Astalon: Tears of the Earth
Uphold your pact with the Titan of Death, Epimetheus! Fight, climb and solve your way through a twisted tower as three unique adventurers, on a mission to save their village from impending doom!
Astalon: Tears of the Earth is a fantasy, exploration and metroidvania game
developed by LABS Works
and published by DANGEN Entertainment.
Released on June 03rd 2021 is available on Windows, MacOS and Linux
in 10 languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian and Spanish - Latin America.
It has received 1,081 reviews of which 988 were positive and 93 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.6 out of 10. š
The game is currently priced at 7.80ā¬ on Steam and has a 60% discount.
The Steam community has classified Astalon: Tears of the Earth into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Astalon: Tears of the Earth through various videos and screenshots.
Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 x64
- Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E4500 (2 * 2200) or higher
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce 9600 GT (512 MB) or higher
- Storage: 600 MB available space
MacOS
- OS: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher
- Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E4500 (2 * 2200) or higher
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Storage: 600 MB available space
Linux
- Processor: 1.8 GHz Dual-Core or higher
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Storage: 600 MB available space
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
What a weirdly paced emotional rollercoaster of a game that was. Astalon starts off pretty strong. The striking NES-coded visuals with their matte color-palette of beautiful orange and blue tones, the boppinā chip tune music and vintage yet charming story presentation hyped me up pretty instantly. Within the first couple of minutes of gameplay, the game lays down the basic formula for the entire playtime. That formula is a creative mix of traditional metroidvania, puzzle elements and rogue-lite progression. As a player, you can switch between 3+ characters all with different abilities, slightly different move set and attack modes; itās the old and well-established divide into warrior, archer and sorcerer that you can choose from. You progress through a dark tower, motivated by a simple plot of saving your home village from the evil gorgons who have poisoned the waters and overrun the lands with tyranny and terror. Itās a neat setup that is anything but original but was enough for me to spark my curiosity. The first hours that followed irritated the hell out of me. I love the search-action genre and I count games like Symphony of the Night (SOTN) among my absolute favorites. I do prefer the more modern takes on the genre with game elements introduced by Super Metroid and SOTN. However, I do not discriminate against more traditional vania-likes that usually present themselves as more linear but also unforgiving or outright brutal. I expected Astalon to be a modern search-action game with all the āprogressā made in the last decades, offering quality-of-life features like save-points, level-ups, teleporters and an open level structure. I thought that the 8-bit look of the game was purely an aesthetic choice that wouldnāt extend to game mechanics. The thing is, all of these features I just mentioned are in the game but somehow, Astalon still feels super archaic in its design at times. Most of my frustration with this game comes down to the lack of features the map provided, at least initially. This is one of the most rudimentary maps Iāve ever seen in a search-action game. Save-points are marked, as are teleporters and elevators. The rest is for you to figure out and ā most importantly ā memorize. You do unlock more features for the map as the game progresses, like items and key locations, but even then, the map remains rather basic. There is one little nitpick that I need to point out because it bothers me so much. As is usual in this genre, there are secret passageways between rooms, like hidden openings in a wall. Once you find one, the map does not update . Naturally, when you check the map later you see a solid separation between rooms where there is actually a secret path you already unlocked, not a fan of this. In general, the game just expects you to keep a lot of information in mind or to take notes on your own for later reference. As you keep playing, there will be a plethora of small and not-so-small secrets in pretty much every room youāll have to keep track of. So many times would I re-enter a room looking for an item that was supposedly hidden there only to find out that I couldnāt access it at the time. The game doesnāt allow you to put your own markers on the map which would have been greatly appreciated. The backtracking in general is a real pain in the butt, especially at the beginning. Within the first 4 to 5 hours of playtime, I felt like I made little to no progress. This game has rogue-lite elements and is designed around you dying a lot and starting again from the very beginning. It is rather forgiving as you basically keep all the progress made. The map-sections you visited remain uncovered, you keep all the items and even the crystals that function as currency to obtain upgrades for your characters. Still, in the early hours, I died really easily from environmental traps or the occasional over-the-top room filled with way too many enemies. So, I ran through the same set of rooms over and over and over again feeling like losing my mind. Elevators and teleporters are sparse and even in the later stages of the game, it usually takes a while to get where you want. I nearly dropped the game here as it felt more like a chore than a pleasure. But something kept me coming back. For when you do make progress in Astalon, it feels significant, it feels rewarding. I got a rush of adrenalin whenever I found a shortcut or an elevator. My mind was racing with all the new ways to interact with the world upon unlocking a special ability that enabled