I picked this up from a humble bundle, and I'm pretty glad it was included because otherwise I don't think I would've ever even heard about this game. It definitely flew under the radar a bit which is a shame because I think it's really good.
I wasn't sure what to expect from Astalon, all I really knew was that it's an NES-style metroidvania. The start of the game was kinda slow, but I feel like that's a pretty frequent problem within the genre so I won't hold that against it too much. Having three characters to play with (and later 5) is pretty cool. They all have different weapons and attributes that make them feel unique. I can only think of two downsides, first is that swapping between them requires a lot of backtracking in the beginning, but that issue basically goes away entirely once you find the item that lets you switch on the fly. The other is that in my opinion Zeek doesn't really fill any role particularly well and is almost completely outclassed by Bram (who is the most hilariously blatant Simon Belmont copy I've ever seen by the way). Beyond that though the main three you start with are all great.
The game is pretty hard honestly. There are really few ways to restore health so I died a lot. I do think that's fine though because dying is not very punishing at all. There are a lot of warps to get back to where you need to be and it's also the main way to get to the upgrades store. Sometimes I just have a lot of orbs and hit the lowtiergod "I should kill myself NOW". For real though it's a pretty cool mechanic that takes away a lot of the sting of dying since you can always buy some stuff and come back stronger.
I did 100% the main game and for the most part it wasn't too bad. There were definitely points where I got so lost that I had to look up a guide though. Arguably a skill issue but whatever. The only part of it I really disliked was finding the few rooms I never entered which was a huge pain considering how big the map is (plus it's required to get the good ending). And farming orbs is absolutely mandatory for getting every shop upgrade. But if you don't care about those then you'll be fine.
Once you beat the game there are three other modes you can play - boss rush, and two extra campaigns as new characters. I didn't really mess with the last two since they seem to just be playing the whole thing again which I'm not really interested in doing right now lol. I did do boss rush though and I feel like it sucked. When you go into these fights you are nowhere near as strong as you'd be in the main game which makes it pretty miserable. For the average player I feel like it's pointless to even try it without getting Blood Chalice right away since it's the only reliable form of healing, but this also results in the fights taking ages because of how much time you need to spend turtling waiting to get some HP back. I wouldn't recommend bothering with it. Also I'm trying really hard not to let it affect my rating too much because it is the last thing I played before deciding I was finished lmao.
Anyway to get to the point, it's not a perfect game, but I had really a great time and would for sure recommend it to anybody who's into metroidvanias.
I wasn't sure what to expect from Astalon, all I really knew was that it's an NES-style metroidvania. The start of the game was kinda slow, but I feel like that's a pretty frequent problem within the genre so I won't hold that against it too much. Having three characters to play with (and later 5) is pretty cool. They all have different weapons and attributes that make them feel unique. I can only think of two downsides, first is that swapping between them requires a lot of backtracking in the beginning, but that issue basically goes away entirely once you find the item that lets you switch on the fly. The other is that in my opinion Zeek doesn't really fill any role particularly well and is almost completely outclassed by Bram (who is the most hilariously blatant Simon Belmont copy I've ever seen by the way). Beyond that though the main three you start with are all great.
The game is pretty hard honestly. There are really few ways to restore health so I died a lot. I do think that's fine though because dying is not very punishing at all. There are a lot of warps to get back to where you need to be and it's also the main way to get to the upgrades store. Sometimes I just have a lot of orbs and hit the lowtiergod "I should kill myself NOW". For real though it's a pretty cool mechanic that takes away a lot of the sting of dying since you can always buy some stuff and come back stronger.
I did 100% the main game and for the most part it wasn't too bad. There were definitely points where I got so lost that I had to look up a guide though. Arguably a skill issue but whatever. The only part of it I really disliked was finding the few rooms I never entered which was a huge pain considering how big the map is (plus it's required to get the good ending). And farming orbs is absolutely mandatory for getting every shop upgrade. But if you don't care about those then you'll be fine.
Once you beat the game there are three other modes you can play - boss rush, and two extra campaigns as new characters. I didn't really mess with the last two since they seem to just be playing the whole thing again which I'm not really interested in doing right now lol. I did do boss rush though and I feel like it sucked. When you go into these fights you are nowhere near as strong as you'd be in the main game which makes it pretty miserable. For the average player I feel like it's pointless to even try it without getting Blood Chalice right away since it's the only reliable form of healing, but this also results in the fights taking ages because of how much time you need to spend turtling waiting to get some HP back. I wouldn't recommend bothering with it. Also I'm trying really hard not to let it affect my rating too much because it is the last thing I played before deciding I was finished lmao.
Anyway to get to the point, it's not a perfect game, but I had really a great time and would for sure recommend it to anybody who's into metroidvanias.