Asterigos: Curse of the Stars isn’t quite as intense as Souls games, but it’s still fun as it adds the typical RPG components with a unique gameplay twist.
The latest entry into the action role-playing genre Asterigos: Curse of the Stars brings together the elements of Greek and Roman mythology. Although the Soulslike approach is at its best in gloomy, depressing environments, tinyBuild and Acme Game Studio have delivered a game that is a remarkable example of innovation and proves that the action role-playing genre can work just as well in brighter lights.
Despite its fairly polished and extensive experience compared to other games of this price, the game suffers from several unpleasant design decisions with few annoying difficulties and stumbling blocks. It’s not quite as intense as Souls, but it’s still fun as it adds the typical RPG components while adding its unique gameplay twists to be remembered for a while.
The narrative of Asterigos: Curse of the Stars follows Hilda in the city of Aphes, a courageous teenage girl of the Northwind Legion who is determined to find her father, who vanished after a conflict the conclusion of which she can scarcely recall. Fate has brought the girl to a quiet cursed city, where she seeks sanctuary in a little subterranean shelter built by humans and the gods. When Hilda witnesses a conflict that is rife with corrupted deities and monsters, she is forced to make challenging decisions that have the potential to affect the outcome of the whole realm.
The plot does not include any kind of unexpected turn or anything like that; rather, it is a straightforward journey with characters that are heavily influenced by Nordic, Roman, and Greek mythology. There will be a wealth of resources available to us, including clues as to our father’s location and a wide variety of literature. Though some are mostly irrelevant, others will provide light on the universe in which Asterigos: Curse of The Stars was designed.
The streets are filled with monsters, and Hilda must fight her way through them to reach the safe avenues. A place of refuge for the remaining citizens may be found underneath the city. There is also a group of rebels, led by the well-known Minerva, who assigns Hilda several assignments to complete.
Asterigos: Curse of the Stars, in contrast to the work of FromSoftware, places a significant emphasis on the plot, which is a smart move considering the high level of narrative and storytelling that exhibit throughout the game. To support the story, there are a lot of cutscenes, and also a lot of optional dialogue options with an array of supporting characters. It is a world that you can lose yourself in, with each conversation revealing another layer of Aphes’ perplexing history.
While we begin with a basic plot, over the thirty-hour gameplay, it explores deeper themes that deal with issues involving families, society, political matters, and even religious disputes. Asterigos: Curse of The Stars draws inspiration from Souls games but stands in contrast to them due to its depth of storytelling. All of the characters in this work have interesting backstories, motives, and even side quests that help to flesh out not just them but the universe of Asterigos as a whole.
In terms of the game’s fundamentals, all the standard elements of the Souls-like subgenre are present, but with a new spin. Unlike the vast majority of games in this genre, Asterigos: Curse of The Stars has three distinct degrees of difficulty. This approach immediately makes the game more welcoming to players who aren’t fans of the genre’s notorious difficulty. The game is far less punishing to play as running fast and dodging are the only actions that drain stamina; attacking and using skills have no effect on it.
You gain experience in killing monsters, and this experience lasts even if you die in Asterigos: Curse of the Stars. In-game currency Stardust can only be spent on buying or improving armaments and trinkets. When you die, however, you can’t recover the Stardust in the location where you fell, while you also lose a percentage of the total stardust while being respawned at the Conduits. Bonfires are called Conduits in this game where you may heal to full but at the same time respawn enemies too.
XP is used for leveling up and only Stardust can be spent on purchasing or upgrading/crafting equipment, whereas experience is obtained simply via successful combat. Each level grants you one or two Attribute Points, which can be used to enhance either Precision for boosting damage, Constitution for increasing health, or Arcane that boosts the Skill Damage and AP recovery rate. In addition, you will be given a Talent point with which to upgrade the six weapons in the game with special abilities and benefits found on the Talent Disc in form of a branching skill tree.
Asterigos: Curse of the Stars‘s interface serves as a leveling hub, thus there’s no need to seek a Conduit or a particular NPC to advance in levels. Hilda also won’t be short of advancement possibilities. Whether you choose to improve your stamina regeneration while shield blocking or add an additional attack to your staff is a major option that may radically alter your way of playing.
In Asterigos: Curse of the Stars, Hilda is equipped with a total of six distinct weapons, although she can only use two of them at the same time switching between swords, shields, daggers, hammers, spears, staffs, and bracelets. While the controls of each weapon are unique, the appeal lies in the fact that they may be used in a variety of combination strikes. Hilda, for instance, can equip both the staff and the sword, but she also has a hammer-related skill.
