Asterigos: Curse of the Stars

Have you people ever heard of a map? I don't have the kind of time one needs running around to find things. It's not exploration. It's unmitigated monotony. The combat system is well thought out but not fluid or too fluid if you use say, daggers. Take ladders right out. The story is OK with a lot of ESL mistakes in dialogues. If this gave had fishing and farming I might guess it was Japanese. Great voice acting. If it wasn't on sale for Black Friday I would not have bought it as it falls far short of next generation. Let this be the last of it's kind. And if you like Laura Croft devs, she be dead a million times over in this game.

If there's one thing that I like to be known for in my life, it's perseverance. The determination to never give up is a staple for me, and it's something that I impart on a lot of those around me. This even extends to video games. I don't like quitting. It pisses me off and makes me feel like I've given up on a part of myself, even when it's something as ridiculous as a damn game. Nevertheless...

I have played a few games in my life that have gotten me to that point. Enough frustration was felt that I decided it was probably best for my own sanity to pull the plug. The biggest perpetrator of this for me was probably Bloodborne. I'm loathe to lay blame at the foot of an inanimate object, but hot damn that game pissed me off pretty quickly in the 2 hours total that I spent playing it. I took it back that day and got something else.

Years later, I bought Asterigos while it was on sale through PSN. It looked like something that would be right up my alley. Inspirations from Greek/Roman architecture and mythology, a character whipping a sword around and slapping baddies, and enough discovery and lore to keep my mind occupied for days on end. After 16 hours of playing it... I gave up. Now, don't give up on this review just yet. In the iconic words of Matthew Lillard's Stu from Scream, "But wait, there's more!"

I came back to it nearly one year later. And I'm so glad I did.

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One of the best AA souls-like available at moment. Someone complained about lack of maps but that's what characterizes this type of game, learning the maps, exploration, going back and forth between areas once activate fast travel midway through the game. Yes, the lack of fast travel does suck some at first but this is designed to help you learn the level layouts.

You start the game with all weapons available - 5 of them or so, but you can equip only two at once, but each have huge upgrade tree that can change how each weapon is used, the combat having stamina limits and uses similar to dark souls but not nearly as difficult.

Art direction is fantastic, cool look. Movement is fluid. Story is deep, but requires a lot of lore reading which really fleshes out the world and can be pretty interesting.

A worthy play through if fans of the genre. Don't overlook this one.