Astalon: Tears of the Earth is a very strong metroidvania. The gameplay style is very Nintendonian and often feels like it was more inspired by NES titles then Super Metroid or Symphony of the Night, giving it a refreshingly baroque character.
The exploration is tight and I liked the progression which focuses on discovering and activating a lot of shortcuts. Closing the distance between the start of the tower and wherever you need to go is important since HP recovery in this game is scarce and there's a lot of focus on room-to-room survival. It puts intensity on every bit of platforming and combat.
I thought the RPG elements were okay. They're not an afterthought but they're not as tight as the more traditional metroidvania mechanics. The game map itself is fun to explore.
Where the game loses points is in the glitches. A few are gamebreaking but the most prominent one is the touchy dialogue confirm button which sometimes skipped past dialogue for me. I had to be careful advancing text because of that and no matter what I did to my controller and input, that never changed. There are also a few other gameplay glitches like the occasional time that I would fall right through ladders when I walked on them.
The music eventually found its way into my head. The graphics utilize and rich 8-bit style. There isn't much story but it does add to the atmosphere and the game wouldn't be as deliciously desolate without it. One of the game's most interesting qualities is even though its a Metroidvania, the movement vocabulary never gets so empowered that vertical movement is no deal. Even late in the game, a four-block high platform can be an obstacle, a puzzle to be solved. That... physicality is present even up to the end of the journey. Glad to have played this one.
The exploration is tight and I liked the progression which focuses on discovering and activating a lot of shortcuts. Closing the distance between the start of the tower and wherever you need to go is important since HP recovery in this game is scarce and there's a lot of focus on room-to-room survival. It puts intensity on every bit of platforming and combat.
I thought the RPG elements were okay. They're not an afterthought but they're not as tight as the more traditional metroidvania mechanics. The game map itself is fun to explore.
Where the game loses points is in the glitches. A few are gamebreaking but the most prominent one is the touchy dialogue confirm button which sometimes skipped past dialogue for me. I had to be careful advancing text because of that and no matter what I did to my controller and input, that never changed. There are also a few other gameplay glitches like the occasional time that I would fall right through ladders when I walked on them.
The music eventually found its way into my head. The graphics utilize and rich 8-bit style. There isn't much story but it does add to the atmosphere and the game wouldn't be as deliciously desolate without it. One of the game's most interesting qualities is even though its a Metroidvania, the movement vocabulary never gets so empowered that vertical movement is no deal. Even late in the game, a four-block high platform can be an obstacle, a puzzle to be solved. That... physicality is present even up to the end of the journey. Glad to have played this one.