The Backstory: Astria Ascending is one of my most recent acquisitions, being claimed by my gaming instinct upon release. Everything drew me to it, from the splendid cover art to the evocative title; and learning that it was the result of the unlikely meeting of a virtually unknown French developer and two Final Fantasy luminaries only fuelled my interest.
The Game: AA could as well stand for ‘Amazing Atmosphere’. It’s been a long time since I encountered a game with such a vibrant and mesmerizing aura, and I was instantly sucked in. The vibrant colours, the gorgeous soundtrack and the splendid graphics and character sprites all combine to create a superb ambience; and then you have the story, which is told in the most clever and efficient way you could imagine. The game starts with a cinematic intro that presents the game world’s captivating and poignant lore — in a very elegant and poetic way to boot. From then on, story progression is handled through short and sweet bits of dialogue, and characters’ personalities are fleshed through their postures, animations, battle interjections and lines in the aforementioned bits of dialogue. Let me tell you: AA’s atmosphere manages to captivate and enthral me just as much as Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s — with a glorious economy of means compared to the latter.
Atmosphere is all well and nice; but what about the gameplay? Well, I’m glad to say it’s stellar as well. My breath hitched when I discovered the existence of 2D platforming sections, which could easily have ruined the whole experience for me; however, my apprehension quickly turned to utter giddiness. AA’s platforming is actually some of the best platforming I’ve handled in my whole life. The physics are out of this world, smooth and precise and totally delightful — I swear, I’d be the most hardcore Platformer aficionado of them all if all Platformers boasted such physics. Combat didn’t totally convince me at first, because battles were a tad too hard and slow for my taste; however, I neatly solved those issues by tweaking the battle speed and difficulty level, and I just couldn’t get enough of fighting after that.
AA also scratches another itch I didn’t expect it to scratch at all. See, the game in general, and battle screens in particular, totally looks like one of these browser games I’ve been dying to try for years — Granblue Fantasy and the like. The crew boasts the typical stylishness of browser game characters — only without the gacha element, and with automatic levelling-up for characters that don’t take part in battle. That’s totally the better of two worlds, methinks; and AA will totally become my very own offline browser game.
The Verdict: This game is an absolute work of love, and that love shines through in the most moving and enchanting way. Total and utter Cult Classic potential here!
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