Astalon: Tears of the Earth Review

The world has been destroyed. The world’s kingdoms were greedy, battling each other on a quest for more power not caring about the destruction their actions were causing. Very few people survived and they are now forced to live in radioactive deserts. This is where we find our three heroes. They are on a quest to save their village and are looking for the source of the poison that is getting into the water supply. That is when they come across The Serpent Tower.

Watching the trailer for Astalon: Tears of the Earth really gave off the vibe of some of my favourite retro games. It may seem that this title is just an action-platformer like Castlevania and Metroid, but it’s not. Astalon is actually a rogue-like Metroidvania title with some RPG elements incorporated.

You use three unique characters together; Arias the warrior with a sword, Kyuli the rogue armed with a bow and arrow, and Algus the wizard. Each character controls differently and has their own unique abilities. Arias can use his sword to slash through barriers that are blocking off different areas. Kyuli, being the smallest, is able to do wall jumps to scale up platforms and walls to areas that the other two can not reach. Algus can use his magic to go through walls to hit switches that open up other paths. At the beginning of Astalon, the only time you can switch between these three characters is by visiting a campfire. The campfire also acts as a save point so you can save any progress and items you have gathered up to that point. Later in the game, the ability to swap characters on the spot will become available to you, but this also means the levels and puzzles ramp up in difficulty.

Choosing the right character for each obstacle you encounter becomes very important. If you have to scale up a wall and you aren’t Kyuli, who is the only character who can wall jump, you will have to head back to a campfire to switch who you are playing as. This leads to a ton of backtracking in Astalon. As frustrating as it may get, this does give you a chance to collect more blue gems which are the in-game currency, and maybe spot some other secret areas you didn’t see before.

The Tower of Serpents definitely is not a nice place to visit. Not that you would expect a place with that name to be. It is full of hazards and enemies that will take you out. If you do die, I should say when you die, you are taken back to the entrance of the tower where you first entered. Unknown to Kyuli and Arias, Algus has made a deal with the death demon Epimetheus. The deal is until the team succeeds in their quest he will continuously bring them back to life. Once they do, Epimetheus gets the soul of Algus. So they are essentially stuck in a loop, that’s why this place feels so familiar to them. If you do die, any changes that have been made to the tower will still be there. So you will not have to constantly start from the very beginning. This includes any bosses that you have defeated, so at least you are always making progress. Dying can also be advantageous as you can purchase power-ups with the soul orbs you have collected. Some are to make your characters stronger, give the team extra HP or other non-permanent items. 

The look of the game is great. With retro-looking 8-bit sprites and a simplified palette, Astalon: Tears of the Earth feels like an authentic NES title. Accompanying the classic visuals, there is a chip-tune soundtrack that is full of energy and doesn’t feel super repetitive no matter how many times you will have to start over from the tower entrance. The enemies look great, and seeing the huge and intimidating Epimetheus every time you die is very impressive. Though there were odd glitches I spotted in the game, especially with enemy collision detection. Some of the enemies were able to float and walk right off of the platform they were on and hit me when I was on a spot that should have been unreachable. This didn’t happen all the time but sure was annoying when it did.

Astalon: Tears of the Earth is definitely a challenging game. The story is what made me push through all the backtracking that is required. I just had to find out what was going to happen to the protagonists and if Algus would keep his deal with Epimetheus and give up his soul. The game is very frustrating when you are trying to figure out what exactly you need to do to get through an area, with little or no clues unless you purchase the right item. I think this frustration will have a lot of people giving up on this title before they reach the ending, but it’s definitely rewarding when you can beat this challenge and get to the credits. Though I am curious why this game is titled Astalon: Tears of the Earth Episode II. Where is episode I?