In order to cover as much of PAXEast as the three of us could, we were checking out booths, hitting up PR, and schmoozing with as many devs as we could. Sometimes, wires got crossed and we wound up at the same booth. Thankfully, this managed to work out because Asterigos had a short demo at Tinybuild Games‘ booth, and Keith and Kyle are sharing their experiences with the demo.
Drawing its story elements from Roman and Greek mythologies, you play as Hilda in Asterigos: Curse of the Stars. Hilda is a brave Northwind Legion warrior who sets out on a journey in search of her lost father. Her search brings her to a mythical, cursed city known as Aphes. As she battles her way across the city, she’ll learn the history of the city and more about the curse.
Where the gameplay is concerned, it aims to be a more approachable Souls-like experience. Hilda will battle creatures both small and large and earn new gear and new abilities as well. Should you fall in combat, you’ll respawn back at the nearest checkpoint thanks to a necklace Hilda carries around her neck.
Keith’s Experience:
As I was making my way across the PAX East 2022 floor to various appointments, I kept seeing this game in the corner of my eye. Finally, when I had enough time to myself, I made my way over to the Tinybuild booth and got in line to play Asterigos: Curse of the Stars. Being the Souls-like guy of the team, it caught my eye, and yes, it did look very Souls-like. However, seeing how I had a number of people ahead of me, I asked one of the attendants at the booth to tell me a bit about the game. To be honest, all I heard was Horizon Zero Dawn, Monster Hunter, and Dark Souls, and that’s all I needed to hear.
When I found time finally game to check out the game, I waited through the story bits, fought a few monsters, and proceeded to break the game. Oops. I found a spot that I couldn’t get out of. So I had to restart.
With that out of the way, I proceeded to test out my abilities. The character you play with has access to a roll/dodge, heavy and light attacks, and secondary weapon attacks. Depending on what weapon you used, your attacks would change up. Unfortunately, as I found myself getting accustomed to using my attacks and abilities, I ended up reaching the boss of the demo. The demo was way too short, and I wanted more.
All in all, Asterigos: Curse of the Stars seems like a good entry level game for people who wants to check out the Dark Souls or even Elden Ring but want to avoid the frustration of dying over and over. This game seems very Souls-lite and doesn’t take itself as seriously as the games I’ve mentioned. In the demo, there were no one-hit deaths, the game was bright and colorful, and there’s a story that doesn’t leave people wondering as to what is going on.
The controls were a bit clunky, but given that this is a demo, and likely made for PAX East 2022, I can forgive this. They’re not terrible and if the controls receive some tweaks, I’ll be happy.
While having access to traditional attacks, you also had special attacks that I didn’t have the time to fully understand, given the limited amount of time I had. These special attacks were powerful and flashy, and they gave the player the feeling that they were in charge. I wasn’t a fan of how these attacks were executed, but I did like how this does make the game feel different than, say, Dark Souls.
The only thing I didn’t like was the healing mechanic. Similar to the Dark Souls II Lifegems, when you used a healing item, your heath would gradually restore. It isn’t particularly helpful when you’re fighting bosses or creatures, and you need a bit of health to keep you going. Perhaps there are other healing items in the game, or perhaps this will be changed. Aside from this, I enjoyed Asterigos: Curse of the Stars, and I’m looking forward to playing the full game. I’m looking forward to seeing how Acme Gamestudio approaches my favorite gaming genre.
Kyle’s Experience:
Unlike Keith, I had a positive experience with Asterigos and didn’t break the game. What drew me towards the demo in the first place was its boss encounter. I saw someone fighting this massive alligator boss and thought to myself, “wow this looks like it has some Monster Hunter inspiration!” However, I was wrong and that’s okay.
Instead, Asterigos found its inspiration in the Souls-like format. However, when I was talking to the rep showcasing the game for me, she confirmed the game is taking a lighter approach to the formula. Its light approach is immediately noticeable as well. There were plenty of healing items to carry, a wide variety of abilities that were at the ready and Hilda didn’t feel like a wet piece of paper caught in a hurricane.
My issue with the demo that was showcased at Tiny Build’s PAXEast booth is that the demo was too short. There were 3 difficulty selections to choose from and I don’t feel like the hardest difficulty would have made the demo harder. With the exception of the boss, all the enemies in the demo were pretty easy on the normal difficulty, due in part to it being the tutorial area.
While I love the game’s whimsical art style (think Kena: BoS or Immortals: Phoenix Rising), I feel like the gameplay isn’t quite ready yet. Overall, it just felt a little bit sluggish. When I retrieved her weapons, the game auto-equipped new weapons for me that I didn’t want to use and wasn’t able to swap them back out. While watching another attendee play the demo, I also noticed that Hilda’s weapons didn’t appear on the ground and he was lost for a moment.
If you’re a gamer that doesn’t feel like they’re up to snuff for some of the Souls games that are out there, then keep an eye out for Asterigos. It is aiming to release this fall in 2022 and will launch on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles. The game may not be as solid as we would have liked but, they’ve got plenty of time to tighten things up and clean up those loose ends.
