Astebros | PS4

Medieval mayhem ensues in this 2D platforming fantasy roguelike called, "Astebros". Coming on the scene as a pixeled precursor to the previously released "Demons of Asterborg" the story retroactively picks up the tale of the kingdom of Asterborg, and it's fall to minions of darkness. As one of three heroes including a Knight, A Ranger, and a Mage you venture forth under the king's command as you meet up with the designated guide who will be leading you on your adventure. It is through this mysteriously robed figure that you'll travel via horse and cart, individually or in 2 player co-op, as you fight through several themed lands to gain access to orbs that unlock further access to other more challenging areas near the vicinity of your camp.

At this base camp, where the journey ultimately begins, you'll make your initial choices and setoff to fight the plaguing darkness. Starting there you will first choose which hero you want to play as, and will set out to your first destination. A destination which happens to be a hogman infested pantry with a weapon wielding porcine boss awaiting you at the end. Upon initially reaching the pantry you will find at the beginning, as you will in follow-up playthroughs, an optional weapon to swap between. It is randomly offered like all the other key item upgrades that you'll loot from the treasure chests and special rooms within the interconnected dungeon system as you venture forth. 

Utilizing your base weapon, bombs, an evasive dash, character specific abilities, and found keys you will attempt to avoid limited heart health damage while clearing rooms of enemies. All while stopping to unlock rooms that sometimes contain extra vendors for rescuing, health upgrading fairies, or item upgrades that will change certain gameplay elements. Gifting, in kind, added effects that can help in the area of survivability, coin collecting or combat performance among other things. This along with chests that harbor dungeon maps, and other effect enhancing bits & baubles for the buffing will aide you in your efforts at completion.

After having given the playthrough a few goes, and having no doubt failed a few times you will eventually unlock rescued vendors that will be stationed back at your camp to sell you weapons, helpful limited use items, and access to a themed gameplay enhancing perk that will change the nature of the playthrough as well as a BGM sound test in the guise of a frog bard. 

These extra bonuses cost coin, found blueprints, and materials to make use of. All except for the frog bard. Materials and coins are dropped by enemies often. They are also found in chests, the coins in particular. Some materials though are area and enemy specific, and must be farmed to buy a chance at the blueprinted weapon being available in a new run. While some of these wares and items are by chance or limited in use you can also upgrade health permanently by finding a fairy, and paying 100 coins for half a heart's worth of health. As with other roguelikes like 'The Binding of Isaac' you'll also find grey hearts that act as a temporary extension on health.

Unlike most roguelikes in the genre 'Astebros' definitely has an endgame scenario, and that is in clearing all the themed areas, and beating all the main bosses. That and acquiring all vendors, and blueprints for returning playthroughs. All themed locations within the game are randomly generated as a roguelike should be with random looting opportunities unique to each playthrough. Should you die in your attempt to complete a dungeon you will enter a continue screen where bashing SQUARE is a must to keep the thieving goblins from stealing the maximum amount of materials and coins you have earned. A unique little mini-game with added benefits.

The Presentation ...

Visually, Astebros is presented onscreen in pixel format like an oldschool arcade cabinet from the 90's to early 2000's complete with a border image. By pressing TRIANGLE in-game during a gameplay session you can change the filter between varied CRT graphics to LCD displays. There's even a smooth filter, and no filter option for the choosing. It is these options that change the way the game looks to a certain extent. Audibly, Astebros is retro faithful and offers 8bit style chiptunes for that arcade realism. 

The Verdict ...

Astebros is a simple yet highly challenging dungeon crawling roguelike done up in Metroidvania fashion. It features small dungeons made of randomly generated rooms that each harbor either enemies or upgrade opportunities. The game itself has the player grinding for upgrades in order to be able to more easily conquer dungeons and their bosses. In that grind though it almost guarantees failed runs early on. Something I feel did the game a disservice. 

In the end it may have given a reason to grind, but had each dungeon been self-providing on a doable level it would have been better, and would have increased the replay value from the start and beyond. Take 'The Binding of Isaac' for example. Each run in that game offers all the opportunity and options needed to complete the dungeons without having to rinse and repeat. The only variables in that game being the unlockable characters with different gameplay gimmicks. That and the randomized offering of upgrades, and secrets. 

I feel that if the developer had focused more on character unlocks like this instead of gating away access to health, and weapons it could have been much better. The grind to get to the point you can actually complete a full run fairly is artificial difficulty, and does the game no good being a part of it. That, of course, is my opinion. Aside from that the game looks and plays alright.