Astral Ascent Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · Published November 14, 2023 · Updated November 14, 2023

Our Astral Ascent Review has us Choosing one of the four heroes and exploring the Garden, an astral prison guarded by 12 powerful mystical bosses: the Zodiacs. Challenge them with dozens of unique spells and faithful friends by your side to unfold the story of this platform roguelike with lightning-fast combat.

Astral Ascent Review Pros:

Beautiful graphics.
1.03GB Download size.
Steam achievements.
Full controller support.
Remote play together support.
Input your constellation.
Graphics settings – fullscreen, window size, light quality, game effects, fullscreen quality, and resolution scale.
Can rebind controls and set controller icons.
Keyboard support and again you can rebind the controls.
3 save slots.
Roguelike gameplay.
Select your constellation and this affects your relations with zodiacs.
Readability mode is where Characters can have an outline or no outline put on to make them more visible.
Fully voiced characters.
Opening tutorial.
You can dash and jump again after hitting an enemy.
Man is used for casting spells and is built up by using basic attacks.
When finding new spells you can watch a small demonstration clip of the spell in action.
Heal shards can be collected, have 5 on you at once to get a bonus to heal when you use them.
Local co-op play is supported.
Beautiful locations.
The game has pixel art graphics in-game but hand-drawn art for cutscenes and conversations.
After finishing a room you will get a choice of where to go next with different room types holding different challenges. It will tell you the type or room, difficulty level, and reward before you select it.
Hack and slash combat.
Easy and straightforward to do combat and use/equip spells.
Spells will rotate as you use them.
Salvage unwanted spells and items for quartz.
Gambits are like buffs and abilities that you equip to slots for them to take effect.
Fast loading times.
Excellent smooth animations.
You can see the enemies’ health.
End-of-run breakdown showing unlocks, earned bankable EXP, and any rewards.
The Garden is your hub space where you spend time buying permanent unlocks, conversation, and more as you progress.
The stone altar allows you to choose one stone and will add a bonus to either your health, damage, or attack speed.
Every run is randomized.
Very addictive and a huge time sink.
Earn keys from fight rooms and use them to open chests for more loot!
Environmental elements like hitting certain plants can cause a fireball-type attack to come out and hit enemies.
Quartz is a currency used and lost in runs, you spend it on the gear in shops.
Rooms will get progressively harder as you go on a run.
You can jump again after a basic attack.
Rooms get bigger and have multiple routes or secrets to find like altars and chests.
There will be 12 rooms to go through, the final one is always a boss fight.
Unlock new spells and abilities as you play.
Devil May Cry levels of combat speed.
EXP bangs up as you unlock it.
The arbiter of achievements is a guy in the hub that gives you rewards as you fill the various combat bars.
At the end of a run you get told of new things unlocked and earned that can be found in the hub.
Unlock new characters who all have their own movesets, unlocks, and interact with others differently.
Find Yalee tickets to purchase random new colors to dye your hair and/or clothes.