Ashen

A little over a year ago, action RPG Ashen from AA4 and Annapurna Interactive was one of the most wishlisted games on Steam. That changed abruptly when Ashen became one of the first Epic Games Store limited exclusives, along with Supergiant Games' RPG Hades, which pushed back its Steam release by a full year. That year has come and gone (somehow) and Ashen is now available on Steam and GOG . ( Hades launches on Steam tomorrow ).  As you might expect for a game that's been out on another platform for a year, Ashen is discounted 20% on both sites, though it remains at full price on EGS . Purchasing it bundled with its Nightstorm Isle DLC from Steam will also get you a 20% discount, and the DLC can be purchased separately for 20% off on GOG as well. As for how well it will sell (and what the reviews will look like) on Steam and GOG a year after its Epic Store launch, that remains to be seen. There's been no shortage of complaints about Epic exclusives from players and even some developers, particularly when it comes to games that were listed on Steam for months only to take exclusive deals with Epic shortly before they launched. Some of the Epic Sto

A44's broody, beautiful Souls-like Ashen will drop its Epic Games Store exclusivity and make its way to other digital storefronts in December, one year and a little change after it was unveiled as an EGS launch title—which is also when the yearlong exclusivity period was announced.  Ashen will be available on both Steam and GOG December 9 according to a trailer released today, which you can view above. While it's true that Ashen cribs liberally from Dark Souls' mechanics, it is tonally very much its own game. It puts you in the shoes of a wanderer, and as you explore its somber world you gradually convince the people you encounter to join your fledgling settlement, gradually creating a community that feels alive. In his Ashen review , Joe Donnelly writes "Ashen echoes the core mechanics of Dark Souls, but it does so with such finesse that it hardly matters." For players who held off on playing due to the Epic Games Store exclusivity, Ashen is likely to be a real treat.

Developer: A44 Publisher: Annapurna Interactive Release: December 7, 2018 On: Windows From: Epic Price: 35, $40, 40 If you re summoning Dark Souls , you have to be prepared to make a deal with the Capra Demon. In this pact, you will be granted the power of From Software s ideas, yes, but you will also be doomed to comparison. You ll only be seen in the light of that which came before. Ashen has made such a pact, and it invites that comparison especially often. It sticks so closely to the Souls formula it could be a dream Hidetaka Miyazaki once had. But lapsed hollows who look closely will also find that it uses the template to create its own mythology and its own admirable spirit, one of restoration rather than decay. If Dark Souls is a tale of perpetual, cyclical death and redeath, Ashen feels like tramping through a creation myth as it s still being told. I like it a lot. (more…)

If you’ve been struggling to hook up with ghost pals in newfangled Soulsian RPG Ashen , you should give your dating profile an overhaul. If you’ve just been trying to play the videogame with them, then good news! Developers Aurora44 have fixed an issue preventing some players from accessing multiplayer, leaving them stuck with AI companions rather than a humans. That’s good, because co-op in the Dark Souls vein (where a silent stranger appears and you occasionally bow at each other) is one of Ashen’s key selling points. All the other selling points also involve being a lot like Dark Souls, which is either FINE or AWFUL depending on which member of the RPS treehouse gives you the scariest look. (more…)