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Astral Ascent
Choose one of four heroes and explore the Garden, an astral prison guarded by 12 powerful mystical bosses: the Zodiacs. Challenge them with dozens of unique spells and faithful friends by your side to unfold the story of this platform roguelite with lightning fast combat.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-02 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
73 of the 102 reviews raise this.
“Really cool game to play on co-op, addictive gameplay loop, I'm on 35 hours and still haven't finished the game. This game is from 2023 and still receives updates.”
“An amazing, ever-expanding action-roguelike with tons to unlock and make each run a worthwhile contribution to overall progress. And the devs just keep on adding more to it! Totally recommend this game!!”
19 of the 102 reviews raise this.
“An amazing, ever-expanding action-roguelike with tons to unlock and make each run a worthwhile contribution to overall progress. And the devs just keep on adding more to it! Totally recommend this game!!”
“this game is amazing! I am surprised its not more popular tbh. the movement is fluid and the pixel art is lovely and the roguelike abilities and meta progression could keep me coming back just on their own, so both…”
“Great replayability, it truly pays off to learn the in game mechanics and get good builds. RNG isn't too bad with end game specs/re-rolls”
16 of the 102 reviews raise this.
“This game has everything going for it. Cool world, great mechanics, fun systems, multiple characters and play styles, and an absolutely [i]fantastic[/i] art style. That said, the gameplay loop is needlessly grindy, the…”
“[h1]Decent, could've been Amazing - B[/h1] [h3]TLDR[/h3] Solid gameplay & visuals, gorgeous art, a lot of missed potential with the story. It's a 7-7.5/10 that could've been a 9+ quite easily [h3]Positives[/h3] [list]…”
“this game is amazing! I am surprised its not more popular tbh. the movement is fluid and the pixel art is lovely and the roguelike abilities and meta progression could keep me coming back just on their own, so both…”
13 of the 102 reviews raise this.
“this game is amazing! I am surprised its not more popular tbh. the movement is fluid and the pixel art is lovely and the roguelike abilities and meta progression could keep me coming back just on their own, so both…”
“Great replayability, it truly pays off to learn the in game mechanics and get good builds. RNG isn't too bad with end game specs/re-rolls”
“A 2d action roguelite platformer (aka dead cells). Played it mostly on Steam deck. (+) Runs great on SD (the first time booting it up may take a while) (+) Frantic gameplay/combat (+) Quite interesting story to be…”
12 of the 102 reviews raise this.
“[h1]Decent, could've been Amazing - B[/h1] [h3]TLDR[/h3] Solid gameplay & visuals, gorgeous art, a lot of missed potential with the story. It's a 7-7.5/10 that could've been a 9+ quite easily [h3]Positives[/h3] [list]…”
“The gameplay is solid. Good build variety with fast, fluid, and tight controls. One of the best Rougelites I have played in many years. The story is okay, not bad, not great. I like the designs of the Zodiacs. The best…”
“This game is the absolute pinnacle of action roguelikes and has everything going for it - Amazing visuals (this is probably the best looking 2D game i played), the cinematics and boss intros are very cool -…”
10 of the 102 reviews raise this · 9 of them still recommend the game.
“This game has everything going for it. Cool world, great mechanics, fun systems, multiple characters and play styles, and an absolutely [i]fantastic[/i] art style. That said, the gameplay loop is needlessly grindy, the…”
“[h1]Decent, could've been Amazing - B[/h1] [h3]TLDR[/h3] Solid gameplay & visuals, gorgeous art, a lot of missed potential with the story. It's a 7-7.5/10 that could've been a 9+ quite easily [h3]Positives[/h3] [list]…”
“I bounced off this hella quick my first time trying it & almost refunded it, but I could tell there was a lot of heart put into it even if my first 4 runs failed to hook me. Then some time passed, the game received a…”
7 of the 102 reviews raise this · 6 of them still recommend the game.
