Astor: Blade of the Monolith Reviews
Once you've unlocked a good selection of weapons, finishers, and special attacks, Astor: Blade of the Monolith becomes a pretty enjoyable affair.
Astor: Blade of the Monolith reflects one of the coolest aspects of video games as a medium with a deep history of iteration. You can take a familiar set of concepts, add new context, and come up with something that stands on its own rather than feeling like a ripoff. Astor does this with an impressive sense of knowledge and understanding of not only Zelda-style exploration, but character action-style combat. The latter is much more niche and specialized, therefore harder to pull off. It’s not quite a bullseye, but gets respectfully close and has me curious about further updates, as well as what this studio does next.
Astor: Blade of the Monolith offers an enjoyable action RPG experience with charming visuals and character design. However, with weak combat and a lack of things to see and do in the overworld, it's an experience that will soon be forgotten.
I came into Astor: Blade of the Monolith with all the hope and promise simply because it was NOT a souls game. I still love it for that, but as much as I enjoyed the bright and colorful vistas, the vivid and detailed graphics and the cute characters; I just can’t get past the clunky feeling of the combat. Late game weapons and abilities make things feel better but never perfect. Despite the combat and the forgettable story, I did have some fun in Astor: Blade of the Monolith at the end of the day; the cuteness of the characters won the day.
Astor: Blade of the Monolith is a great introduction to the Soulslike mechanics that dominate ARPGs right now. I can see it appealing to younger or novice gamers. It’s family-friendly, colorful, and pretty satisfying to play. More hardcore action fans will probably find it too familiar and not quite as polished as their favorites. Overall, Astor: Blade of the Monolith brings together a collection of tried-and-true mechanics in a pretty satisfying way.
Astor: Blade of the Monolith is an action game with a nice combat system, but unfortunately it tends to repeat game situations a little too often during the approximately 15 hours needed to reach the end credits.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Overall, Astor: Blade of the Monolith is a fun hack-n-slash action game, at least for a little while. The story and the world aren't strong enough to keep your attention, but the battles are fun in the beginning. Soon enough, you'll feel you've seen all the game offers before you've completed the main story.
While it doesn't rewrite the history books of gaming, Astor: Blade of the Monolith is a solid first outing for C2 Game Studio. The combination of a great combat loop with fantastic visuals is a winner, and although the story is a bit devoid of substance, is still an entertaining tale. This is certainly a game the devs can build upon, with potential shining through.
Astor: Blade of the Monolith has a certain charm and fun element to it, but the game's simplistic combat and repetitive foes take away from the overall excitement.
Astor: Blade of the Monolith is a decent, old-school action RPG that is enjoyable but could have been more innovative.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Astor: Blade of the Monolith is an excellent game with some fantastic environments, satisfying combat and some classic boss fights. The game almost has it perfect but I want more out of it, more puzzles, more NPCs, more variation and more to sink into.
Astor: Blade of the Monolith is a project that clearly has potential, and it shows that it was developed with dedication, but it feels like more attention was invested in how the game looks rather than how it plays. The combat system and the game mechanics feel a tad archaic and too repetitive. By no means is the game a bad one, but it cannot be called remarkable. It offers fun moments, stylish visuals and an interesting story, but the repetitive gameplay makes it best played in limited doses.
Astor: Blade of the Monolith isn't too different from its counterparts. It suffers from minor and rarely major glitches but is a fun, simple experience at its core.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
I thoroughly enjoyed Astor: Blade of the Monolith. It may not be ground-breaking but what's here will entertain you for many hours.
Astor: Blade of the Monolith is a solid entry into the ARPG genre with simple yet effective mechanics and combat that make it a recognizable and worthwhile experience.
The debut work from this Latin American development team is extremely pleasant in its simplicity, with an enjoyable story, effective gameplay, and impactful art style. Astor: Blade of the Monolith is a good start for C2 Game Studio on consoles and a promising foundation for more ambitious goals.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Astor: Blade of the Monolith is a title characterized by an overwhelming sense of flatness in gameplay. Despite the intriguing narrative twists and the dungeons in the latter half of the game that manage to be somewhat stimulating, our gaming experience can be summed up in a single word: monotony. If you decide to give Astor a chance, remember the Blade of Mono... tony that will inevitably hang over your heads.
Review in Italian | Read full review
"Just a promise of an adventure."
Review in Finnish | Read full review
Astor: Blade of the Monolith is a good gateway to the genre, delivering everything expected in a title with these characteristics. However, much of what could be innovative and strong is not explored, and some design decisions in the Nintendo Switch version could compromise the incredible experience.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
It's hard to say what Astor: Blade of The Monolith wanted to be. Action-RPG? Open world adventure? Techno-fable? Biting social commentary? Whatever it's ambitions, the end state is a pretty looking piece with little in the way of challenge or narrative depth.