I don't really get the hype for this one.

Not going to bother will a full review at this time but just going to say I don't like this one. I think Dark Deity, Those Who Rule, Lost Eidolons, etc are more fun (and better looking) Fire Emblem-likes and the "roguelike" nature of Astral Throne isn't really doing much for me. I think the rogue-like powers in Veil of the Witch is done better where the classes and abilities felt more distinct and you actually felt more powerful with a small squad taking on big armies. Also healers actually existing! I found no way to heal in my time playing other than consumables. While the enemy hit rate seemed low, the times I did get hit took a huge chunk and it was hard to find the way to sustain. In Astal Throne, I never really felt like I was becoming stronger and was instead just constantly on the run (see my complaint on timers/reinforcements later) and scraping by looking for heals.

Way too convoluted and clunky for no reason. Very easy to get lost in the way too many tool tips and menus. Why are there 50 billion weapon triangles? Weapons could be simplified. Especially when combined with the RNG nature where likely to not even get to use all the new weapons you have because nobody in your party use it.

It's also not a very good looking game. I appreciate they tried something different with the 3D but something about it just doesn't look right and makes it hard to tell what it is I am looking at. Timers and rushing the player with endless reinforcements is annoying. Simultaneously, somehow encounters take longer than they need to despite all the urging to rush. Reinforcements and Timers can be done successfully. Fire Emblem and the similar games I noted have maps like that. But every map? Come on now. I play games for fun not a sense of stress and urgency.

I liked some of the heroes, like Lyra and there seems to be potential with the gameplay idea but this ones not for me. There may be some hardcore Fire Emblem fans out there who like it, but it's not one I'd personally recommend, especially for the price. Maybe give it a try on sale.

Yeah, it's good.

A lot of modern Fire Emblems have pulled towards rewinds and survivability, but Astral Throne just fully leans into the lethality. You'll miss treasures and units on missions and you won't reload. Your units will get KO'd and you'll have to decide whether to pick them back up or push on to finish the mission. Everything's on a turn timer, and enemies are spamming in constantly, and it's the same old RNG you remember. It's challenging, and the game expects you to fail, and this is freeing.

Astral Throne is not a Fire Emblem you need to play perfectly. It has a story, that story is very character centric, and you can see different sides of the story based on which starting lords you choose, but that story is also completely secondary to the fun of trying to clear stages with the tools you have. Sometimes life gives you an unusuable level 2 mage and you have to make unuseable level 2 mage lemonade.

Within this context, Astral Throne is a lot of fun.

I personally prefer the storytelling and custom map design of more traditional Fire Emblems, but there's a verve to Astral Throne that is hard to deny. Sometimes it's fun to just be good at a genre, and to let the consequences of your choices ride.

Edit: Some small quibbles. The item interface takes a little getting used to. Often, if you go into the caravan screen during the main map, the camera will pivot and send you flying out into the ocean. The doctor feels NECESSARY due to the scarcity of healing otherwise, which the game is constructed around. This makes it so that seeing how characters other than the doctor interact with each other is kinda discouraged, which undercuts the care that went into writing so many different unique interactions. Even with the doctor, the game isn't easy, even on easy---I think some of the other classes could get minor healing abilities without it neutralizing the doctor's role in the meta or trivializing game difficulty.

2nd Edit: I'm an idiot. Foci have healing abilities. The middle mouse to lock window to read text system is awkward, so I've been mostly not reading abilities, but lol I cannot do that and expect to play well.

3rd Edit: This really does fix all of the issues I've had with Shadow Dragon, Geneology, and Thracia. It's amazing how such a small nudge to the design priorities of a game can set to rights the whole play experience. Shozou Kaga's design is super punishing in a traditional campaign structure, but in a roguelike? Where you can lose and still win? You have a lot more freedom to experiment and improve and adapt to changing conditions because you're not having to savescum to pass chapters---and in turn, the game can be a little more forgiving because you're not constantly reloading to optimize stat growth and playing with three walkthroughs to make sure you don't miss a recruitable with byzantine recruit conditions.

Very fun core gameplay with a lot of fun little ideas that make for great run variety. Devs are very active in community and updating the game to address bugs, UI, and balance