Review anarchistica 2/5 · Sep 10, 2024
Decent for its genre
Playtime: 1,5 hours (one run, died at third boss)
Intro
Astronarch is a roguelike autobattler. You pick 3 heroes at the start, then pick one of up to three possible area to move to with each giving you a fight, event or merchant. You get permanent and consumable items along the way, and beating a boss allows you to upgrade …
Playtime: 1,5 hours (one run, died at third boss)
Intro
Astronarch is a roguelike autobattler. You pick 3 heroes at the start, then pick one of up to three possible area to move to with each giving you a fight, event or merchant. You get permanent and consumable items along the way, and beating a boss allows you to upgrade two skills in total. Your only involvement during combat is using consumables.
Genre
I love tower defense games and technically autobattlers are a subgenre of those. But i don't care for them, because you have almost no control over what happens.
I generally dislike roguelikes, except when they offer lots of starting choices or have solid permanent upgrades. Astronarch lets you pick three of up to 21 heroes at the start, plus a global upgrade, but that's it. There are no permanent upgrades.
Gameplay & conclusion
Aside from selecting a pth, starting picks and using potions during battles, gameplay mostly consists of deciding who gets which item. Items are random, which means that strategising is too dependent on luck. More starting options and permanent upgrades could've mitigated this. Now it just feels too much like gambling away my time.