the player when they need the help the most.
As an aside, I personally didn't appreciate that this game is always online in co-op with an open lobby without ever telling you either that you're playing in an open lobby that people may join at any time, while also not mentioning that someone has joined you in any way whatsoever. I figured out that, wait a minute, I'm in an open co-op lobby and my "AI" friend is actually a human player when I saw the companion start to pick up loot and try to use the beckon feature to make me follow them. The game seems to employ some kind of automatic system where you join other people's games, and vice versa, without either player actually knowing that it's happening. That felt like, I don't know, some kind of mild invasion of privacy, that the game just puts you in an open lobby without ever telling you and then there's no info pop-up whatsoever that someone has joined you either. This is the only time I've had someone else show up in my game without so much as a "XxPussySmasher420xX has joined your party" or anything and it felt kind of uncomfortable and weird. I don't feel better about it since a human witnessed my perhaps most embarassing death, when I accidently pressed the jump button instead of loot on one of the aforementioned tiny ledges.
Let's not even talk about the absolute absurdity that is the ridiculous final boss. No, wait, she sucks so much that I have to dedicate a paragraph to her. She prevents me from ever getting the platinum trophy for this game since that requires you to play on hard and there are Dark Souls veterans around the internet who say that completing this boss solo and on hard is literally just impossible. I believe it and I'm never even going to start hard mode in this game. She was stupid-hard on normal and I've never struggled that much with a boss in any Soulsborne game. She isn't even a boss design since she's just good at literally everything and I don't think that qualifies as a design since a child can come up with this. Lightning fast and just steps out of your attack combo without ever being stunned, does absurd damage and can 2-hit you with a stunlock inbetween hits and has two absolutely massive health bars. She's made even worse by the fact that you have to replay her dungeon every time you want to try again, the companion happily dies often in said dungeon and each new attempt costs resources in spears, health and the damage resistance potion. She also demands a heavy weapon with a wide swing and I had chosen a heavy with precision attacks, which are just too slow for this speed demon on meth, so I had to spend a few hours upgrading a different axe just to be able to stand a chance. This boss sucks and is a really sour end to the game.
So, quite an enjoyable experience in most areas of the game, where the AI companion can behave and the game flows as its meant to, with a few too many misguided areas that could've been polished and where the developers just needed to swallow their pride and make some changes for the betterment of the game. Cool artstyle, solid enough combat that feels like Dark Souls Lite, enjoyable exploration with things to find in every corner and with some very sneaky and fun-to-find hiding spots, but the review score is brought down little by little, every time your idiot AI friend just attack combo's their way off a ledge and leaves you alone to take care of like a dozen enemies at the same time, and by the completely absurd final boss that comes out of nowhere. Was going to end the review by saying that I hope that the game made enough money for the studio to still be around, but they appear to be fine and have already shown off their next game, which actually looks cool even though it no longer has a unique art style. As much as I may have complained in this review, I will definitely be trying the team's next game to see if they've learned from Ashen and created an even better game. I hope they do!
The best part deserves its own paragraph; in this game, your goal is to establish a village and help out other survivors for some vague story reason I've forgotten. As you complete missions and recruit new citizens to your village, it will change and grow as you return to it to complete quests, and the most charming part is that you can see the characters working on the houses as they're being built. You start with just a campfire and finish with a full-blown little village of houses of various styles and sizes. You also begin with nothing and end with several different types of smiths and workbenches to do various things with. I love it and want to see things like this in every RPG!
When the game works as intended, which is most of the time in the overworld area of the game, it's addictive and enjoyable. When the game is at its best, it's probably even the best Soulslike out there. Traversing the normal world, with the exception of the third, ash-filled, area that is just a drag to both explore and look at it, is always enjoyable as the world is pretty and there is a reasonable amount of enemies placed in locations that are interesting to search. The combat isn't quite Dark Souls level, but it's good enough for what it is, and most enemies reach at least a base level of enjoyable to fight, with only a few exceptions. Basically, and in short, the first half of the game and up until you reach the infamous Matriarch is a joyous experiences.
