Astral ascent is a fantastic 2D action roguelite that has surprisingly refreshing innovations in the genre by making the game focus on spells that you cast rather than weapons and abilities that you can use like in most 2D sidescrollers.
The game has perhaps the most fluid feeling combat the genre can offer with the animations and art polished to the extreme. The variety in spells and modifiers for each runs is quite a lot and I'm sure they'll be adding more.
The boss design is the key standout and much more well done than others of the genre.
The difficulty never feels like it's overwhelming or extreme and you constantly have meta-progression which guarantees that you will progress in difficulty levels eventually.
The narrative is not the best even if some of the character and their interactions are likeable. The lore and world-building is mostly done in the background and it's more interesting than the main narrative. All of the great voice acting lends to the world feeling alive.

Now what do I think is lacking is perhaps the lack of a reason to go past the main ending as I'm not someone that sets goals for myself in a game to achieve maybe past getting all achievements which I am close to. After a few difficulty levels, like in Hades with heat 32, you're not really encouraged to go further. The game is still super enjoyable, but I don't have much of a reason. Unlocking new spells, auras, gambits is not really that interesting to me and the game doesn't feel too challenging once you master the boss' attack patterns and figure out stuff.
I think it's an excellent pickup if you enjoy 2D action roguelites but if you're someone that needs the game to set goals for you to keep progressing and wants it to be 100s of hours of replayability I don't think this is it.
If you want a roguelite that maybe lasts 50-75 hours and is really enjoyable throughout, then this is definitely a blast to play and I'd highly recommend it.

Astral ascent is a fantastic 2D action roguelite that has surprisingly refreshing innovations in the genre by making the game focus on spells that you cast rather than weapons and abilities that you can use like in most 2D sidescrollers. The game has perhaps the most fluid feeling combat the genre can offer with the animations and art polished to the extreme. The variety in spells and modifiers for each runs is quite a lot and I'm sure they'll be adding more. The boss design is the key standout and much more well done than others of the genre. The difficulty never feels like it's overwhelming or extreme and you constantly have meta-progression which guarantees that you will progress in difficulty levels eventually. The narrative is not the best even if some of the character and their interactions are likeable. The lore and world-building is mostly done in the background and it's more interesting than the main narrative. All of the great voice acting lends to the world feeling alive. Now what do I think is lacking is perhaps the lack of a reason to go past the main ending as I'm not someone that sets goals for myself in a game to achieve maybe past getting all achievements which I am close to. After a few difficulty levels, like in Hades with heat 32, you're not really encouraged to go further. The game is still super enjoyable, but I don't have much of a reason. Unlocking new spells, auras, gambits is not really that interesting to me and the game doesn't feel too challenging once you master the boss' attack patterns and figure out stuff. I think it's an excellent pickup if you enjoy 2D action roguelites but if you're someone that needs the game to set goals for you to keep progressing and wants it to be 100s of hours of replayability I don't think this is it. If you want a roguelite that maybe lasts 50-75 hours and is really enjoyable throughout, then this is definitely a blast to play and I'd highly recommend it.