


And part of the chase sequence involved hunting down the thief in a bunch of pots where guessing wrong meant a “surprise attack” encounter, with a bunch of enemies where I had exactly one party member who could move before their second turn. And he was kidnapped, thus out of the party. At this point in the game, the one character I could afford anti-stun protection for was the party’s healer who had the “heal all statuses” skill. One particularly irritating sequence about halfway through the playthrough involved finding one of the area’s enemies had an “omni-stun” attack “omni” is the game’s term for multi-targeting moves. The combat itself is turn-based faire with move order decided by Speed stats, but both the enemies and your party eventually will end up with abilities that can alter the turn order or even stop the enemies from moving altogether. The enemies are in the environment, and it’s possible to stun them (the first ring power does this) either as a method of avoidance or setting up combat when ready. There was an option to skip cutscenes, and in retrospect I probably should have made more use of it.Įxploring Orcanon is done in a 2D perspective, with basic controls including jumping and elemental manipulation by way of unlockable rings. The party leader is a knight, while other classes present include: thief, multiple mages, summoner, magic swordswoman, and what amounts to a Freelancer. I would have to boot the game to tell you any of their names I ended up just thinking of them as job classes a la Final Fantasy V. Although elements of their background become clear as the story progresses, there’s a reason why most parties build from something small instead of throwing every character at you at once. In the case of Astria Ascending, the entire party of eight is dumped on you right at the start of the game with no backstory and told to go out and protect the land of Orcanon. The world of Astria Ascending is a world in which every three years for a millennium, a group of people end up becoming “demi-gods”, or temporarily immortal beings who serve to keep the world in harmony after they serve a three year term, they die. Your drinking game word of the day: "Harmony".
