Awaken Astral Blade Review (PlayStation 5)

Awaken Astral Blade Review, Weave your own story in this dark fairy tale. In the mysterious ancient ruins, you will adventure with Tania to reveal her origins and fate. Is there any chance of survival in the darkest and most desperate place? Slain your foes with a wide range of combos: from fastest to slowest. Parry enemy attacks to gain an advantage, use Quick Rise ability to get back into the fight and dash into enemies while they’re attacking to slow the world around you and gain damage immunity. Combos and Skills will also help you to break through hordes of enemies and defeat bosses.

Awaken Astral Blade Review Pros:

  • Decent graphics.
  • 6.84GB download size.
  • Platinum trophy.
  • Can remap the controls.
  • Metroidvania platformer gameplay.
  • 3 save slots.
  • Three game difficulties – story, normal, and hardcore.
  • Strong voice work.
  • Exclusive Playstation outfit.
  • In-game cutscenes and interactions.
  • You can fast-forward and skip interactions.
  • Tutorial pop-ups as you play.
  • Healthbar system and you eat fruit and food to replenish.
  • 2D game world with 3D animated backgrounds.
  • End of combat breakdown with a rank etc.
  • Full combo system complete with special abilities and finishers.
  • Typical familiar hack-and-slash combat.
  • Air combos and dashing is possible not just for fighting but for navigating the world aswel.
  • The map uncovers as you explore and fills in with points of interest.
  • Rest areas can be found and used to save, replenish health, and spend upgrade points. When hitting the rest area you get a full completion counter breakdown.
  • Two skill trees to unlock new abilities and upgrades – combat, and passive trees.
  • Find and equip new gear to add buffs or abilities to your character.
  • You can see enemy health bars.
  • Aether is the currency that is in the world, drops from enemies, and is used in the skill tree.
  • Boss and mini-boss encounters.
  • The world is vast and has many secrets and alternate routes through the world.
  • Beat bosses to unlock new abilities.
  • You can place your own map markers on the mini-map.
  • Basic camera control to look around and below you.
  • It is very satisfying when you nail these cool combos as they look fantastic.
  • Red Aether plants allow you to quickly cut them up and get Aether, it shows your DPS but they are timed.
  • Puzzle elements are sprinkled across the game world.
  • Unlock shortcuts in the map.
  • Fortify Essence is a rare pickup that lets you choose whether you want more health recovery or more health option uses.
  • Find and read lore/diary entries.
  • Enemies will respawn back over time so you can Farm Aether and level up.
  • Brutal yet satisfying finishing moves and more powerful and glamorous ultimate moves.
  • A beautiful-looking world.

Awaken Astral Blade Review Cons:

  • Hardcore difficulty has to be unlocked after playing through on normal.
  • No real game settings.
  • The game doesn’t offer any accessibility options.
  • Transitions between screens are immediate and sudden, you notice as they love to put Aether right by the transition and you will nearly always miss them.
  • Tutorials are not that in-depth and don’t give you all the information.
  • It takes a while for the game to get up to speed.
  • Early on you miss a lot of stuff as you struggle to learn what is a platform and what is a scenic piece.
  • Voice work frequency soon disappears and is only at key points in the story.
  • Boss fights can feel cheap at times.
  • The menus are a tad fiddly especially when in a rush.
  • Combat can get very reflex-heavy.

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Awaken Astral Blade:

Official website.

Developer: Dark Pigeon Games

Publisher: ESDigital Games LTD

Store Links –

PlayStation

  • 7/10
    Graphics - 7/10
  • 7/10
    Sound - 7/10
  • 7/10
    Accessibility - 7/10
  • 8/10
    Length - 8/10
  • 8/10
    Fun Factor - 8/10
7.4/10

Summary

Awaken: Astral Blade offers a visually appealing experience with decent graphics and a 2D game world complemented by 3D animated backgrounds. The game is a Metroidvania platformer with a download size of 6.84GB and features three save slots and three difficulty levels: story, normal, and hardcore. Players can enjoy strong voice work, an exclusive PlayStation outfit, and in-game cutscenes and interactions that can be fast-forwarded or skipped. The health bar system requires players to eat fruit and food to replenish health, and the game includes a full combo system with special abilities and finishers, making the hack-and-slash combat familiar yet satisfying. Air combos and dashing are not only useful for combat but also for navigating the expansive world, which uncovers a map filled with points of interest as you explore.

The game includes rest areas where players can save, replenish health, and spend upgrade points, with a full completion counter breakdown available. Two skill trees allow for unlocking new abilities and upgrades, and players can find and equip new gear to add buffs or abilities. Aether, the in-game currency, drops from enemies and is used in the skill tree. The game features boss and mini-boss encounters, and defeating bosses unlocks new abilities. Players can place their own map markers on the mini-map and use basic camera controls to look around. The game also includes puzzle elements, shortcuts, and Fortify Essence pickups that offer choices between more health recovery or more health option uses. Lore and diary entries can be found and read, and enemies respawn over time, allowing for Aether farming and leveling up. The combat system includes brutal yet satisfying finishing moves and glamorous ultimate moves, adding to the overall enjoyment.

However, Awaken: Astral Blade has its drawbacks. The game lacks real game settings and accessibility options, and transitions between screens are immediate and sudden, often causing players to miss Aether placed near transitions. The tutorials are not very in-depth and fail to provide all the necessary information, making the early stages of the game challenging as players struggle to distinguish between platforms and scenic pieces. The frequency of voice work diminishes as the game progresses, appearing only at key story points. Boss fights can sometimes feel cheap, and the menus can be fiddly, especially when in a rush. Combat can become very reflex-heavy, which might not appeal to all players.

In summary, Awaken: Astral Blade is a visually stunning Metroidvania platformer with a robust combat system and a vast, secret-filled world. While it offers many enjoyable features, such as strong voice work, customizable controls, and a variety of gameplay elements, it also has some shortcomings, including a lack of accessibility options and less comprehensive tutorials. Despite these issues, the game provides a satisfying experience for those who enjoy exploring and mastering complex combat mechanics.

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!