Ascendant

Pros:
Nice looking graphics
High replayability
Couch co-op
Linux support

Cons:
Lacks sufficient variety of enemy types.
No steam cloud support

This game is best played with a friend, but is still plenty of fun single-player. It is a moderately difficult rogue-lite platformer in which you explore procedurally generated levels, collect upgrades, and fight bosses. There are a lot of combinations of upgrades you can get, as well as some unlockable content, which lends to the game's replayability. I still would have recommended the game back when it costed money, but now that it's free-to-play, there's no excuse not to try it.

I like rogue-lites, not this one. After 5 hours with the game, all I experienced was frustration. What I especially love about rogue-lites is how powerful you can get, in some of these games you can become an absolute monster killing machine god of destruction etc. In Ascendant, all the runs felt the same, upgrades are weak and meaningless, enemies outscale you QUICK and I found it impossible to progress any further than late summer. Maybe I just suck but that doesn't make me hate the game any less.

An all round good game that is hard but fair. there are only three types of enemy (flies, worms and grunts) but each come in a veriety of flavors (baby flies,spitter flies, suicide grunts Alchimist grunts) . I very much liked the art style and general look of the charecters was appeling to me. there is a large veriety power ups and upgrades to find and unlock that alter your abilities and can finer tune your play style, though the random nature of what powers you get won`t always help asmuch as you may need, but thats just the chips fall. Any way I highly recomend Ascendant and don`t think it will disapoint.

I would love to recommend this game, I really would! The art style is gorgeous, the environments are amazing, the music is lovely, and the enemies are unique!
But the difficulty is just too damn difficult to make it last more than two levels. I made it to Fall and died on the second Fall boss (The Hermit).

To explain the difficulty best; think classic Castlevania on steroids.

Ascendant isn't a terrible game... it's just not a very good one. The combat system is fun at its core, and I like the way it gives you slightly more control over your items than some games, but repetition kills it. You're forced to kill the same enemies so many times that it becomes hollow--especially since you can almost always pick them off a few at a time, and 75% of enemies in every room are either flies or normal grunts. And you're forced to replay the same levels over because the difficulty is very high. And there's not enough bosses either, so you'll face the same ones almost every run; nor are the bosses remotely balanced against each other (one of the early bosses you can kill unscratched on your first try, another one is ludicrously difficult even with great items and a full health bar).

Production values don't help it--the soundtrack and graphics are both totally forgettable, and you will get bored of the appearance of the early levels very quickly.

It's plainly, painfully obvious that this game is trying to be The Binding Of Isaac as a sidescroller. But ultimately, you're better off just replaying Isaac again.

I'm a sucker for games of the rogue-like genre and this is one of the better one s in my opinion.
Its brawler elements and the unforgiving attack patterns of numerous enemies make for a very punishing but also fun experience.
I'd go as far as to say it's one of my all time favorite game!
It did take me 30 hours to get my first victory on normal mode though...one thing you should consider when thinking about buying into this beauty! ;)

Not much of a Rogue-like or Rogue-lite gamer, but I do remember playing difficult games around the NES / DOS era and Ascendant has that feel with a beautiful art design. It might actually turn me into a Rogue-lite fan if a game can keep up with this level of quality.

- Every playthrough is unique and different. I didn't realize random procedural type maps could be fun along with the vast unlockable content to discover.

- Graphics / Audio are beautiful and unique. As soon as I heard the music at the title screen, I immediately felt intrigued in the discovery that awaited me.

- This game is difficult (depending on the boss) for newcomers in the Rogue-lite genre, but it still feels simple enough to pick up and learn due to the beat-em up style of play. If you are a gamer looking for challenge (ie: Dark Souls / Shovel Knight) in a platform environment, do check it out.

- Customizable key controls almost made or broke the game for me, due to my gamepad driver support in Linux being quite lacking. I would request from the developer to allow double key tap for directional dashing. Currently the way I have my keys setup is using my left hand for actions and right hand on the num pad for movement / misc keys. Feels a bit difficult without a controller but it isn't unplayable.

