Ashen

Annapurna Interactive has published quite a few games that have this certain style of simplistic 3D visuals with low polygon count/sparse details. Such looks communicate low stress gameplay -- at least to me -- but that can be deceiving. Ashen, a 2018 soulslike action roleplaying game by A44, for one, can be a truly frustrating experience.

A simple soulslike

The lack of faces on characters was probably to avoid doing facial animations and lip sync. I feel they still could have included the details even if they were not animated. There is after all one entity in the game with a human mouth that has no animation.

The simplicity extends to gameplay features. One could say that Ashen's even bare bones in that aspect; you won't find build variety here. The game is more of an action-adventure title than an ARPG due to the shallowness. The biggest loadout difference is found on which relic and four talismans you equip. Armor is simple numbers and that goes for weapons as well. Your choice of weaponry really comes down to which move set you like the most; the damage and critical chance values don't seem to matter too much. There is a surprising number of different axes and maces for the miniscule statistic differences they have.

With co-op

Ashen's notable feature is co-operative play. I don't know how exactly it would work but it's supposedly somehow seamless, another player replacing the AI companion that is following you. You can turn off multiplayer and AI companions too but I think the game is balanced towards having two characters. And you do in fact need either a human or AI pal to open few doors and do assisted climbs when a cliff edge is too high to jump onto. I wonder if the doors are some co-op synchronization thing because they felt so unnecessary gameplay-wise.

The AI companions are surprisingly competent. They will keep up with you, even when you're negotiating narrow catwalks and jumping from platform to another. They do occasionally end up falling off into their deaths but not that much more than a human would: happened probably fewer than 10 times over my playthrough. You get them back on your next visit to a ritual stone and sometimes they reappear out in the field too.

The companion will also attempt to revive you if you go down but I wouldn't rely on that to happen if there are more than one enemy still around. Often I thought the companion had a good chance to survive if it just kept hammering the mobs but the AI decided to come revive me instead, just to get interrupted and killed. It's such typical NPC behavior, not being able to make smart decisions.

It's a shame the game is so shallow with its mechanics and equipment because it would have been nice to have a sense of excitement when finding hidden loot. About every nook and cranny that looks like a place to hide something, does have that something. But it's just more crafting materials to upgrade your weapons or the game's scoria currency. Plus a rare few permanent +2 health/stamina boosts. I still loved the exploration aspect though.

And exasperation

One thing that Ashen would have really needed is shortcuts. The game has two -- three with its Nightstorm Isle DLC -- rather brutal dungeon dives that have no checkpoints in between, just wells to refill your flask. And the ritual stones at their end is not even a fast travel point so if you use a Craven Remnant to teleport back to Vagrant's Rest to craft a potion or whatever, you will have to do the whole dungeon again. It's amazingly sadistic game design. I think in addition to Ashen's simplicity, it's the Seat of the Matriarch and Palace of Lathyrus dungeons that have resulted in the game's rating being Mixed on Steam.

In the DLC I lost 300k scoria when I failed a risky jump twice. Mostly I had that much because there was nothing to spend it on, however; it was just a number going up. I guess I could have upgraded some other weapons but I was satisfied with the one I had so I saw no need. You can bank scoria by buying bags of it (the trader gets their share) but my stash was full of my weapon and armor collection. I couldn't be arsed to sort it out at that point. I don't know why A44 had to limit the stash size; there was absolutely no reason for that.

Ashen's few (5+1) bosses fortunately aren't as hard as the journey to them. The first two I beat on first attempts, the third and fourth took three, and the final boss of the DLC and main game both took two. I had read that the final one was tough -- and it is possible it had been adjusted ever since all the comments had been written -- but I found it quite easy with the Dwale potion that gives you +50% damage reduction for 2 minutes while in the dark. The boss arenas all seem to count as such places. My first attempt ended with the boss weirdly killing me from almost full health with two swings, though. I wonder if I had accidentally taken my lantern out because Dwale gets negated by it. The boss's damage output didn't seem that high on the successful attempt.

As my relic on the final boss (and through the whole game) I used Ukkoto's Guile for its damage bonus. If you can avoid getting hit to have 5 orbs persistently, the damage will seriously add up on bosses. As my talismans I had Robust (negates 25% armor stamina penalty), Last Stand (more damage dealt the lower your health), Double Swig (+2 flask capacity), and Relentless (more damage dealt the lower your stamina). My armor was Spirit of the Wild from the DLC and my main weapon the Fanged Axe. Its light attack moves are perhaps not the best but I liked the heavy attack lunge because it's so quick.

Once again I'm happy that I played a game off-Steam: there is no average completion rate to compel me -- the Epic version doesn't even have achievements. The big challenge with Ashen's achievements would have been needing to beat it on Children of Sissna mode which reduces your total health and stamina. That would not have been an enjoyable experience in a game that is already quite frustrating.

A44 is also the developer of the upcoming Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, releasing later this year. We shall see how that one ends up being.