AWAKEN: Astral Blade Review

While 2D Platformer games are aplenty, it's really hard to find a game that keeps you attached to it after you've finished it. But 2024 has been exceptional. It started with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, followed by Rain World, Nine Sols, Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, and a few more noteworthy titles.

I've had my curious eyes on AWAKEN: Astral Blade since its announcement back in April as it was Dark Pigeon Games' first major title, and mostly because it looked very promising. I finished playing it yesterday, and I still have conflicting feelings about it. Perhaps that's a good thing, right?

I'll be honest. I was embarrassingly late to enter the Metroidvania genre. I grew up at a time when games just kept looking better and better, and everything was flashy, bright, and, most importantly, 3D. I was reluctant to give 2D platformers a shot until I played Blasphemous back in 2019.

As a Souls-like fan, when I tried Blasphemous, I was pleasantly surprised with what this genre has to offer. From vast interconnected segments of the world to drooling action sequences, I was sold! Having thoroughly enjoyed Nine Sols a few months back, I keep coming back to this genre of games. It also helps when these are the types of games that are the easiest to run on PC.

With the release of AWAKEN: Astral Blade, I was eager to try what Dark Pigeon, Chinese-based developers, had to offer in a Metroidvania game with a female lead – an uncommon site for this genre. Especially with what nuances they were going to bring to the plot.

AWAKEN: Astral Blade introduces the player to a bionic girl, Tania, who is now on a mission with her inventor, Dr. Herveus-what she calls "Father." The Horace Islands is the world she explores and investigates. The local wildlife has had its behavior changed into hostile mutants through something called Carpus Energy, and an investigating team has mysteriously vanished in this highly dangerous territory. Farther along in the journey, Tania learns more about the past, herself, and her place in the world.

On the surface, what sounds like an "Okay" plot isn't that interesting. AWAKEN: Astral Blade's narrative of the story is similar to Afterimage. The game simply doesn't do enough to keep you captivated; speaking of which, the dialogue in the game feels lifeless and awful – it feels as though the game lost its meaning in translation – the pacing of the story feels off when you're first introduced to the story, at least in the English dub.

When you start in AWAKEN: Astral Blade, you're given the option of choosing two difficulties if you want to select the stress-free approach where you can breeze through the game – AWAKEN: Astral Blade offers you a story mode. Once you finish the game, there's also an unlockable hardcore option. The game has a neat adaptability feature, so if you find yourself dying at a particular point a lot, the game offers you a lower difficulty level.

It's always nice when games provide easier accessibility options. AWAKEN: Astral Blade is surprisingly easy early on, even in the normal difficulty setting, but the game gets challenging pretty soon as you progress; I found the game's multi-stage boss fights particularly challenging.

Dark Pigeon Games has a solid understanding of Metroidvania gameplay despite the game's lack of narrative. With AWAKEN: Astral Blade, they played it relatively safe and stuck to what the genre is most well-known for. The game has a big landscape that you can explore and decent gameplay, though it does have a limited catalog of weapons and monsters.

Awaken: Astral Blade just does a good enough job, if not the bare minimum, at executing the fundamental requirements. Your mission here is the same as any other game, where you must accomplish the objectives through action or exploration in order to reach the end. Additionally, the creators indicated that there are multiple endings, which add a bit of replayability. 

I'd say most of AWAKEN: Astral Blade's positives can be bestowed upon its gameplay, though it has its own flaws as well. The gameplay mechanism is rather simple:

Tania has ground and air combinations that can be modified into special strikes based on timing. The weapons in the game have their own unique abilities and optimal contexts for use, such as the scythe, which works best in clusters. Although I wish the game gave you these weapons earlier in the game.

Tania can do more than just her basic attacks; she can block, dodge, and run and do combos that deal with extra damage. She also has a special attack that she can get by fighting enemies and finishing moves she can use on enemies who are already dead. Healing in this game is reminiscent of Dark Souls, and when I say that, I mean the game gives you a set number of potions, and there are save places that restore your health and act as checkpoints.

A glaring issue that I'd like to bring up is how enemies are in the game. More often than not, AWAKEN: Astral Blade uses the same types of enemies, making fights feel very repetitive, which is worse made by how often they pop up.

The enemies will not put up much of a fight because you'll be doing the same moves over and over again. And when you hit an enemy, there's this weird pause that's meant to feel like the hit really happened – it feels awkward. This feature could've been implemented better if it was part of a final move used to finish off enemies and bosses instead of every attack…

I enjoyed the boss fights in the game, though. Even if I feel as though they lack depth or vary in the types of attacks, they can still put up a good fight. To defeat them, you'll need to have a basic understanding of their moves; the block and dodge system makes this satisfying. I wouldn't call AWAKEN: Astral Blade revolutionary in those aspects, but nevertheless, they can still make the game fun to play.

And like Dark Souls, AWAKEN: Astral Blade, you can rest to respawn your enemies; that's about it for comparison. AWAKEN: Astral Blade also has a skill tree, and you can choose between active or passive techniques to improve, as well as enchantments. The game rewards you with upgrades with exploration in the form of an in-game currency called Aether.

A major source of annoyance in Metroidvania games is how much time is usually wasted aimlessly wandering through places, wondering and unsure of where to head next. Well, this isn't really the case in AWAKEN: Astral Blade; the game has your objectives clearly set out and well-defined. This makes the game feel well-structured while still providing lots of potential exploration. Traveling in between areas is also easy as you are rewarded with fast travel that unlocks halfway into your adventure.

From time to time, AWAKEN: Astral Blade will try to spice things up outside of combat and adventure. The game includes puzzles! While they weren't particularly impressive, it's nice to see nuance. On occasion, chase sequences also appear, though they were just alright. I can still appreciate the developers trying to add things to the mix.

Visually, AWAKEN: Astral Blade is terrific! The game's setting is vibrant, and so are the characters. My only complaint is that Tania seems stiff whenever she moves, and her proportions seem odd and don't match her portrait art.

The sound design of AWAKEN: Astral Blade is okay, nothing spectacular, and forgettable. It was pretty uninteresting, with light melodies here and there that fade into the background and abstract synths curating an ominous atmosphere.

Although there are good touches, like Tania’s feet thumping across the island's many landscapes, the game isn't entirely voiced. It does contain some voice acting, which was a bit underwhelming. Overall, I would say the sound design was just alright, if not barely.

AWAKEN: Astral Blade is visually stimulating, with solid Metroidvania gameplay, though it falls flat in some key areas. Too familiar of a plot with a lack of substance on character development and dialogue will occur. Fun boss fights and exploration come with repetitive enemies and fiddly combat mechanics that just leave so much to be desired.

Developer Dark Pigeon Games does a surprisingly solid job of presenting a fleshed-out world, but the actual gameplay can feel at times underbaked. Graphics and fighting do remain interesting, while the sound design is very mediocre; character animations are sometimes quite stiff.

Despite those issues, AWAKEN: Astral Blade might satisfy most genre fans due to its new yet familiar presentation, but don't expect innovation in any one area. Personally, I would wait for the game to go on sale if I weren't such a huge fan of Metroidvania.