Ascendant is a rogue-like dungeon crawler which is best played in short bursts rather than over an extended period time. It has fun gameplay mechanics, where you're able to blink to attack enemies from afar, parry attacks, dash, etc., and I've never felt that at any point in time the mechanics in the game weren't important, since certain enemies move faster than your character making the blink important, parrying projectiles one-shots most enemies, and you can avoid enemy fire to get behind them with your dash. The unique positive and negative attributes separate this game from others in the same category, with one positive being a character heals upon boss kills, and a negative attribute for a character is upon picking up health, it has a low chance to fizzle to dust and do nothing. While this game is fun, it's only playable in short bursts due to the soundtrack. Although it fits the theme of the game, the music can detract some from wanting to play it, and because to that I give a warning to those who are easily bothered by repetition to not purchase this game.

I also give a warning to those who are bothered by difficulty, as I personally have only been able to reach the ending credits on baby mode with only a half heart remaining, out of my very extensive health pool of at least 10 heart containers. The game is not a breeze, and should not be taken lightly at first glance.

For a quick list of all the pros and cons I can think of for people who enjoy those as well:

Pros:
~Quick, exciting gameplay which always keeps you on your toes
~Fun mechanics which always feel important to the flow of the game
~Chests spawn after literally every room clear
~Challenge rooms are generally challenging, but extremely rewarding
~Unique character attributes
~Many opportunities for improved weaponry and spells
~Blessings give game-changing passive benefits, and almost never feel useless
~Enemy patterns are easy to learn
~Enemies are NOT immune to spikes

Cons:
-Repetitive sountrack
-Shields can make certain enemies extremely difficult to attack
-Bosses have very few attack patterns
-Certain bosses are extremely easy to dodge, while others are nearly impossible to
-Specific spells feel unimportant and don't feel as though they work as intended
-That god damn zypherus challenge room...

This is a fun little roguelike with both huge strengths and glaring flaws. This game sets itself apart from other games in the genre with action/beat-em-up combat, but the moveset is quite small. Almost all the customization comes from spells and passive abilities, so don't buy this game expecting tons of synergies like Isaac. The combat takes some time to master despite how simple it is, and clearing rooms usually doesn't feel like it all depends on luck. Be warned that this game is difficult; barely anyone who bought it has finished it, and that's not due to the usual Steam mentality of buying games and never playing them.

Sadly, the boss battles are where most of the aforementioned things occur. Many of them are much too difficult to beat without a good build, and they are heavily scripted with frequent use of invincibility shields between phases. This essentially means that the player will be stuck dodging difficult attacks for several cycles if the game didn't give them a damaging build. They are frustrating to fight at best and annoying enough to make you not want to do repeated playthroughs at the worst.

The recent addition of an easier mode makes things more tolerable, but the bosses will still grate on the player's nerves. The unlocking system is standard for the genre, but the way the game is structured means that they don't keep you motivated to keep playing. Most of the unlockable items are in shops, which is rough since the player is pitted against the RNG of both getting enough money to buy the item, and actually having it appear in the shop. Still, this is a decent game for people who want a cheap roguelike that's not afraid to step out of the genre limitations. The developers have hinted at the possibility of more combat, so perhaps these issues will be ironed out eventually. Just don't come into this game expecting to finish it regardless of your experience of the genre, and things should be okay.

Overall, this is an ambitious game for this genre that suffers due to that. Still, it's fun enough to warrant a purchase.

1. Do you like Dust or Valdis Story?
2. Do you like The Binding of Isaac?

If you can answer yes to at least one of these, you should check this out.
If you can answer yes to them both, you should already be owning this.

There is a seed of a brilliant game here, but it's not as much fun as it should be.

The good first, I guess: The stylization of the graphics is unique, and the visual design is terrific. The BGM is gorgeous, no two ways about it. Vibrant without being twee, atmospheric without devolving into sonic punctuation, Ascendant is an aboslute delight to listen to.

It's a shame it's not such a delight to play. The combat is well-executed, if with a somewhat steep learning curve. In fact, in my first hour or two of play, I found myself wondering why there are so few action-platformers with such fun and engaging combat. Then you start to notice that the power-ups you're unlocking don't really appear very much, that most of the pots you're smashing (yes, I know) are empty, and that using that cool combat engine in an engaging way is just going to end up with you doing sooner and having to start the whole process over again. There is very little variety in enemy or level-chunk design on a level by level basis, and it all soon starts to feel less like a game and more like a chore.

