Guild of Ascension

Genre: Action-RPG / Strategy-RPG / Roguelike

Players: 1

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Review:

Guild of Ascension, released in 2021 on PC and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2022, is a game that combines Action-RPG, Strategy-RPG, and Roguelike elements in a manner that’s truly refreshing, in a game where you’re controlling two warriors who are fighting their way up floors of a tower in a medieval fantasy setting.

The presentation in this game isn’t doing anything particularly interesting. The game uses simple 3D visuals that work well enough (save for the game’s refusal to let you move the camera) backed by a subdued synthesized soundtrack. It’s not bad, but it’s not impressive, and doesn’t justify the game’s file size of over 4GB.

While the presentation may not be very ambitious, the gameplay certainly is. It starts with a grid-based turn-based Strategy-RPG, but when characters take their turns, their actions play out in real-time, and you can move and attack however you want so long as you have time to do so (and for special abilities, you also need enough of that meter built up through your normal attacks).

Making things more interesting, game progression plays out like a Roguelike, with randomized floor maps and enemy encounters, and randomized bonuses. The game has a few clever tricks up its sleeve too, like giving players the option of using one of your two characters to attack the other, triggering a counter-attack that knocks out an enemy.

Unfortunately, while this game has a lot of great ideas, it doesn’t do enough to fully capitalize on them. The Roguelike elements feel highly limited, with only a few varieties of bonus upgrades to collect and a limited amount a character can possess at a time. The Action-RPG elements feel limited too, as you don’t have much choice in weaponry as the game only has three basic weapon types – sword, hammer, and bow. And there’s not any ability tree to explore, either – each weapon comes with its own automatically-assigned abilities that you’re stuck with whether you like them or not. Even the enemy types seem fairly repetitive pretty early on, too.

As a result of this, you don’t get the sense that one run is any different from the prior runs, and everything blends together, making you feel like you only make progress by grinding to unlock and purchase higher-level equipment back at your home base, which mostly just means doing more damage or taking less damage from attacks.

It’s a shame that Guild of Ascension feels so lacking in depth and variety, because its gameplay mechanics are so ingenious that it’s outright begging to be explored. The mix of Action-RPG, Strategy-RPG, and Roguelike elements is inspired, and if this game built on those elements it could have been a riveting experience. Instead, it’s a novelty that wears out its welcome far too soon. Players interested in clever blends of gameplay mechanics may find this worth a look, but everyone else will find their time better-spent on other games.

tl;dr – Guild of Ascension is a game that combines Action-RPG, Strategy-RPG, and Roguelike elements in a game where you’re controlling two warriors fighting their way up a fantastical tower. The blending of different gameplay elements here is absolutely inspired, but unfortunately the game does little to build on that excellent potential, leaving this feeling repetitive and tiresome. It’s a shame this game wastes so much potential, and unless you’re curious to see something clever and different that can’t live up to that potential, you’re better off skipping this one.

Grade: C+

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