me to access new areas. Itās that old-school design philosophy of restricting the player so much that every little success feels like a huge milestone. You may hate that or you may love it but I definitely get the appeal. Bosses are a mixed bag. The first major boss kicked my butt so hard, I thought Iād never defeat that guy. Going back to previous areas and leveling up my characters helped a lot though and I finally got the better of him. Every other boss that followed was a walk in the park. I would go so far as to say that bosses get successively easier as you play which is not what I expected. I pretty much spammed the final boss to death without any kind of strategy or tactical maneuver in a few seconds. The pacing is just weird like that. You spend the first 5 hours barely making any progress and hitting a rock wall with the first boss only to blast through the second half of the game like bulldozer and getting super overpowered; itās one of the weirdest difficulty curves in the genre. There is a lot to love about Astalon. On an audiovisual level, the game is pure bliss. The little animations are really cute, the campfire chats between the characters are super charming and once the game clicks, you donāt want to put it down until youāve seen it through to the end. But there is just as much irritating stuff and weird game design decisions to be found here. The map is just a pain to deal with, backtracking is way too emphasized in the first half of the game, bosses are rather simplistic, the story doesnāt do anything special and the game throws unlockable characters at you at a time when youāre almost done with the game which is likeā¦ why? I would still absolutely recommend getting this if youāre at all interested in the genre and are fine with some esoteric game design choices. It surely isnāt for everyone but believe me, if you give this game a proper chance and donāt drop it within the first couple of hours (and I donāt condemn you if you do), you will find a lovely little gem of an indie title underneath the rubble.
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I rarely go for a 100% achievements completion for games, but I did for Astalon! An axcellent metroidvania with retro style pixel art (with big selection of filters if you desire to use them) and music. The core gameplay is simple - you have a jump button, an attack button and a special ability button. However, the depth of platforming and exploring the levels comes from switching between multiple characters. There are slight roguelite elements, in a sense that when you die you get a chance to spend accumulated currency on permanent and temporary upgrades. In theory the game can be completed without dying once, and subsequently with no upgrades, if you're a god gamer. Dying sends you back to the beginning of the game. However, as you play, you'll unlock shortcuts, fast travel points, and more traversal options for your characters, making backtracking easy and fun. There are lots of secrets to find as well as 3 additional game modes after you beat the game. Astalon is definitely worth its price! It's a blast of a game!
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Overall a very good game, nice visual style, dope music, fun exploration, solid controls, etc.. Not without its flaws, notably most of the upgrades are very vague about what they do and how they work. Honestly one of the things that made me uncomfortable about this was its core mechanic of death not being final; I'm hard wired to feel that dying is failure, so I want to grind healing instead of respawning with full health. It's a weird position the game puts you in. One thing in particular I have to praise about it, your wizard character Algus feels like a legendary figure; in most games magic feels mundane, in this it feels SPECIAL, like Gandalf type of special.
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Well, hot dog! This game is everything I love about old games from bygones past but with no limitations on graphics or system memory so you don't get flickering and tons of slowdown like you might remember back in the day. It's a Metroidvania/RPG hybrid, where death is only the beginning. That's right, you actually die in order to level up in this game! For those that are worried, this IS NOT a rogue-lite or rogue-like, so you don't have to worry at all about losing your items or the rooms suddenly changing around when you die. As for the story and characters, it has a very serious and dark tone reminiscent of old school RPGs of the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, with a post-apocalyptic world where high fantasy magic rules. There is some dry and dark humor to be had in the way the characters interact with each other. Something worth noting is that, depending on what character you're using, when you inspect various objects in the tower or face a boss, they all have unique dialog! Finally, the graphics and art style of this game are phenomenal. Rysuke Mita, the mangaka who did "Dragon Half" back in the late 80s, did the character designs for this game and they are full of charm and personality. The characters move about as little chibi 8-bit characters but with fluid animations. One thing I love about modern hardware with the retro aesthetic is that the concept of lovely pixel art can be more fully realized by game designers and graphic artists and it certainly shows in Astalon . There are flowing tattered curtains, dripping water (and other substances), detailed stone work as you climb/descend to the different areas of the dark tower and it simply oozes atmosphere. There is a juxtaposition between your cute 8-bit characters and the grim environment full of corpses, blood-soaked traps, and grotesque statues of monsters. The enemies are very interesting because some of them might be familiar RPG/D&D, but there are other designs that defy description, in the best way possible. I can't recommend this game enough, and I bought it twice so that I can play it on multiple systems as I like. Will keep an eye out for future releases from this dev for sure.