I feel like someone of my near-OCD-levels-of-completionism should absolutely love this, but I just don't. Perhaps if there was more actual platforming (where, at the risk of sounding conceited, I do have the skills) I would find it more engaging, but the platforming is simply window dressing for the fighting, which is a shame, because the fighting is very, very good. The platforming however, is not even at the level of Rogue Legacy, and certainly nowhere near Strider, Guacamelee or any of the 2D Castlevania games. I'm not going to say I don't enjoy it at all, because I do, but only in short spurts. It doesn't have the ability to keep me pinned to my chair for hours the way, to pick an example of a 2D action-platformer on Steam, Valdis Story: Abyssal City did. I believe Hapa Games should be rewarded and encouraged for the stunning art, beautiful soundtrack and inspired fighting mechanics of this game, and reservedly recommend it on those grounds. But caveat emptor; this game might not be for you.

I generally love Roguelite/Roguelike games and especially this one because it does a major thing better than every other game in that genre that I ever played: It's the combat. It is fast, fair but challenging and it feels great and very fluid. There is nothing like dashing towards an opponent hitting him two times knocking him away dashing after him and continue hitting him.

On top of that there is a huge amount of diffrent weapons, spells, spirits (passive effects) and blessings that you can put on your weapon armor or spells. These blessing also allow many diffrent character builds because depending where on your body you put them you get diffrent effects.

It has a great soundtrack, a huge amount of replayabilty and very well executed game mechanics.

I really recommend this game to everyone that likes roguelites because this one is the best there is.

This game has a beauty about it that makes it really quite unique, it doesn't sacrifice fun mechanics for difficulty, instead it uses fun brawler mechanics, and designs the rest of the game around that, with enemies that are very reminiscent of halo 1 this game just makes my inner child happy

at first glance it looks like a nice easy 2d platformer with a combat system thrown in there for good measure but you would be oh so wrong this is a extremely unforgiving rouge like beatemup platformer it is very hard there is no save system and death is permanent it is extremly fun but rage inducing i recommend this game to anyone looking for a challenging rouge like platformer with a great combat and stat system
also just to give you an idea as to how much rage this made me go through i start flailing my fists at my monitor

The whole Roguelikelike / Roguelite / Procedural Death Labyrinth / whatever you want to call it thing is possibly my favorite trend to ever happen to gaming. I've played near all of them, but Ascendant has very quickly shot up to the top of my list of favorites. If you are a fan of the genre like I am, you need to play this game.

#Intro
I am not much of a rewiwer, more of an analyst. This review is based on experience both with the game and the genre, at the time of writing sunk 40-50 hours into this game. I will not play a bad game for 40 minutes let alone 40 hours. If you are a fan of the genre buy it, game is excellent. If you would like a more detailed reasoning behind why keep reading, there wil be very very minor gameplay/story spoilers as it is impossible to talk about certain mechanics of the game without referencing them.

#Plot
The plot of the game is simple. You are a Demi-god, There is a God, Overthrow the God, Become the new god. Each Demi-god has its own story and reasons for wanting to be God. The level structure is similar to Binding of Issac, there are multiple floors in groups of two with semi randomly generated rooms between you and the boss of each floor. Every odd numbered floor has a random boss from a select pool of possible bosses for that floor, and every even numbered floor has that levels guardian which is the same every time but there are two possible variations of it. Each boss is a challenge in its own right and each has its own set of attacks, attack paterns, weaknesses to exploit and most have multiple phases. Some are more challenging than others and some can end up being trivial if RNGesus loves you but personally that is half the fun.

#Combat
Before I begin I will say the game has an excellent Tutorial that covers pretty much everything I am about to cover. If you buy this game play the tutorial, it is not boring and gets straight to the point.

Combat boiled down is - Attacks, launch attacks, Magic Attacks, Parry and evasion. You may also occassionally find a 1 use items called Breaths which offer numberous effects for the room you are in. Most are combat focused but for the most part you'll be depending on either your weapons or magic to clear the path between you and the next room. Attacking an enemy with either magic of spells will also do stagger damage. Stagger damage is a separate health bar of sorts. Once an enemy has taken enough stagger damage they will glow yellow allowing you to use a launch attack to send them flying across the screen taking massive damage and doing massive damage to anything they collide with. Its a very simple mechanic and very satisfying. Feels very meaty especially if you are able to stagger and ping a larger foe across the room. For survival you can dash left or right through enemy attacks and flank them or parry the attack sending them flying (or in the case of projectiles reflects them). Timing is key, you'll have to be rather skilled at the game to successfully pull it off especially in the late game or against certain bosses but using the room to your advantage is also a viable tactic, You don't have to parry or dash through attacks, you can always jump over, run away, lure foes out of position among other things. It is very well done.