“Play this game in co-op. My experience with it was actually pretty funny, I started the game a few times and my first impression was that it felt kind of average, with a poorly written story. It wasn’t until my fourth…”
“[h1]Decent, could've been Amazing - B[/h1] [h3]TLDR[/h3] Solid gameplay & visuals, gorgeous art, a lot of missed potential with the story. It's a 7-7.5/10 that could've been a 9+ quite easily [h3]Positives[/h3] [list]…”
5 of the 102 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Pretty good action roguelike with some neat fiddly bits, that I wish I could fiddle with more.”
“[h2]Verdict[/h2] ✅ Recommended I played 10 minutes of Astral Ascent and I already know I don’t want to continue. The pixel art didn’t convince me, and right at the start it felt like too much is happening at once. But I…”
“Very fun. Has local co-op for those who like that. Tooltips need work, a lot more could be explained about mechanics and what special abilities do.”
5 of the 102 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“This game has everything going for it. Cool world, great mechanics, fun systems, multiple characters and play styles, and an absolutely [i]fantastic[/i] art style. That said, the gameplay loop is needlessly grindy, the…”
4 of the 102 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“This game has everything going for it. Cool world, great mechanics, fun systems, multiple characters and play styles, and an absolutely [i]fantastic[/i] art style. That said, the gameplay loop is needlessly grindy, the…”
“Really great game. There are tons of different ways to build and it seemed overwhelming at first, but somehow it rides the line for me. It runs great on the Steam Deck.”
“I like it more than I thought I would. [list] [*] Fluid action. Lots of mobility and all actions can be cancelled. [*] Combat is 50:50 split between weapon (chosen before run) and spells (RNG). [*] Mana (for spells) as…”
Counted across 102 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 94.6% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“Good Roguelite, progression between destiny levels feels smooth and each character provides unique gameplay with 4 weapons each, some achievements are a bit grindy (the one for unlocking all the colours mainly). Overall a 7/10”
— a player, Steam review · 40 hrs played“I really enjoyed playing Hades, Dead Cells and similar games. Then I only heard about this game a few days ago.After 10 hours, i believe it´s one of the best games ever. Simply fantastic.”
— a player, Steam review · 21 hrs played“A well-crafted game with a clear amount of care behind it. Feels thoughtfully designed and consistently executed. A lot of deliberate work went into the details. Also made in Europe! Amazing.”
— a player, Steam review · 24 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-05.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-04). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Astral Ascent Modding Tool is Live!
Astral Ascent Modding Tool is Live! The Astral Ascent Modding Tool is now live! ːbarbecuePogː We built a fully dedicated app for this. Not a config file, not a folder to dig into, a real standalone ap
New Seeding System coming in Astral Ascent and more...
Meet Professor YaleeA new NPC has joined the hub: Professor Yalee. Maybe the most academic Yalee in all of Astral Prison, graduated from the very famous school: Yale(e) University. ːtaurusSmirkː He's
Patch Notes - May 2026 - Hotfixes 2.6.1 & 2.6.2
⭐Changes inspired by our community!Quick small fixes note and a message: On the last update, we changed the way the DLC Characters are appearing in the hub.If you own the DLC, it should appear after t
Free Weekend + New DLC (OUT NOW) + Major Free Update
Hello everyone! ːtaurusSmirkːFree Weekend on Steam: May 14 to May 18Astral Ascent is free to play on Steam until May 18th! ːbarbecuePogː If someone in your circle has been on the fence about the game,
Patch Notes - May 2026 - 2.6
⭐Changes inspired by our community! Major Features New Prowess System: Signature Spell Prowesses have been reworked for all characters, ALL element-based (burn, freeze, poison, electric, neutral and t
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Indie |
| Player tags | Action Roguelike · Rogue-lite · Hack and Slash · Indie · Atmospheric · Replay Value · Difficult · Story Rich · Anime · Hand-drawn · Rogue-like · Magic (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · Co-op · Shared/Split Screen Co-op · Shared/Split Screen · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Steam Trading Cards |
| Languages | English * , French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Russian, Japanese * , Portuguese - Brazil, Spanish - Spain * |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 89 |
| Official site | https://astral-ascent.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Windows 7 64-bit Processor: Intel Core i3-540 or AMD Phenom II X4 965 Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTS 250 or Radeon HD 5770 Storage: 1 GB available space