Astria Ascendingis like a spiritual 2D successor toFinal Fantasyas many team members helped develop those games. It sees players in the roles of eight Demi-gods. Those chosen for this program only have three years to live given their enormous boost in power. In that time, the chosen act like a council of superheroes who try to help out normal people as best they can.
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This latest team is led by Ulan, and they are only three months away from retirement i.e. death. It seems like easy sailing until an eruption of monsters starts terrorizing the land. What’s going on? That’s what players have to find out in this turn-based RPG. Let’s go through how it plays and suggest some tips for early players. As a bonus tip,Astria Ascendingwill be free onXbox Game Passalong with coming to other platforms such as the PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
7Difficulty Options
There are no typical accessibility options in this game, unlike someother 2021 titles. However,Astria Ascendingdoes have four difficulties levels: Very Easy, Easy, Normal, and Hard. Normal and Hard might be wildly challenging even for RPG veterans.
Easy feels like a more medium level of difficulty and Very Easy is a walk in the park. Even bosses can go down in just a few hits. There is a level of challenge for every kind of player out there so that they can adjust on the fly.
6Fast Travel Doesn’t Require A Thing
Most modern games have caveats to fast travel. For example, some lock players into certain locations while others require items.Astria Ascendingdoes not require any items for fast travel, which is nice. Players can open up the world map at any time and warp back to towns.
There are gates in dungeons, but even those don’t require players to warp from area to area. It’s a very free system so if players are feeling fatigued from battle, fast travel back to town, heal up, and then start again.
5Character Swapping And The Best Party
There are eight characters at the start of the game, which can be daunting. Who should players choose? The default party setup inAstria Ascendingis pretty good. What’s important is to always havetwo physical fighters and two magical fighters in the group.
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That’s because monsters are weak to certain elements and types of attacks. Even the most brutal warriors can’t cut through every defense. If players do have a bad party then the good thing is that anyone, even if they are dead, can be swapped out. It’s a lot likeFinal Fantasy 10.
4Skill Map Tips
Every character has their own skill tree along with Job trees that unlock a little way into the game. to get a leg up immediately, it’s important to beef out everyone’s skill list. Stats can only go so far. It’s abilities in battles that will mean all the difference.
For example, Dagmar is likethe black mageof the party similar to the role in aFinal Fantasygame. verify to unlock all of his elemental spells right away, which is very easy to do. Funnily enough, Dagmar looks more like a warrior type than a traditional mage.
3Side Quests And The Guild
After a few initial missions,side questswill unlock via a guild. These guild quests are like the bounty hunts inFinal Fantasy 12. They are essentially mini-bosses to tackle which are worth a lot of gold and experience. This is true for both games.
WhatAstria Ascendingdoesn’t tell players is that NPCs have quests of their own. Before venturing off to the next main mission, hang around the city and talk to everyone with an exclamation point above them.
2Look At The Menu Journal
If players are having trouble determining what monsters are weak to then there is a solution. After every encounter with a monster, there will be an update in the journal section of the menu. Players can check what monsters are weak to, their stats, what can be stolen from them, and so on.
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It’slike the bestiaryin many of theFinal Fantasygames. If players unlock the Scan ability then this will help expand the database faster too. It takes a while to get there in the tree but it is worth it.
1Save Often
There is an autosave feature inAstria Ascendingbut it doesn’t update regularly unlike, for example,Eastwardwhich saves in-between each screen. On the plus side for Astria Ascending, players can save in the menu at any time anywhere in the game. It is recommended to save in-between screens because players never know what might happen.
The biggest reason is thatAstria Ascendinghas a bug that can hard lock controls. This can sometimes make it impossible to save manually. There are a lot of button lock examples onthe PS5 controllerwhich might get fixed in the day one patch. Then again, they might not. If players don’t want the hassle of trying to save every few minutes then it might be best to wait to see how bug fixes are going forAstria Ascending.
Astria Ascendingreleases June 03, 2025 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
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