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This is great game and I really enjoyed playing it, yet it has couple of flaws that can cause some misunderstanding with the players. I've read some of the reviews, and, well, some folks didn't like it due to various reasons. The main problem in my opinion - is that people expect it to be a "modern era" metroidvania, which this game is not, yet, I'll get there. Buckle up. Let's talk why is it great first: - it has a big varied map which is actually fun to explore, because there are literally dozens and dozens of secrets. - it has cool unlock/progression systems where you can level up your characters and/or party by purchasing stuff from a store, bestiary with a ~90 entries (where each entry has to be killed certain amount of times to complete), etc. - it has a varied set of abilities that will allow you reach locked out spots (duh, like any metroidvania would) plus a set of combat abilities that enhance each of your character combat style - it's a really chill game, that doesn't demand you to grind your skill/resources/time to be good at it (yet there are portions of the game where you would actually need to Git Gud, yet those are optional) - juggling multiple characters a time - is a nice idea and it works really well in terms of exploring the world/combat variety. Then what is wrong with the game, you ask? Well, let's say I would advertise it slightly different to avoid confusion. People got used to so-called "modern" metroidvanias, they are used to have save spots replenish life, better flow in backtracking and so on and so forth. Yet this is a homage to the older ones - from graphics to some gameplay elements. Yes at times it's really unfair, and I must agree - the public would much prefer some better and more merciful solutions when it comes to navigating around game map (teleporting and stuff), better healing system, ability to leave pins on map, etc. But this is what it is: newmade oldschool attempt with modern elements. (Sounds confusing so far, right?) - the amount of healing is limited per random heals at bonfires (that are limited and come up only when you achieve plot points), some minor healing by breaking candle pots (limited, regenerates if bought at store), random drop from mobs (if ability bought from store, small chance). <- this makes the game harder and longer than it should, but that's the way it is. - navigation on world map can be a pain. There's a limited set of elevators (teleporters) on a huge map, meaning if you want to get to that room and check out if there's something left - welcome to helluva running through 20+ rooms. Could be better, you could get an item that allows you to teleport between save spots in last quarter of the game for easy backtracking and less frustration, yet this is what it is. - I saw people complaining that backtracking is hard because when you bump into a character specific block - you have to run all way back, to a savespot, where you can switch the active character and run back yet again to unlock the thing. Well, this is not really true, because one of the first items you unlock is a thing that allows you to switch chars on the flight. Honestly speaking - most of the frustration causes will have an item that serves exactly to ease that frustration (healing item, can't reach there, char switching, etc) Except teleporting around - that's a pain. Yes. - Oh, and one more. Each time you die - you respawn at the same room at the very beginning of the game, not at your last visited save spot. And that actually (frustrating again, yes, I know) makes sense if you follow the story, as the characters are... NO SPOILERS! :) Overall: a great game that took me 16.0 hours to 100% the main story. Full of secrets, fun to explore, great value of upgrading/unlock systems, good controls and pretty nice pixel art. Definitely recommend to genre fans, yet be sure to read the Cons section above, as the game might tick off all the boxes you expect it to have. If not - it's a great game that you will definitely enjoy!
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 19 November 2024 18:01 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 18 December 2024 21:48 |
| Steam price | 23 December 2024 20:28 |
| Steam reviews | 22 December 2024 03:50 |
Online players
15
Developer
LABS Works
Publisher
DANGEN Entertainment
Release
03 Jun 2021
Platforms
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