5% Astral, 95% Blade.
In recent years, Metroidvania titles have flourished. 2024 has seen a series of notable examples from Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Gestalt: Steam and Cinder, Noreya: The Gold Project, and countless more that have emerged from a variety of studios both big and small. The latest that I’ve taken in is Awaken: Astral Blade, a title that is gorgeous to look at, but sadly falters in most of its presentation, especially an incomprehensible story that is immediately forgettable.
Developed by Dark Pigeon, a Chinese-based studio, Awaken: Astral Blade is their first produced title. While I have several issues with it, I do have to commend them on not only making a game, but one that generally kept my interest, even if it was mostly for the gorgeous artwork both in gameplay and through some of its motion-comic cutscenes.
Awaken: Astral Blade has you taking on the role of Tania, a bionic female created by a man named Dr. Herveus, whom Tania refers to as “Father”. Tania is sent out by Dr. Herveus to explore the Horace Island to find and retrieve something referred to as Carpus Energy as well as find out what happened to the previous exploration team. While this begins as the central plot, Tania starts to discover more about the previous models of her lineage and the real truth behind her mission.
While there are interesting moments surrounding the plot, such as Tania encountering her previous models, as well how her memories work from model to model, there isn’t really anything here to really grab onto. You’ll have a small amount of side quests to take on, but the main story itself is poorly written with grammatical errors, formatting, subtitles not matching the voice lines, to voice acting that sounds like someone’s first attempt at using AI. In fact, I lost count at how some incredibly common words were completely mispronouced time and time again.
It also didn’t help that while you can press X to move the conversation forward, there was no way to prevent the next message from eventually moving on automatically, something I discovered when I had to set the controller down to answer the door, only to come back and the conversation was already over. While most games have an ‘Auto’ setting to their dialogue that you can toggle on and off, there doesn’t appear to be such a thing here with auto being the only option.
From the start you’ll have a few difficulty settings. Normal will be the standard way of taking in the game with Hardcore being unlocked after you have wrapped credits. There is an easier mode via Story difficulty that also has a similar system to Hades that after you die you’ll come back stronger. However, you have to die a few times for this Rookie Soul mode to trigger. Not only does your health and damage increase, but it will continue to do so each death, stacking to make you extremely powerful. That said, it does wear off eventually and is good to use during some of the frustrating boss encounters as while some are remarkably easy, others were a damn slog to get through.
Awaken: Astral Blade does have a fairly decent map size that at first, I had issues navigating, This is because you’ll actually transition between maps. Either the game didn’t tell me this or I had missed the prompt, I am not sure. There is a button on the map that allows you to swap between them, which I found by accident. Regardless, the map itself has the standard concepts of what a “Search Action” game requires of its genre with making certain areas unreachable until you have acquired a certain ability, which are offered to you via special sapling-like pods that usually occur in areas where that ability is needed. Dark Pigeon Games do a decent job at making the maps big and worthy to explore, especially given there are multiple endings, but there is nothing terribly clever about the design of the world or anything to really give you many “aha!” moments when you discover that new ability.
Tania will wield three weapons throughout the course of the game; however, the third weapon is a series of darts you’ll throw out that honestly felt weak and pointless, making it an option I simply didn’t use. This is because the weapon upgrade system uses so much of the upgrade currency you’ll earn that you’ll really just want to invest in one weapon fully with another on standby. The sword is a fine weapon to start with, but the Scythe is such a multi-purpose alternative that has greater range and strength, making it the best weapon by a mile, especially when you invest in it. Given the range and size of some of the bosses, it becomes essential.
While you’ll have a series of basic attacks, blocks, dodges, and air strikes, you can also combine different attacks into combo strings. Honestly, while it can take a bit to get used to them, it’s a good system to create variety in the attacks other than just the standard and heavy attacks we see over and over again. That said, combat does have one glaring issue that makes no sense whatsoever. While you can strike enemies as they stand or fly in the air, enemies cannot be damaged if they have been knocked down. They are completely invincible until they stand back up. This causes a delay in wanting to finish them off and worrying about the next threat in the room. It’s such a bizarre design choice that I wonder if it was an oversight or intentional.
Some of the larger enemies will enter a finish state where the O button prompt will appear and then Tania will execute them. While the attack is fine, the red bloody screen almost makes it appear that you are taking damage. The attacks are nothing fancy and lack that extra oomph to their presentation.
Healing has a bit of the soulslike touch as you’ll have a limited number of healing items that are then refreshed as you find a patch of glowing blue flowers that not only heal you and replenish said potions, but also respawn all the enemies you’ve just vanquished. That said, being able to grind is crucial, given how pricey your weapon upgrades are and also attempting to work through its pretty basic skill tree; a collection of combat or passive skills that aid in improving your dodge or parry, or improving your health or the acquisition rate of Aether, the currency you’ll use to level all this up. Unfortunately, the earning of this Aether is very slow with most enemies dropping 10-50 per kill and upgrades starting at around 1500 and ending at 12,000. This is what I mean by investing in one weapon to max out what it can do instead of being a jack of all trades but a master of absolute zilch.
Enemy variety does start to get better as you progress, but it’s nothing too in-depth. You’ll get a few new mobs here and there, but the bigger heavies start to repeat far too often. Thankfully, the game doesn’t really do the thing where some of the bosses become regular enemies and thankfully keeps those encounters separate and unique, until a few bosses repeat but offer up new colors and elemental attacks. That said, the bosses that freeze or slow you down can reserve a place in hell right now.
Apart from combat, you’ll have a series of puzzles that while are nothing too impressive, do break up the constant flow of combat and exploration. There are a few chase sequences, but one purple orb mechanic that launches you in the air can be a bit annoying to pull off in the heat of the moment, often having you slingshot directly into the creature chasing you. Given the art design and how those chase sequences occur, they reminded me a great deal of Ori and the Blind Forest and its improved sequel. Frankly, any experience that can remind of those two games does have something going for it.
Awaken: Astral Blade is a visually pleasing Metroidvania that has intense flashy combat, and an enjoyable world to explore, but it falls flat in areas that can get in the way of the experience. Its story and characters are immediately forgettable, and a constant slew of grammatical errors and painfully bad voice work really stand out in a bad way. There is a good foundation here for Dark Pigeon to work from and refine, especially as this is their first game. If you are the type to enjoy really any Metroidvania title and need a break from beating Hollow Knight for the twelfth time, then you could find some fun here if you don’t mind wading through its numerous flaws.
Developer - Dark Pigeon Games.
Publisher - Dark Pigeon Games, ESDigital Games. Released - October 22nd, 2024. Available On - PlayStation 5, PC. Rated - (E 10+) - Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes. Platform Reviewed - PlayStation 5. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.