Anger, anguish and vengeance, Asura: Rise of the Demon encapsulates it all. Not just the character but also the game itself with its rogue-lite elements and procedurally generated almost everything, it will make you angry, leave you with anguish and want you seeking revenge. But it is fantastic in that sense and is incredibly fun while also being fairly challenging so let’s get to it.
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Asura: Rise of the Demon is an indie, top-down, Hack ‘n’ Slash game set in a fantasy world inspired by the richness of Indian mythology. It features heavy rogue-like elements and a unique procedural skill tree which changes on every play-through. That sounds like a lot of gameplay elements but it all blends in very well and none of the elements feel out of place or forced. The best part of the game is the procedurally generated content because of which it never went stale. The skill tree is also procedurally generated so every run has you choose a different strategy and playstyle. While there are 4 different “Asuras”, one is unlocked at the beginning while the other 3 can be unlocked by completing different challenges. Every unlockable “Asura” is for a specific playstyle. With one for Magic, one for Ranged and the other for Melee, while the default is a balance of all three.
There are 5 levels and they are always procedurally generated. The loot, locations of enemies, shops, and bosses are also changed. Heck, every level has two bosses that it also randomly changes which I found to be really cool. The upgrades sometimes worked in your favour by giving you great upgrades right from the start while sometimes you would get something that wasn’t really useful to your play style but sometimes, the stars would align and the equipment you’d get would work perfectly with your upgrades and you’d feel absolutely unstoppable. But that doesn’t mean it’s all up to luck, there’s a lot of skill involved as well. Combat is simple with melee and ranged attacks, a dodge button and a stamina system that governs all that. You need to time your attacks and dodges to get the most out of it without getting beaten by the enemies who can be quite tough when in groups. If you die you must restart from the beginning and you lose everything. There is an item that allows you to die once and then brings you back to life but it’s quite expensive and I wasn’t able to buy it during my playthroughs.
While this is all good, there are upgrades and weapons that don’t really add much to the game, things that I never used because of how useless they felt, or the extremely low chance that it had to activate. In contrast to this, there are weapons and abilities that just feel too overpowered and made my playthrough extremely easy until I got beat by a mob of enemies. Because of the this, a lot of my playthroughs were just based on how lucky I got. Also, there is no guarantee of getting a good weapon or ability or assurance that your next run will be better. There is no way for you to do something that will make your next run better which did feel like a letdown.
The levels all look fantastic with their own look and feel which sets them apart from each other. It’s got a good art style going on that makes it feel a little realistic but also cartoon-y. The weapons and armours are quite well detailed with a large variety that are all very different from each other. The weapon effects are great but the overall effects of the game really added to the whole mythological theme with colours not only looking vibrant but also indicating dangers or obstacles. Red spikes that will hurt you, green spikes that also poison you etc. Overall, in terms of visual fidelity, it was satisfying to look at and felt very natural. Audio wise, sound effects are good, the music was extremely cool and fits the theme of the game with its mythical theme but also empowering and badass.
Asura: Rise of the Demon is one of the better Rogue-like games out there with heavy elements of Indian Mythology which makes it stand out from the games of these genre/type. It is very fun with a lot of replayability due to its procedural generation and unique ability generation. Some aspects could’ve been better but overall, it is a very solid game and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for something fun with a lot of replayability, or looking for something with a fresh take on this genre.
Asura: Rise of the Demon has been developed by Ogre Head Studios and is available on Steam.
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