LinuxGameCast Reviews – Asura

Your intrepid heroes test in production, search for WASD, and complain about permadeath. Asura faces the CHAIRQUISITION!

Game: Asura
Webzone: https://www.asurathegame.com/

Devel: Ogre Head Studio
Engine: Unity
Price: 9.99 / CDN 10.99

Wazzat: Asura is an indie, top-down, Hack ‘n’ Slash game set in a fantasy world inspired by the richness of Indian mythology. It features heavy rogue-like elements and a unique procedural skill tree which changes on every play-through.

Mandatory Disclosure: They sent us keys


CHAIRQUISITION:
CHAIR– Nooope

CHAIRCHAIR– Not sure if want

CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR– Check it out

CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR– Shutupandtakemymonies


Makes with the working

V-

  • This critter only started working on Wed.
  • Yeah, that’s three days after the initial release.
  • The initial launch caused my UHD monitor to power cycle.
  • Everything works, now.

J-

  • #lestrider
  • TV box had some issues

P-

  • Wouldn’t start the first few times I tried.
  • Tried restarting Steam, didn’t work.
  • Had to close Steam and launch the game from outside and then it started working properly.
  • When it did finally start it failed to recognize my multi-monitor setup and set itself to 2560×1440.

Total-


Shiny / Sounds

V-

  • When are people going to learn how to encode intro videos so they don’t look like absolute wank?
  • Brass tax, this looks like a mobile game.
  • Granted it looks like a good mobile game but we’ve seen far better from smaller teams.

J-

P-

  • As I’ve mentioned in the past, aesthetics in video games should only serve to complement gameplay.
  • In Asura, the visual aesthetics do just that. And I do mean just that.
  • They are completely unremarkable and the different demon people you play as are literally palette swaps of the same model as are the enemies.
  • The sound… For the first few runs through the game, if you’d asked me what I thought of the sounds I would have replied “Are there sounds?”
  • And the moment I started paying attention to the very muted sound effects and extremely subtle music, I kinda wish I had stayed in blissful ignorance of the Sounds.
  • A meaty thwack when you hit an enemy can and often does go the distance between making the combat as impactful as waving a feather duster at a concrete wall to taking a jackhammer to said concrete wall.

Total-


Control

V-

  • The last update caused the Xclone controlla to alway press up.
  • This was resolved by relaunching the game.
  • Why for the love of FSM did you bind movement and aiming to the same input?
  • No WASD?
  • More like no option to do AK and ALL with the keyboard controls.

J-

  • Correct prompts for my dualshock 4? You get a bite sized snickers
  • Has Some problems with the steam controller on the steam box.

P-

  • No rebindable controls on the keyboard? In 2017? You get dinged a chair.
  • The only reason you don’t get dinged 2 is because you can at least rebind the controller mappings.
  • Not that you’d need to…
  • I’m the most particular about the controls, here at LGC Weekly, and even for me the controller bindings worked just fine on Steam Controller.

Total-


FUN

V-

  • Oh look, permadeath.
  • I like progression and storylines vs live die repeat.

J-

  • The game’s random elements seem like a bit too much at times
  • Your plethora of abilities aren’t consistent between each playthrough, so sometimes you get really good ones and sometimes you get super shitty ones
  • Enemy drops are inconsistent as well
  • In some respect, I like the idea. You can split your effort between trying to get good gear or level up to get some neat powers and better stats, or you can double down on one or the other
  • But in the situation where you get shitty equipment and shitty powers, you pretty much have no choice but to feed yourself through the meat grinder
  • Not sure how I feel about the kill based cooldown mechanic either
  • The gameplay itself isn’t too bad. Dodge enemies, shoot arrows, spears or magic, mind your stamina bar, murder things
  • When the RNG works out in your favour it’s pretty fun
  • When it doesn’t it’s just frustrating.

P-

  • What happens when you mix The Binding of Isaac and the original FORCED?
  • Some pretty weird fanart, that’s what!
  • What you don’t get is Asura, because it’s an entirely different video game. Made by people completely unrelated to either of those.
  • There is one reason this game doesn’t get 4 chairs here and it has absolutely nothing to do with the bland/forgettable aesthetics.
  • Random generation as a gameplay element is all very well and good, so long as it doesn’t affect how reliably you can perform in the game.
  • That’s actually one of the reasons I stopped playing Isaac.
  • If you want to randomize the rooms, enemies or even item drops, that’s fine.
  • But make sure you at least give people a sense of consistency in your randomness.
  • The best example I can think of is Enter the Gungeon.
  • Even though most of the stuff in Enter the Gungeon is almost as random as in this game, it does something which I think is imperative in these roguelites.
  • They always give you a weapon, some armor and a bit of health whenever you kill a boss.
  • That gives you not just the feeling of being rewarded for killing an enemy which is much harder, but it also gives players the tools they need to progress.
  • In Asura, like in Isaac, you can end up getting so shafted by the RNG that you don’t get a better weapon, better armor or even enough currency to “craft” one yourself.
  • This overt randomness is often more frustrating than it is fun.
  • That said, if they did what FORCED Showdown did with its small levels and taking away your buffs in between stages in return for a permanent increase in some stat, and some healing, it would cut down on the frustration quite a bit.
  • But, frustrating as it was, I did have fun with it.

Total-


Final –

 

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