On September 21, the head start of Astellia began and on September 29 it was officially released. Our author Alexander Leitsch has spent some time with the new MMORPG and shares his experiences with you in this test of Astellia.
Another Asian MMORPG? I am an avid MMORPG fan and have primarily been playing Guild Wars 2, SWToR, and WoW Classic in recent months. I have been eagerly waiting for a new, fresh breeze and am therefore taking a look at all the new games.
In doing so, I came across Astellia and have been sticking with it since the beta. At first glance, it looks like one of those typical MMORPGs that will be forgotten after a few weeks, like Bless or Revelation Online. Graphically, Astellia is not a hit for me at all.
However, the MMORPG has captivated me for over 20 hours without reinventing the wheel, and that in just one week of head start. One reason for this is that after so many sandbox games, there is finally a solid theme park MMO again.
This is how Astellia is structured
What does Astellia offer? The Asian MMORPG claims to focus on traditional values and offers me an open PvE game world, a classic quest system, and a holy trinity consisting of the five classes:
- Warrior – Tank
- Assassin – Damage
- Sagittarius – Damage
- Wizard – Damage
- Scholar – Healer
At the start of the game, I have the option to play on an American or European server. Moreover, I can set the language of the in-game texts to German. However, the audio remains in English.
My first steps in the game: Right at the beginning I learn about the Astels. These are small companions that support me as a tank, healer, or damage dealer in battle. A total of 33 of them are waiting for me to collect throughout the game.
Even in the tutorial, the story of the MMORPG picks up quite a bit, and I have to protect my sister Fey from demons. What I manage at first goes wrong later, and the antagonist Euria abducts her.
What comes next for me? My task now is to find my sister and free her from Euria’s clutches. To do this I have to:
- Find allies and be recognized as an Astellian,
- gain strength myself
- and of course take up the trail of the demoness.
To achieve this, I have plenty of quests and dungeons ahead of me. And precisely in these areas, Astellia does not necessarily shine.
Many Standards, but No Failures
How is the quest system? The quest system of Astellia is generic and does not change throughout the game. I follow a main quest that tells the story.
It leads me from quest hub to quest hub, where tasks like:
- Defeat a certain number of enemies
- Collect materials
- and of course talk to person XY
are waiting for me. Per hub, there are about 8 quests before the story then leads me to the next location. With the exception of Louise, a quest mob that was too strong and killed me multiple times, all quests were very simple and quickly completed thanks to autorun.
How difficult are the dungeons? Throughout the story, I enter most of the dungeons present in the game. However, it goes into the simple story mode, which posed no problems for me.
Additionally, there are solo and group versions. I found these to be somewhat more difficult, but the layout and the enemies are virtually identical.
In total, 13 different dungeons are available to me, with the first ones accessible at level 15 and the last ones only at the maximum level 50. They offer interesting loot in the form of new equipment but also new Astels.
And do you like these contents? Although listing these game features does not sound particularly exciting, I still enjoy the tasks. For me, this is mainly because Astellia does not make mistakes in these areas.
Although the tasks are not exciting, they are also not buggy or unfair. The quests go quickly, and every animal has legs or ears when they need to be collected. Additionally, you follow the story, which is told excitingly with cutscenes and various tasks.
Overall, Astellia feels very rewarding. This is due to:
- the achievement system, which regularly supplies me with additional items or currencies.
- the Star’s Tale, a book that documents my progress in an area.
- and my personal character development, which brings many facets.
So besides the quests, I also have many additional tasks, making the gameplay more varied.
Character Development and Combat System
How does my character develop? My character can evolve in many directions:
- With almost every level-up, I gain new skills. Additionally, I receive skill points with which I can increase the damage of certain skills or reduce their cooldown.
- There are stat points with which I can increase my attributes like strength, agility, or willpower.
- I can find new equipment or upgrade old ones by 10 levels.
- I can equip my Astels with gems and also level them.
- I can learn many professions and improve them over time.
In the first hours of the game, the many progressions were somewhat confusing for me, but over time they have become a reason why Astellia is fun for me.
How is crafting structured? From level 4, which I reach at the end of the tutorial, I can learn a gathering profession. I choose to be a lumberjack and can collect materials for crafting new equipment for my Sagittarius.
However, I can only learn one of the five gathering professions. If I want to pursue something else, I lose my progress in lumberjacking.
However, this is different for crafting professions. I know all of them right away and can also level them up in parallel. For this, I don’t even need a teacher, as I immediately know all the recipes. Very handy!
How do I like the combat system? The battles in Astellia are somewhat split for me. On one hand, many abilities are quite rigid and boringly designed.
On the other hand, there is the queue system, which allows me to place multiple skills on one key. If one goes on cooldown, I can use the one below it. This way, I can assign my entire rotation to just a few keys.
Additionally, Astellia offers a dodge roll and the Astels, which also bring a bit of dynamics into play.
Many Tasks Even in Endgame
What else can you engage with in Astellia? At this point, I would like to mention the Star’s Tale again. In Guild Wars 2, I loved exploring maps entirely. Astellia has improved the system for me.
For each map, I can:
- Find hidden chests.
- Defeat specific enemies.
- Find special locations.
- Defeat world bosses.
- Collect specific items.
- Complete special quests and the dungeons.
The greater my progress on the map, the better the rewards await me. This way, I receive materials, currencies, and even new Astels for completing a map. A cool system in my eyes to have some tasks right from the start.
What does the rest of the endgame in Astellia look like? While my main character is only level 32 and I haven’t reached the endgame yet, I have tried a bit here in the beta.
At level 50, especially the following tasks await me:
- Daily quests.
- Dungeons at level 50.
- Legendary dungeons that will be unlocked soon.
- Arena PvP.
- Avalon, a PvP area with 300v300v300 fights that will be unlocked soon.
- Finding all Astels, completing over 700 achievements, and the mentioned Star’s Tale.
- Crafting the perfect equipment.
The latter could become tedious in Astellia. Similar to Black Desert, there is a system where you must upgrade the equipment. However, at the highest levels, there is a possibility that the upgrade will fail or the item will even be downgraded. However, it will never be destroyed.
I plan to write a final conclusion about the equipment system and the endgame in the future. However, I first need to spend time on it.
Yes, I will continue to play the MMORPG Astellia
What is my conclusion about Astellia? The Asian MMORPG left a positive impression on me. I can particularly highlight:
- The very detailed character editor.
- The multifaceted character development.
- The number of abilities.
- The exciting story.
- The many tasks right at the start of the game through Star’s Tale and achievements.
- A mount that you receive in the tutorial.
- Numerous portal points so that you don’t have to walk too much.
- No Pay2Win in the shop.
I view the graphics as neutral, as it depends on personal taste. Personally, I don’t like it, but this is not a complete knockout criterion for me.
I see the following points as problematic:
- The boring quests.
- The somewhat rigid combat system.
- The too childish design of some Astels (Pisces is a whiny character – exhausting!).
- The downgrading of equipment (I am not a fan of this system).
- Some missing German translations that will still be provided.
However, anyone who can overlook these negative points and wants to play a solid and new theme park MMORPG doesn’t go wrong with Astellia. The game is Buy2Play and costs 30 euros in the cheapest package.
Alongside Astellia, another Buy2Play MMORPG, ArcheAge Unchained, will be released soon. Which one suits you better?
