Ashen (2018)

This title is an atmospheric action-RPG that takes strong inspiration from the Souls series while carving out its own identity. Its muted art style, faceless characters, and minimalist world design create a haunting tone that fits well with its themes of light and rebuilding in a ruined land. Exploration is a highlight, as the semi-open world is filled with interconnected areas, secrets, and dungeons, while the settlement you help grow over time adds a rewarding layer of progression.

Combat is deliberate and challenging, but it can feel shallow compared to other Souls-likes, with limited weapon variety and some balance issues that make lighter weapons far more practical than heavy ones. Particularly I dislike the fact that there are very feel weapon variety on this game, no heavy two-handed weapons for example, dual-wield ones, or even swords, which are my favorite type of melee weapon. And this is by design, the developers have some kind of issue surrounding swords in videogames, because they are too generic, so instead, they decided to completely remove them from this experience.

The AI companion system often undermines tense moments due to poor pathfinding or unreliable support, though coop with another player can make the journey far more enjoyable. Unfortunately I never experienced the coop side of this, but I can assure that the single-player lone experience is more than enough if you like the other elements. While Ashen offers memorable moments of discovery and atmosphere, its uneven pacing, sudden difficulty spikes, and limited replay value hold it back from true greatness.

For those who enjoy exploration and world-building as much as combat, it’s a distinctive experience worth trying, but players looking for deep mechanics and polished systems may find it lacking. I highly recommend not skipping this if you like Soulslike games, it is definitely a high quality one, even more so if you have a friend that can join the coop experience, since a lot of it's mechanics are focused on this kind of experience first and foremost.

A beautiful, challenging, but for the most part enjoyable experience. The reason I say "for the most part" is because the AI companions you're granted with really make this game frustrating at times.

It's a Soulslike game, so as such you will die and there is a lot of trial and error involved with certain sections. It's somewhat forgiving that if you are to die, you have an AI companion to pick you up if they should be alive themselves. There in lies a major flaw with this game.

There were occasions where these companions would get stuck on something when coming to revive me, leaving me with the choice of watching my struggling character hunched over while my companion would run back and forth, or simply just kill myself and be put at a checkpoint.

Other flaws in these companions included them being prone to falling from cliffs to their deaths with no clear excuse what so ever and their poor decision making when using their limited use healing potion. At times they would have lost a mere slither of health and waste a sip of their potion in boss fights.