Asterigos Curse of the Stars

A bit more feedback.

Exploration is better when the maps are smaller & you can teleport. Shockingly, when you teleport (using a waypoint), a sketch of minimap was shown where the waypoints are.
Also unlocking a skill that homes on enemies make combat, especially bosses much more chill. Works well with a skill that amplify damage on an area, which covers most arena.

Also, the game story is pretty decent, at least better than most games I play to care about. The side quests are horrible though, mainly because the clues, or lack of it to where they are located. I was trying to complete some outstanding side quest, & spent like an hour looking for someone's cousin which live across the canal. So I basically knock on every damn door to finally found the cousin, only to have the cousin wanting to return something in return, & I spent another hour to find where this original cousin is located (took the quest like a few days ago on a generic door).....without success. As this game is not huge, googling returns no correct results as well.

There is another side quest where an NPC told me he is meeting someone at a secret location, & ask me to meet him there. But he never tells you where is this secret location. Luckily, I got my guess right, & picked correctly the shady-looking area I just visited. I think there is a middle ground between just pin you where you need to go, like Ubisoft games, & what we have in this game.
The problem doesn't end at quest, you can upgrade element runes which greatly improve power, but you can play the entire game without knowing...because. A, you need to find a quest item (which is fair), & then speak to the blacksmith at 2nd level of dialog. Before you say, just make sure to exhaust all dialog options so you will not miss them. Whats so hard? What is hard is, the dialog will update, but hidden in 2nd, or 3rd level of the dialog tree!!!

Main quests are not an issue though as you just follow the main path. While it sounds like I am trashing the game, I am not, I pretty much enjoy the game, which makes the problem with quest design and exploration accessibility frustrating. Returning to the cousin quest, it could just be written as the door with the red flower pots or some more meaningful description so you don't have to knock on every door (to be fair though, after a while, I realized only certain doors (door with window) can be knocked).
 
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  • Informative
Reactions: Kvally
Final Review
Overall Score: 8/10
Total hours played: 32 Hours
Difficulty: Middle (normal)

This game is pretty impressive, considering this is the indie Studio ACME from Taiwan (formed in 2016) first game.

My 2 main issues is getting lost due to low vague quest info are, as well as getting to some locations. Often I have to use a guide to know where & how to go.
Otherwise, combat & character animation, and exploration are all pretty nice. The main char is cute & lovable and surprisingly not intolerable.

Some call it soul-like, but I think its more soul-lite, if not closer to a traditional hack & slash game like God of war. You can have multiple save files & load the game from save files with enemies you killed staying dead (what a concept!!!). You can force respawn with the rest option (ala Soul games), presumably to grind level/"souls": I never felt the need to do so. I just level as normal without grinding at all and without ever using the rest function. In any case, you can always return to the main hub to stock up on potions, ensuring you never have to worry about being out of potions (other then during boss fight). This makes fighting normal mobs a catwalk unless you want to challenge yourself & avoid save spamming after every few kills.

Bosses health however reset when you die, so that is where most of the challenges lie.
But if you are familiar with soul-like combat dodge/block/attack, they should be fine. One boss is particularly annoying due to multiple phases & having to travel & kill mobs between phases, otherwise, most boss fights are not over the top & manageable. A few tries may be needed to get the attack pattern/mechanics to beat some bosses. There is no boss fight where I feel I am underprepared & need to grind & level up more my char & gears. But if you do grind & over level, the boss fight will be smoother, from what I heard.

Visually, the game art style is okay, but levels are generally pretty bland, but passable. Not a technical showpiece for sure.
 
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