#Astria ascending hunt 2 full#

Characters that may not be useful in a current fight can have their attacks amplified, or they can choose to give up their turn to add to the team’s focus pool. Focus Points can be spend to increase damage output, or enable summoned creatures to perform powerful attacks. While the concept of an expendable currency that makes your attacks more powerful isn’t unique, Focus Points are implemented well into the combat of Astria Ascending-it keeps things interesting.

One of the systems that makes Astria Ascending stand out from other similar games is its use of Focus Points. Some JRPGs have very grindy combat, and while Astria Ascending isn’t exactly innocent of having a grindy aspect, I found myself seeking out combat encounters just for the fun of it. This gives an insane amount of flexibility in combat, and is therefore one of the true joys in Astria Ascending. You can swap them out before encounters, or even during, to change up strategies if your current isn’t working. When you fight in turn-based combat, you will have four of your eight Demigods available to fight. Even if you don’t immediately have an upper hand, there are lots of tricks at your disposal including abilities that create weaknesses, powerful summons, and devastating elemental spells.

Enemies, of course, have weaknesses that must be exploited if they are to be soundly defeated. Astria Ascending gives you a whole lot of options when approaching combat, and even adds in a novel system called “Focus Points” that help characters shine where they normally wouldn’t-or make those who are good, even better. I have to admit that the rest of Astria Ascending hasn’t grabbed me as much as its combat-which is some of the most fun I’ve had in a JRPG in some time. There’s even shoot ‘em up sections, but they aren’t the main draw of the gameplay-that’s Astria Ascending’s turn-based combat. Outside of combat there are environmental puzzles and simple platforming sections to overcome, as well as a card/tile game called J-Ster you can challenge NPCs to. Each of the eight characters can specialize into a few subclasses each, giving you a huge variety of potential playstyles in combat. Your crew of eight each has their own detailed story, but you’ll also be able to explore five cities and dozens of dungeons- Astria Ascending is a chonky game that can take over thirty hours to complete.

In Astria Ascending, you take control of a group of Demigods-eight protectors who are duty bound to protect their realm. Don’t expect a game like the remake of Final Fantasy VII, instead, you’ll get something closer to its original with Astria Ascending taking cues from that game, as well as games like Xenogears, Secret of Mana, and Chrono Trigger. The world of Astria Ascending is a rich one, made by developers with a long history of love for classic JRPGS. While Astria Ascending promises a “mature story” (according to its store page) I’d say that Astria Ascending has a story that is mostly on-par with other JRPGs, but what makes Astria Ascending’s story stand out is its bleakness: under the beautiful art, is a struggle that will bring your doomed party to meet their fate.

#Astria ascending hunt 2 full#

It’s also a big game, chock full of adventures for your party of Demigods to partake in. In fact, its art is undoubtedly the first thing you’ll notice about Astria Ascending. That’s not to say I haven’t played any JRPGs lately, but it’s not a genre I jump into, mostly because JRPGs tend to be enormously full of content, with Astria Ascending following that pattern.Īstria Ascending is a 2D JRPG with gorgeous hand drawn art. I haven’t played many Japanese style role-playing games lately (JRPGs), but it’s a genre I dabbled in extensively when I was much younger.