In every Fantasy-obsessed ex-NES gamer's mind, there exists the perfect evil castle. It's a brutal landscape chocked full of untold secrets, powerful items, deadly sections of spikes and leaps of faith, and powerful villains to slay - all born out of some fever dream amalgamation of every 8-bit sword-and-shield adventure and Saturday morning cartoon shoved together by sheer imagination and a fantastical desire for adventure. The Tower of Serpents in Astalon: Tears of the Night fulfills this dream in almost every possible way.
Controlling a party of adventurers, you scale the Tower in order to save your town from a poison emanating from within, and you will need the strengths of every party member if you are to uncover all of its secrets and save the day. There are certain platforming sections that require the use of the Rogue's wall-jump, or walls that can only be destroyed by a Warrior, or magical orbs that need activation by Wizard spells. Astalon is very good at showing you the conventions and rules of the game quickly so that the puzzles never seem frustrating and you never feel clueless, allowing you to focus on what the game does best - exploration and gameplay.
Astalon follows the standard Metroidvania framework, but throws in a rogue-(very)lite wrinkle within the story. Every time you die, you start back at the bottom of the tower. Everything you unlocked stays unlocked and everything you've discovered stays discovered; it's up to you to return to the scene of your death and continue. Though this could seem frustrating, Astalon is actually built around this concept, and it further enhances the experience of exploration. Like Hades, the game expects you to die, and you are able to level up and buy items after each death in order to become more powerful. In addition, there are tons of shortcuts, secret passages, and teleports which open up quick runs through sections of the Tower, as well as elevators which serve as a fast-travel mechanic. They are well placed as well, with elevators before every major boss.
The Tower is dense not only with shortcuts, but secrets as well. There is a secret from the very first few rooms of the castle, and while they are well-hidden, once you know the signs of hidden rooms, they are easily discoverable. Many contain power-ups such as bonus health and more powerful attacks, but some contain crucial upgrades as well. All of the abilities received throughout the game are unlocked through exploration rather than defeating bosses.
Though there are quite a few mini-bosses and eight boss-fights in total, the main portion of the game focuses on platforming challenges, using enemies as obstacles rather than tight combat encounters. The combat is still fun and you have several different ways of dealing with enemies since you control different characters, but much of what makes the encounters enjoyable are the platforming scenarios such as fighting enemies while blocks fall from under your feet, or avoiding environmental lasers, or even while trying cross spike traps. Boss fights also incorporate platforming into them, as well as multiple phases to keep you on your toes. If you level your characters up, by the mid-to-end portions of the game, they will be able to dish out some serious damage, making the bossfights manageable yet still fun. There are no difficulty settings, however I found the game to be balanced extremely well, and the ability to level up helps mitigate some of the harder challenges - if you are struggling, there's always more of the castle to explore. Astalon does a fantastic job of letting you set small goals, so there's always something you can focus on overcoming, or something to side-track to if you need to take a break and level up.
While the story itself is your standard fantasy-fare, the characters are endearing with their small personalities and sprite-work. The art-direction of the game is fantastic, and each area is unique and stands-out from both color palette as well as soundtrack. The map itself is split into multiple sections that are easy to read as well. Getting the true ending of the game does take 100% map completion, which can sound daunting, but is actually quite fun to achieve. The shop even sells a map that will show you which rooms you are missing as well, which is an excellent quality-of-life feature. It took me about 20 hours to achieve 100% map completion playing blind.
Astalon completely surprised me with its cast of characters, expertly crafted map, and finely tuned gameplay. The Tower of Serpents is fun to explore, and even after achieving 100%, the game offers new modes to explore and conquer it in different ways. Astalon is one of the best metroidvanias I've ever played, as it follows its formula to perfection.
Controlling a party of adventurers, you scale the Tower in order to save your town from a poison emanating from within, and you will need the strengths of every party member if you are to uncover all of its secrets and save the day. There are certain platforming sections that require the use of the Rogue's wall-jump, or walls that can only be destroyed by a Warrior, or magical orbs that need activation by Wizard spells. Astalon is very good at showing you the conventions and rules of the game quickly so that the puzzles never seem frustrating and you never feel clueless, allowing you to focus on what the game does best - exploration and gameplay.
Astalon follows the standard Metroidvania framework, but throws in a rogue-(very)lite wrinkle within the story. Every time you die, you start back at the bottom of the tower. Everything you unlocked stays unlocked and everything you've discovered stays discovered; it's up to you to return to the scene of your death and continue. Though this could seem frustrating, Astalon is actually built around this concept, and it further enhances the experience of exploration. Like Hades, the game expects you to die, and you are able to level up and buy items after each death in order to become more powerful. In addition, there are tons of shortcuts, secret passages, and teleports which open up quick runs through sections of the Tower, as well as elevators which serve as a fast-travel mechanic. They are well placed as well, with elevators before every major boss.
The Tower is dense not only with shortcuts, but secrets as well. There is a secret from the very first few rooms of the castle, and while they are well-hidden, once you know the signs of hidden rooms, they are easily discoverable. Many contain power-ups such as bonus health and more powerful attacks, but some contain crucial upgrades as well. All of the abilities received throughout the game are unlocked through exploration rather than defeating bosses.
Though there are quite a few mini-bosses and eight boss-fights in total, the main portion of the game focuses on platforming challenges, using enemies as obstacles rather than tight combat encounters. The combat is still fun and you have several different ways of dealing with enemies since you control different characters, but much of what makes the encounters enjoyable are the platforming scenarios such as fighting enemies while blocks fall from under your feet, or avoiding environmental lasers, or even while trying cross spike traps. Boss fights also incorporate platforming into them, as well as multiple phases to keep you on your toes. If you level your characters up, by the mid-to-end portions of the game, they will be able to dish out some serious damage, making the bossfights manageable yet still fun. There are no difficulty settings, however I found the game to be balanced extremely well, and the ability to level up helps mitigate some of the harder challenges - if you are struggling, there's always more of the castle to explore. Astalon does a fantastic job of letting you set small goals, so there's always something you can focus on overcoming, or something to side-track to if you need to take a break and level up.
While the story itself is your standard fantasy-fare, the characters are endearing with their small personalities and sprite-work. The art-direction of the game is fantastic, and each area is unique and stands-out from both color palette as well as soundtrack. The map itself is split into multiple sections that are easy to read as well. Getting the true ending of the game does take 100% map completion, which can sound daunting, but is actually quite fun to achieve. The shop even sells a map that will show you which rooms you are missing as well, which is an excellent quality-of-life feature. It took me about 20 hours to achieve 100% map completion playing blind.
Astalon completely surprised me with its cast of characters, expertly crafted map, and finely tuned gameplay. The Tower of Serpents is fun to explore, and even after achieving 100%, the game offers new modes to explore and conquer it in different ways. Astalon is one of the best metroidvanias I've ever played, as it follows its formula to perfection.
FallenGrace
1 year ago