However, the game has a few too many problems, mostly related to the focus on co-op and how bad the AI companions are. They are mostly fine and often quite helpful, which makes it even more frustrating when they decide to just despawn out of nowhere and for no reason, walk off a bridge and die while leaving you alone for the rest of that mission or just stand there and stare at a wall while you scream for them to stop it and come help you. It really doesn't help that the worst areas for AI survival are also the hardest dungeons, since they're unnecessarily filled with thin walkways and pitfalls that your programmed friend just can't handle, and this issue is made even worse by the sheer size and length of those dungeons. Dark Souls never makes you play stretches this long without a single bonfire in sight, forcing you to replay a solid 45 minutes to get back to where you were and regain your "souls", but this game does it in several places. Since the game is so heavily co-op focused with many fights that are unfair without help, the poor companion behavior brings the's game score down quite far. The most frustrating part is that this seems like developer pride, and that they really needed to accept that their companion code was a bit shit and that they should have offered more respawn stations for the AI in the tougher areas to make up for it just wandering off a bridge and ditching the player when they need the help the most.
As an aside, I personally didn't appreciate that this game is always online in co-op with an open lobby without ever telling you either that you're playing in an open lobby that people may join at any time, while also not mentioning that someone has joined you in any way whatsoever. I figured out that, wait a minute, I'm in an open co-op lobby and my "AI" friend is actually a human player when I saw the companion start to pick up loot and try to use the beckon feature to make me follow them. The game seems to employ some kind of automatic system where you join other people's games, and vice versa, without either player actually knowing that it's happening. That felt like, I don't know, some kind of mild invasion of privacy, that the game just puts you in an open lobby without ever telling you and then there's no info pop-up whatsoever that someone has joined you either. This is the only time I've had someone else show up in my game without so much as a "XxPussySmasher420xX has joined your party" or anything and it felt kind of uncomfortable and weird. I don't feel better about it since a human witnessed my perhaps most embarassing death, when I accidently pressed the jump button instead of loot on one of the aforementioned tiny ledges.
Let's not even talk about the absolute absurdity that is the ridiculous final boss. No, wait, she sucks so much that I have to dedicate a paragraph to her. She prevents me from ever getting the platinum trophy for this game since that requires you to play on hard and there are Dark Souls veterans around the internet who say that completing this boss solo and on hard is literally just impossible. I believe it and I'm never even going to start hard mode in this game. She was stupid-hard on normal and I've never struggled that much with a boss in any Soulsborne game. She isn't even a boss design since she's just good at literally everything and I don't think that qualifies as a design since a child can come up with this. Lightning fast and just steps out of your attack combo without ever being stunned, does absurd damage and can 2-hit you with a stunlock inbetween hits and has two absolutely massive health bars. She's made even worse by the fact that you have to replay her dungeon every time you want to try again, the companion happily dies often in said dungeon and each new attempt costs resources in spears, health and the damage resistance potion. She also demands a heavy weapon with a wide swing and I had chosen a heavy with precision attacks, which are just too slow for this speed demon on meth, so I had to spend a few hours upgrading a different axe just to be able to stand a chance. This boss sucks and is a really sour end to the game.
So, quite an enjoyable experience in most areas of the game, where the AI companion can behave and the game flows as its meant to, with a few too many misguided areas that could've been polished and where the developers just needed to swallow their pride and make some changes for the betterment of the game. Cool artstyle, solid enough combat that feels like Dark Souls Lite, enjoyable exploration with things to find in every corner and with some very sneaky and fun-to-find hiding spots, but the review score is brought down little by little, every time your idiot AI friend just attack combo's their way off a ledge and leaves you alone to take care of like a dozen enemies at the same time, and by the completely absurd final boss that comes out of nowhere. Was going to end the review by saying that I hope that the game made enough money for the studio to still be around, but they appear to be fine and have already shown off their next game, which actually looks cool even though it no longer has a unique art style. As much as I may have complained in this review, I will definitely be trying the team's next game to see if they've learned from Ashen and created an even better game. I hope they do!
Pretty fun 'Full Coop' soulslike game. Has a strong style that holds well, but the killer aspect is coop. If you want to play a whole souls game with a friend, this is it
Great atmosphere and decent combat. Clever minimalistic designs. Enemy variety is on the low end, and every weapon feels the same. AI companion is a dumbass at times.
Honestly, I fucked around with this for like 2 or 3 hours and I just wasn't feeling it. The aesthetic is there and the world seems interesting enough, but I just never felt any compulsion or drive to keep going with this.
I'm shelving it for now, might pick it up at a later time.
I'm shelving it for now, might pick it up at a later time.
No other game has ever conjured up the same feeling of abandonment as Ashen does when Jokell disconnects from you 30 minutes deep into a dungeon and just never comes back while the enemies behind you are starting to respawn.
Fun game, had to start it a couple of times to get into the groove. It was worth it, so for anybody that wants to start this game, go for it - it's definitely worth a try.