As for what you'll encounter there is quite a bit of enemy variety but you will not notice it at first since each season is tiered. The first season will always have a mix of melee flies, Grunts, mage grunts, worm brawlers, worm hitters and suicide grunts, The next season will expand this roster adding elite versions ontop of new enemy types with their own elite versions. Many enimes especially later ones are a challenge in their own right and their mere presence can change the whole way you tackle the room. You may also encounter one of many many possible event rooms which range from being ambushed, blessing themed obstacle courses, mini games, gambling and straight up "Here is a awersome free thing, have fun". You won't know until you enter what it is and it took me around 20-25 hours of playing until I was finally able to experience all of them. Adds a lot of depth to each floor if you decide to explore them especially if they are locked costing you a valuable key.

#Progession
Every playable Deity in this game (7 in total) has its own strengths/weaknesses which cater to certain playstyles which you'll disvoered as you unlock them. Every floor has at least 1 item room and a shop. Items rooms contain 1 gold chest either locked or unlocked which can provide you with high level stat boosts, breaths, weapons, a chunk of influence (the shop currency) or something else that I won't spoil. Shops on each floor are always locked and always have 4 items for sale and are one of the few ways to get a new spell. Each spell replaces your magic attack with a new one which can range from tripple shots to spread fire or mines.

There are two levels of passives in this game. First are spirits which are straight up passives, you pick them up and you get a bonus. There are 57 to collect in all and most have a chance of appearing on weapons you'll find to. There is no limit to the amount of passives you can get and they pretty much all stack flawlessly naby offering very cool interactions with each other. Bklessings are the second teir of passive in the game and each Deity can only hold a limited number at a time but they are very powerful. Blessings are rewards for beating the levels boss and can be placed into 1 of 3 body slots augmenting your attacks, magic or passively. Each blessing has its own unique effect depending on where you socket and they all interact with each other. 21 blessings with 63 passives in total to discover and many many combinations and synergies to experiment with. Because of how potent blessings are they will shape your run meaning no two runs end up the same but that should go without saying, its the whole point of the genre.

#Conclusion
Overall the game is fantasic and a must have if you are a fan of the genre. There is a lot of depth to be had but it will require a little investment since you will have to learn encounters and most likely need to unlock new items before you are able to get a successful completion. It does have a few balance niggles mainly when you encounter a room with multiple shielded enemies which will be very intimidating at first but apart from that the game is paced very well and is very rewarding to play and much more than a simple 1 button combat system that is the fault of many other games in this genre.

#Verdict= Highly Recommended
Thanks to Totalbiscuit for his WTF is...? coverage of this game. If not for him this game would have completely flown under my radar as I am sure it flew under yours. If you need any more convincing check out his first impressions of the game.

A really fun and stylized Rougelike Brawler where you can launch minions into spikes, fight bosses, and collect a multitude of items. It's also pretty challenging, as any Rougelike game should be.

Want to know more? Check out a first impressions video of the game I recorded for Geekenstein.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKtSBe_SDTM&list=PLGZzj3oUhxhsCNa9eEbyc9w9vueaDfBAG&index=2

Full Disclosure: Geekenstein.com covered the development of this game and are friendly with the developers. They're cool dudes.

This game reminds me in a lot of ways of The Binding of Issac... which is my all time favourite rouge-like game, and Ascendant is VERY simillar in many ways, but one of the biggest (and obvious) differences is the art style, i absolutely LOVE the gorgeous colour pallet in this game, really simple but oh so pretty! as well as the soundtrack...

Just like Issac, its laid out as rooms connected together... up, down, left, right... which is perfect for the format, with some chest rooms that may sometimes need keys to unlock, and shops as well (influence being the currancy)... all these basic mechanics from Issac are here, and for a good reason... THEY WORK!

As for the gameplay itself, its very simple combat, nothing too complicated, the only thing ive had a slight struggle with is being precise in smacking enemies into other enemies that arnt right next to you... and timing the block/parry attack (which is VERY freakin usefull if you can perfect it).

On my first run, id honestly felt a bit dissapointed because all the enemies were very easy to kill.... that is untill i got up to the first boss.... DAMN YOU THE MAW!!!!........... freakin jerk.... but like alot of games once u figure out the pattern its not THAT hard... which is probably the only thing im not 100% on with Ascendant, its not quite as brutally sack crushing like The Binding of Issac, but that being said it doesnt make it any less enjoyable, just a bit more relaxed.

