Recent reviews by Astigos

Clump of souls, destroyer of worlds

This game provides an amazing sense of openness and discovery that you can only feel in old school games like zelda 1 & 2 or dark souls. There is no hand holding: figure it out.

In battles The dev gives you perfect information about turn orders, threats levels, enemy attack tables and all damage values, hit chance crit chances are exact and predictable (unless explicitly random by a mechanic called variance). If you fail a battle you'll always know how and why you died and how you can overcome the challenge next time.

The job system is really amazing just like FFT and FFV. There's a loy of nontraditional classes with unique skills too so your team composition can always vary. I will say that I do think that there isn't enough healer types in the early game, so you may feel anchored to the few that exist. Also, there isn't a ton of synergy when it comes to cross-training. There are lots physical skills that require weapons, so all the skills you learn for a dagger rogue really don't help you when you swap to a fencer who uses swords and rapiers and vice versa. I feel like FFT had a lot fewer weapon requirements. Passives and utility skills are always effective though (rogue sleep bomb, warrior taunt and stances, warlock buffs etc)

Passives are really cool. Unlike FFt where you can only have 1 passive, in this game passives require allocation points and each character has 10 to spend. So you can mix and match cheap and weak skills with strong expensive ones as long as they fit in 10 points.

There is so much exploration and tactics involved in this game i'm totally hooked. If you like old school no-hand holding game design (like dark souls) and strategy/tactics of FFV and FFT, then you will love this game.

This game appeals to people who like calm city builders and RTS action, people who like immersive single player content and competitive PvP, and people who like history or want a game with incredible mechanics. This game has withstood the test of time and outlived many competitors. At such a low price, give it a try.

I find traditional JRPG combat boring, but Star Renegades spices it up by turning it into a tactical roguelite, with tons of weapon effects, combos, and an innovative timeline which you can use and abuse to control the sequence of events. All of your attacks and the enemies are placed on a timeline so you can see how the battle will unfold. You can use that information to push enemy attacks further back in the timeline, interrupt them entirely, or make calculated risks by allowing the enemies to attack but perhaps have your tankiest character taunt. A great game if you enjoyed tactical roguelikes such as Into the Breach, For The King, or Darkest Dungeon.

Really bad clan. It's bonuses are based around having coastal territory (and fish lakes are also good too). Obviously you can never guarantee having these. Even though you are supposed to be a coastal clan, you can't build docks and you can't win via trade. You'd think a clan with water dominance would control the seas, and therefore trade, but no. You actually get penalties for going in-land. Colonization in-land is FIFTY PERCENT more expensive. You get around 30% military penalty for being in-land, so your military absolutely sucks. I struggle to see how this clan can win a game. Terrible.

It's 2019 and there are still thousands upon thousands of people still playing it. This game is classic and the HD updates for it are incredible.

Megaman X meets Binding of Isaac. This game is still in early access (11/26/16).

Pros:
- Endless replayability
- Many modes: normal, casual, defiant (hard mode with mutators), daily and weekly challenges, boss rush, seed mode
- Couch Co-op and Online Co-op
- Developers read reddit and steam forums for suggestions, bug repts, and feedback. Game is updated every 2 weeks.

Cons:
- Once you get good, difficulty is almost trivial
- Level layouts are not full randomized, they are merely a random collection of premade set pieces.
- Not as many items as Binding of Isaac

9/10

Might as well have been called "Dark Souls 2D Edition". Minimal (or zero) storytelling, which somehow augments the atmosphere. Very difficult, yet very fair. Every battle is a puzzle. 10/10

The action is completely uninspired; It lacks any satisfaction. The upgrades are not interesting. Waste of money.

This game is deceptively addicting with lots of random elements and very difficult to boot. It's Binding of Isaac with less item pickups but much more action, platforming, and skill shots.