Astalon is not a roguelike game like you may have heard. So even though you do start in the same place every time you die, your progress is always remembered. Specific enemies, especially the bosses, will remain dead forever. If you’ve unlocked a shortcut or explored some portion of the map, it will remain explored. Interestingly, even though the theming of the game says that Epimetheus rewinds time after you die, the game’s world still remains changed based on anything you’ve done along the way. It’s one of those setups that keeps every death a canon part of the narrative.
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Every time you die you appear before the titan again, free to make further deals in exchange for the orbs you find, and afterward time is reset and you’re placed at the beginning of the dungeon to start over again. Early in your quest you’re forced to die at least once, and from there details of Algus’ deal with the titan Epimetheus are hung as a looming reminder of dark things to come for the rest of the game. There’s almost an expectation with this stereotypical team that the warrior ends up being the main protagonist, but in this game Algus is the clear point of view character. Finally there’s Algus the wizard, who upon entering the tower renews a pact he’s made with the Titan of Death to ensure that the party’s victory is inevitable. Another is a nimble archer with the ability to kick at walls for an extra vertical boost. One is a warrior with short ranged attacks and a healthy dose of almost delusional confidence. The three each have the typical RPG party roles that you may be familiar with.
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The story opens up with a party of three young adventurers traveling into a spire full of Gorgons as they try to discover what has been poisoning their village’s water supply. In tandem with level design of mind-blowing quality, Astalon’s unique gameplay features and supporting story are able to mold something that might seem familiar on the surface into one of the best Metroidvania games available. While its core feature of swapping out characters isn’t without its shortcomings, it becomes an important element in the fascinating world that Astalon creates – both for gameplay and narrative reasons. Astalon: Tears of the Earth on the other hand does some interesting things with it. In most cases it has been hard to justify separating out important movement upgrades between other characters simply for the sake of having more than one character to play. There have been attempts to include parties of playable characters in Metroidvania games past, but the result has been somewhat mixed.
Adventure games have often been stand-ins for comic book style stories, JRPGs were inspired by anime in the first place, and Metroidvania games have been excellent for telling lonely and individual-focused stories. With that said, every genre has been shown to have its strengths for telling specific types of stories. Telling a story in the video game medium is still something that is growing and mutating – and I suspect we will never see an end to the possibilities available.
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