Ashen is a decent soulslike games, that managed to grip my attention mostly because im such a sucker for soulslike titles.
It offers a minimalistic art style that is pleasant to the eyes. Its lightning system is also worth appraising as it ties directly into the gameplay, at times feeling what Dark Souls 2 was inicially going to use in the dark dungeons. THe soundtrack is sweet as well.
It borrows a whole lot from Dark Souls, like the death system, checkpoints, weapons upgrades, combat system, currency and so forth. But it does just enough to show that it has ideas of its own and managed to craft its own identity. There is the fact that quests are given by multiple characters, the plot is perceptible (even if it uninteresting), and there is a compass pointing to quest objectives. Though it is not unique to this game, the design heavily incentivizes you to play in coop with a human or NPC, and even if the AI isnt the best, it makes the adventure feel less lonely.
The biggest flaws of the game steam from the bland environments at times, exploration is not rewarding (often just giving you crafting items), clunky controls at times, bad AI and lackluster boss design. Each of this is ignorable on its own, but they all add up when placed together, and the game can feel frustratingly difficult at times because of these issues.
Overal its a solid title, but one which i would only really recommend to starving soulslike fans.
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