Astellia Review - Is it still worth to check it
In September of 2019, Barunson E&A company has released the long-awaited Astellia Online. It was a game labeled by the developers as a “Love Letter to Classic MMORPG.” It was probably mentioned to raise the hype around this title, which in fact worked out. Now, after the game release, it is time to judge whether it is indeed an old-school adventure or just a ruthless money-grab. Let's take a look at what Astellia Online has to offer.
About the game
Astellia Online can be described as a fantasy steam-punk online multiplayer game that revolved around the buy-to-play system with microtransactions involved. The developers of the game tried to take on the task of creating MMORPG that will appeal not only to the Eastern side of the world (mainly Asia) but also to the Western audience. Because of that, they decided to change the initial idea to gender-lock multiple classes and added more ways of character customization. While the game creators stated that it would be the classic RPG, it is more of a modern take on the genre. Astellia streamlines most of its quests and locks the players in instanced maps with no freedom of the open-world.
Audio-visual effects
The game offers a fantasy world with elements stereotypical to the eastern gaming market. Multiple characters look like they were dragged straight from the anime series, so in the game, we can see cute girls with short skirts and male warriors wearing shiny armors. Locations are well designed and immersive. However, they do not differ from each other, so even after progressing to the next zones, you might feel like being in the same place.
Combat involves flashy skills and quick actions. Whether you would like to fight solo or in a party of three, you are able to do that. Everything during the battle looks engaging, which is very pleasing to the eye. The damage that you deal can create some special effects that send the enemies flying which give additional satisfaction. The sounds in the game match the situation that the character is in, so when you are traveling, you will hear soothing music, and on the combat – quick rhythms will be there to raise your heartbeat. To sum it up, the game looks and sounds nice, but it lacks something that would differentiate it from hundreds of other eastern titles.
Astellia's Plot
The game's story is nothing but a stereotypical cliche of a hero born with supernatural powers who travels the world to save it from dark forces. Player's character is responsible for summoning ancient Astellios, being the only entity capable of doing so. All the dialogues in the game are typical for this kind of story – bad guys are promising to kill the main protagonist, everyone considers you the only hope, and you always come in the last second when everything is about to fall apart. We've been there already, many times. On the bright side, we can tell you that it seems like the developers knew how cliche the story was, and they have implemented multiple silly cutscenes to make fun of that fact. Because of that, the story isn't too engaging or immersive but allows for a laugh or two.
Leveling
The game has this very linear questing system that is known from most MMORPGs – you head to the NPC, get a quest, reach a certain area, kill the predetermined number of monsters, and go back to tell the story of your slaughter. Even though leveling in the game feels like a chore, it isn't that tough of a task. Undemanding combat can be done with one hand and doesn't require any complicated strategies, which can be both the game's advantages and disadvantages depending on how complex the system you would like to see. Your character will progress through the game while upgrading gear, improving statistics, and unlocking new skills just as in almost every MMO title. When you max out your class, you can roll another one or complete dailies and additional content like new dungeons and harder bosses that will allow you to farm even better gear. Leveling is a bit of a lackluster, but it will fit the needs of people who like grindy, linear character progression models.
Classes
Although the game features only five playable classes in the form of Warrior, Mage, Archer, Rogue, and Scholar, all of them have four additional subclasses that can be selected upon reaching the highest level. Every single one of them fits into the MMORPG genre holy trinity of DPS, Healer, and a Tank. Classes are very basic, and there is nothing special about any of them. Yet, it is nice to see an addition of further class development in the form of subclasses. Even though Astellia lacks innovation in this category, there is enough room for everyone to choose a profession that will fit their playstyle.
Astel (Pet system)
Astellia Online features a unique pet system that distinguishes this title from the others. It is probably the strongest side of this game, but it doesn't mean that it is perfect. Players can use powerful allies called Astel that can aid their masters on the battlefield. To summon them, players have to acquire unique cards that are dropped by every boss in the dungeon. There are a lot of pets to choose from right now, and each character can equip up to eight Astel at the same time. By equipping the right set of Astel and leveling them all up, your class will be granted a particular statistics bonus, so it's essential to try out different combinations and to improve every single one of them.
Each Astel has a customization option in the form of skins that might distinguish it from another player's pets. Although it is an excellent addition, there aren't too many styles that players can choose from, which means that quite often, you will see duplicates of the same Astel during the gameplay (if you ever bump into another player on the server, that is). They also barely change anything since many of them are merely recolors of a classic design. On top of that, skins are purchasable for real money, and even though they can be farmed in the game, it still feels like those should be available for free, which brings us to the topic of microtransactions.
