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AWAKEN – Astral Blade is an action, adventure, RPG developed by Dark Pigeon Games and published by ESDigital Games. This game was first announced on Twitter in 2021, with a very extensive record of their progress showing their growth. This is Dark Pigeon’s first game to break into the industry and it has started with a bang! I first came across this game back in 2022 and was amazed by the amount of changes it underwent during development. But, let’s cut the chatter and get into this cake known as AWAKEN – Astral Blade.
Now, let’s Awaken ourselves to this review before we become mutants.
When you need to save the world, you can’t do it while you’re human. But you can when you’re made into a machine!
Gameplay
AWAKEN – Astral Blade has you playing as Tania, a bionic girl who was assigned to search and rescue a missing team. You explore the island of Horace to locate them, but on your way through, things are different. The fauna and plants of this island are mutated by the crazy levels of Karpas that are all over the place. On my way to find these people, I’ve come across crazy mutated giant beasts, ancient tech that I think are trying to test me. Oh, and some crazy amount of lore, which some will bring you to tears. Especially the little ghost girl and her family.
Now, when it comes to the control schemes, it does take a bit of time to adapt to the combo system they have installed. With enough time and practice, you can do some crazy manoeuvres and perform some amazing stunts. Though honestly, I did love using the scythe the most in the game. Give me a scythe and I’ll be a happy gamer. There are even the relics I collected that increased my stats. And with the Aether collected, it can be used to unlock new skills and improve Tania’s strength as well.
There are even the outfits that have me changing my fighting style a lot. One moment, I’m using a scythe with the Return set to just look good killing everything. That and the bonus 3% added to my attack power, speed, crit hit rate and max hp is the best by far. Besides, who doesn’t want to go killing mutants looking that fly with the red and blue combo?
Graphics & Audio
Dark Pigeon Games did not need to go so hard when it came to the graphics on this game. It’s legitimately the most drop-dead gorgeous 2D game that I’ve seen from an indie company in a while. The character design, the background and even the enemies have such amazing attention to detail. I get lost seeing Tania’s movements and combos, boss attacks and even the cutscenes will have you in awe. Now the sound effects and the background music did get a bit tedious.
But, at least the music does change when you reach a new area, which gives it a much-needed breather. There are times when the boss music was certainly an improvement to the atmosphere when in a fight. Yet I notice that during a long fight, it tends to be overstaying its welcome!
Longevity
If you’re adventurous and do backtracking as much as I do, you can have the game 100% completed and done in about 7-10 hours. I normally would have paced myself and got this game completed in one sitting, but I didn’t want that. Being absorbed with Tania as a character and a person just had me elongate my stay more. The story really will capture your heart and even doing a second look around after finishing it is fun.
Final Thoughts
AWAKEN – Astral Blade was a beautiful adventure that I’m glad I got the chance to enjoy. With its beautiful artwork, amazing storytelling, and fun mechanics, this entire game is a treat. I hope that Dark Pigeon will continue this pace and make another game that I can’t take my eyes off of. Take it all in when you start this exciting adventure.
I give AWAKEN – Astral Blade the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received to write this review.
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