She can strike from a distance using the staff, whereas when the enemy comes near, she can use the hammer skill to stun them. After stunning her enemy, she can quickly draw her sword to deliver the killing blow. player a lot of leeway in devising multi-weapon assault schemes since the special attack skills associated with individual weapons can be loaded and utilized regardless of which two weapons Hilda is equipped with.
The diversity of enemies is not very large in Asterigos: Curse of the Stars, since you will only encounter one to three new enemies in each new region you discover, and even then, there is no guarantee that they will be there. Since they are clearly distinguishable, the game seems far less complex and punishing than a typical soulslike title.
When fighting many adversaries at once, though, the situation might turn exceedingly grim really rapidly; typically, once you figure out the enemy patterns, even the most dangerous enemy groups won’t seem to provide an undue obstacle. When fights go out as planned, they’re wonderful. Bringing two foes together and seeing them explode is always fun, and parrying with the spear always results in a nice whack.
Sadly, however, as you go deeper into the game, fighting becomes more frantic due to the level design. The level design of Asterigos: Curse of the Stars is the game’s single worst flaw. While the intended challenge of a Soulslike, Asterigos’s difficulty curve just runs ahead of the player. The levels appear to have been designed without a clear goal in mind, consisting mostly of random branching routes that are often a dead end.
While you boost Hilda’s strength and skills, the enemies are making leaps and bounds forward in their capabilities much above her capacity. Even after upgrading the weapons, the proportionality does not improve to a sufficient degree. In other words, the more you play, the more insignificant you feel in the face of the problems that lie ahead.
After a relatively easy journey through the forest, once Hilda arrives at the cursed city the true extent of the problem becomes clear. There’s only a little amount of loot like rare Salves or weapon upgrade components. Exploring new areas may net you some more gear that expands your ability to tweak Hilda’s stats, but it doesn’t make a significant impact. The success or failure of a Soulslike or Soulslite hinges on the quality of its level design, and unfortunately, this is not the case with Asterigos: Curse of the Stars.
Like most of the other areas, the Shelter, the central center where Hilda meets with Minerva and receives her tasks, is built in a disorienting fashion that seems like it doesn’t flow smoothly. Also, the fast-travel mechanic is what initially irritated me the most. Teleportation skills become available quite late in the game, making movement throughout the world considerably simpler once you have one. However, until then, you should prepare yourself for a significant amount of walking.
All of these regions are extensions of The Shelter, the main hub of Asterigos. Main missions, equipment upgrades, item purchases, and interactions with The Adherents’ members can all be found here. Asterigos’ Shelter is a fantastic center that grows with additional features, functions, and personalities as you play through the game. Each scenario is expansive, has its own set of in-level shortcuts, and has a diverse range of adversaries and bosses. In particular, I appreciated how hard the crew worked to give each character distinctive skills.
While it’s not the same as free-roaming, it’s still a great gamble that can take up to thirty hours depending on how repeated deaths in boss fights. Each of the 22 bosses is different, ranging from huge birds to demonic people to massive giants. Defeating these enemies calls for a variety of strategies, and it’s half the fun to experiment and find what works best. Boss fights are fun when they actually happen, but the grind to reach them is tedious due to the game’s abundance of weaker foes.
Asterigos’ cartoony visual design immediately calls to mind another contemporary action RPG with a Greek mythology theme. Although it may not have the best visuals of all time, the visual approach is pleasant, both in terms of the style of enemies and the surroundings. It’s got good music as well, and it kicks in at exactly the appropriate times, generally just as the boss fights start ratcheting up, which is the ideal way to complement the action that’s going on.
The settings in Asterigos are not only colorful and lively, but they also contain extensive voice acting. The sound of a fire crackling, water flowing, footsteps, and other sounds all complement the visuals. Hilda’s character design gives a lively impression, and her voice acting is joyful, especially listening to her speaking to herself in different situations.
Asterigos: Curse of the Stars should’ve been one of the most thrilling action role-playing games in the vein of the Souls series, but the level design lets the game down. It risked appealing the RPGs and Souls genres by blending parts of both but didn’t find the right balance. Also, the game’s fighting appeared appealing at first but ultimately felt more frustrated than excited as the game progressed.
However, with over 22 bosses with a wide range of attacks and numerous mythology-based settings, it’s undeniable that the game delivers a satisfying and comprehensive experience. Acme Gamestudio did a decent job uniquely delivering their first game and if they can adjust the balancing of the two genres, a sequel to Asterigos can set a new benchmark.