Cash Shop
The game developers have promised that after the Astellia release, any additions to the Cash Shop, where you can pay for the items with real money, won't include pay to win items. This, in fact, happened since everything that players can purchase with the use of real money is purely cosmetic. It is also possible to fully deck out your character with fancy-looking clothes without spending a single dollar since premium currency can be farmed during the gameplay. It is worth knowing that you can also buy Astellia Asper in online stores, which is the cheapest and fastest way to get currency. When it comes to prices, it seems like most of the goods in the Cash Shop are accurately valued, and nothing seems to be overpriced. It is nice to see that the game developers backed-up their words with actions, and because of that, Cash Shop feels like a feature and not a contentious issue.
Crafting
In almost every fantasy world of MMORPG, one of the major roles in character development is played by the crafting. In Astellia Online professions were downsized to gathering certain materials and using them in the tailoring process. Depending on the class, you want to look for certain stats on the item, and when you get them, you can consider your item to be correctly crafted. It's a bit of a letdown since a game like this should have more options in terms of crafting. Even though there are five gathering professions, players get to choose only one for their character, and upon resetting to another one, all progression is lost. It has to be done multiple times since six available crafting professions need to be supplemented by multiple materials acquired through different gathering skills. It makes crafting system clunky and frustrating during the first playthrough; however, in the late game, when you can buy all of the materials, it works “ok.”
Unlockables
The game offers an achievement mechanic that awards players for the completion of certain activities. Whether it is an exploration or fighting, you might get a reward for your effort. It is especially noticeable in Star's Tale collection system that allows players to “master” each zone by finishing a list of tasks that are related to a specific area. With each new point completed on the list, players unlock more valuable rewards for their characters. This feature adds a hefty amount of content that players might focus on, whether it is their first playthrough or the following ones. Since rewards are quite valuable, this system is worth looking into and guarantees that boredom won't come as fast as reaching the endgame.
Verdict and a Summary
Besides bland crafting, very linear and grindy leveling, or a diminishing player base Astellia Online is a good MMORPG. It didn't achieve major success during its release, most likely because of the competition that it was facing. The release date of the Astellia Online was very similar to the day of the server opening for ArcheAge Unchained, which undoubtedly affected the initial player base.
In the end, Studio 8 did a decent job with their product. Astellia is a well-made title that might appeal to some of the players. However, it isn't unusual in any way. In the history of the MMORPG genre, there were lots of games similar to this one, which means that players who are already bored with this approach to online gaming will not be interested in trying out the Astellia Online. It doesn't necessarily mean that this title is not worth looking into as multiple factors back the game up – here are some of them:
- Complex Pet system that allows players to improve more than just their character
- Flashy combat that is engaging to look at
- A quality combination of Sound and Music design
- A small but very friendly community that's open for the new players
- Interesting achievements that add numerous things that players can do in the game.
On the other hand, there are also things which Astellia has done wrong and here are some of them:
- The Buy-to-play feels misplaced in Astellia Online. It should have been a free game with microtransactions.
- There is nothing revolutionary besides a good pet and achievement systems.
- Very linear, grindy, and repetitive leveling.
- Narrow player base.
- Very little customization for characters, classes, and pets.
As for the final verdict, we believe that Astellia Online is a decent MMORPG that could have succeeded if it was released on a Free-to-play model during a different time. The game developers decided to compete against ArcheAge Unchained, which did result in a fatal loss of user for them. If you have few spare bucks lying around, you might want to check it out; however, we do not believe that the cost of the game is entirely justified – especially with the microtransactions that you can find in this title. It is a good game – just not as good as it should have been. If you take into consideration the reports on their budget, we'd say it's even disappointing.
If you actually enjoy playing traditional Korean MMOs we believe that Astellia won't earn your favor. It is a typical eastern market game that really tries to satisfy western audience which just doesn't work. Astellia offers just what all other similar games have: PVP, PvE, guild wars, group arena, gender locked classes that wear magical shiny metal armor, and cute anime girls in short skirts. During the launch, it felt like coming back to the great MMORPG world but as for today, developers don't know how to stop diminishing population. Even though Astels provides a great feature to expand the game's content it is as far just not enough to help players feel less lonely in a pretty empty world. The live Steam version of the Astellia lacks active users which don't shock since there were so few patch releases lately. It's a hard game to get into because of the low population.
If you search for the game full of life that part of Astellia Online might never be the same as during the test phase of the game. Going back with a time machine to the time of release could bring you the days of Astellia glory however if you don't have one you might have found yourself a dying game.
If you search for the game full of life that part of Astellia Online might never be the same as during the test phase of the game. Going back with a time machine to the time of release could bring you the days of Astellia glory however if you don't have one you might have found yourself a dying game.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Is Astellia worth buying?
If you like to play Eastern styled games and you don't mind grinding – Astellia Online may interest you.
Is Astellia Pay-to-win?
Astellia is not Pay-to-win as all of the items in the Cash Shop are purely cosmetic.
Is Astellia Free-to-play?
Since the Closed Beta, it's a Buy-to-play game.