All in all, i really like this game... most definitely recommended for anyone who like the genre, and actually worth the price.


9/10.... only thing stopping me from giving a full score is the difficulty... but seeing as ive not played a HUGE amount yet... i could very well change my mind later.........

EDIT........

Having now played over 20 hours i do indeed change my mind... 10/10... hands down one of my favourite rouge-likes... the more you play the more you unlock to be able to pick up in runs, which just makes it so much more fun... and it does indeed get considerably harder the further you go. love it... just freakin love it!

I highly recommend this game if you enjoy challenging rogue-like side scrollers. The game is artistically beautifully, the characters are unique and offer variation to the gameplay, and the bosses are fun and rewarding. If you like risk of rain or rogue legacy, you will enjoy this game and if you arent a fan, you should become one because this game is great. The game also has an excellent coop (local only) mode and youll likely get more fun out of the two player experience. I've only played it briefly so far, but I think this game is a top contender in its genre. Thanks for reading.

Edit: I've now beaten the game with every character and I can still say that the game is extremely enjoyable. Each run has been very unique and it feels great to stomp the last boss a couple of times. I highly recommend this game.

Edit 2: Check out the wiki for help with bosses or anything else. I recently added a bnuch of stuff and looked at the rest to make sure they were correct or useful. http://ascendantgame.wikia.com/wiki/Ascendant_Wiki

Ascendant is a 2D rogue-like brawler, and pretty dang good one at that. No run will ever be same, and there is quite a bit of variation in the layouts every time. This game offers consistent challenge, but with variation every run. And that is the mark of a good rogue-like.

Here's a quick look video of the game if you want to see it in action and what it has to offer. Or if you'd rather read something more concise, just read the review below.

http://youtu.be/pb_gYupS07s

I'll first begin by explaining the basic mechanics of this game. You play as your selected magic swordsman that's able to slash down foes, launch them with a hard swing Guacamelee style, or fire magic at them. You continue doing this until you reach the boss of the randomly generated dungeon, who can also change every run. If you manage to beat them, then you progress to the next part of the season, or to the next season if you already did so. Each new progression brings a harder challenge than the last with enemies that behave differently and are generally tougher.

But what makes that so good? It's the way each run feels like something new and the way the game still makes you feel like you're making progression. There's always some new weapon, spell, item, blessing or spirit that you'll come across and want to experiment with, the blessing being the most unique of the bunch. You'll only get them by defeating a boss, and where you equip them (body, sword, or magic) will offer you different boons that change the way way you play. And when you start progressing farther into the game, you'll probably be combining several together to make something that's really interesting and fun to do. I once found blessings that allowed me to slowly fall while casting and that enabled projectiles to bounce off walls. I then stumbled upon a spell that consistently fired off random projectiles every .1 seconds. Needless to say, the mayhem that ensued was a blast.

But let's break down a few negatives this game comes with.
*A lot of people may be turned off by the fact it looks like a flash game. A lot of games don't get the chance they deserve because of this.
*While there is a decent number of enemies that fight differently, a lot of them are simple reskins of others. I would've liked to see different mobs. And it would've also made it less confusing how to handle something when I found melee mobs that that now shot projectiles.
*Sometimes the random nature can be a bit too harsh. I once had a run where I found 3 keys to enter a shop, but I coudn't for the life of me find money to spend in them. Another time was when I consistently found hearts when I didn't need them, but when I actually did, I hovered on half of one for the longest time until I finally died. There should be some sort of mechanic that favors a certain outcome based on your current state.
*There's no story at all. While I personally don't mind, some people like a reason behind what they're doing, even if it is something simple like saving the world or your girlfriend.

Now if you can look past those negatives, you'll find a game that's challenging, fun, and even comes with local co-op if you want to bring a bud along. Even when you die, which will probably be often, you'll keep coming back for more and gradually get better. Why is that? Because the game feels fair for the most part. If you got hit, it's because you messed up and didn't dodge or parry in time. There's a high skill-ceiling in this game, and it's satisfying when you're beginning to breeze past the early levels that once gave you once heck of a challenge.

So to sum up, I recommend this game to all who like challenge. You're going to get exactly that here, and it'll feel like a fresh experience every time.