I'm Always Dashing - Astalon: Tears of the Earth (Switch) Premiere Part 4
23I'm telling you right now, you have to try Astalon: Tears of the Earth. This game impresses me in new ways every five minutes.
Previous (Part 3) - https://youtu.be/WOfCqWTzI2U
Astalon: Tears of the Earth is an 8-bit style Metroidvania for the Nintendo Switch (and other platforms like PC) that I am absolutely loving. The pixel art is fantastic, the sounds and music totally knock, and I'm having an absolute blast.
The story follows three heroes. Algus, the somewhat old (?) wizard, Kyuli the rogue, and Arias the swordsman. The three heroes enter an ominous structure known as The Tower of Serpents in order to find and eliminate the source of a mysterious poison that has been plaguing their village. Not the same Algus from Final Fantasy Tactics, thankfully.
Along the way, they encounter a powerful nefarious villain named The Black Knight, who seems to serve a higher evil.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The three heroes are slain by The Black Knight, but because of a pact made by Algus with the Titan of Death, Epimetheus, they are brought back to life. Arias and Kyuli have little memory of their slaughter at the hands of the evil villain The Black Knight.
One cool and unique aspect about this game is that all three heroes have a shared HP, and when you die, Epimetheus resurrects you. But you can also spend your collected Soul Orbs to purchase upgrades and new abilities.
In this episode, we collect the Talaria Boots which allow Arias to dash forward using the Y button. This item makes platforming so much fun, and Arias can jump great distances with a dash jump. Furthermore, zipping around to dodge obstacles and engage in combat faster is just so satisfying. But yeah, that's how to dash in Astalon: Tears of the Earth. You gotta get the Talaria Boots first.
And! AND!! It seems if you dash off a ledge with the Talaria Boots, then jump, you can jump in mid-air! Kind of like how you can jump out of your roll or cartwheel in mid-air in Donkey Kong Country.
I also acquire the Assassin Strike ability for Kyuli which gives her attacks a chance to critical hit (2x damage). I also purchase Invincibility 1 which seems to increase my invincibility duration after taking damage. You know how you're invulnerable after getting hit? Invincibility 1 increases that period by 0.1 seconds. It's not amazing but I imagine it adds up when you get to Invincibility 5 or something.
Also, I grabbed the Cartographer bonus, which is very helpful. It shows locked doors as an icon on your map, which makes figuring out where to go SO much easier. Plus it only costs 150 Soul Orbs so I'd definitely recommend getting Cartographer early. You should also get the Soul Seeker item early. That's the thing that automatically picks up Soul Orbs (aka money) when they are on screen. Those two items are just super useful.
At some point I collect a Max HP upgrade or two. I also bought the Gorgon Slayer ability for Arias? That might've been last episode.
I figured out that the Sword of Mirrors, which tells the player that it can reflect "magic attacks" can straight up reflect all projectiles in the game, it seems. So it didn't occur to me until this episode that I could reflect the thrown claw attacks from the Cyclops bosses.
Algus also meets a mysterious old man, who gives him a strange gift. In the menu it's called the Monster Ball, and it acts kind of like a familiar. The group talks about the old man when we rest at the campfire.
Anyway, watch me play Astalon: Tears of the Earth! It's awesome. Made by LABSworks and Dangen Entertainment.
Here is that Dungeon Souls game I was talking about - https://youtu.be/zkq_2nLR20A
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