The Dark Souls series spawned a genre of games that were always difficult for the sake of being difficult. What tends to make the Souls-like genre punishing is the reliance on timing and animation priority. Very rarely can animations be cancelled, which leads to the combat feeling slow and tactical. The general lack of mobility crossed with stamina management and limited heals creates an atmosphere of punishment that intends to come for the player; forcing them to adapt or die.

This concept is inherently Gothic (as in the literature genre). The deep, dark tyrannical past is coming to consume the player, and no matter how powerful the player becomes, eventually the forces that be will take them with it. This Gothic element also tends to show itself in the bizarre characters, dialogue, and architecture of these games. The player will often trek through deadened ruins of castles, shanty towns, and plague lands on their journey, never quite knowing if their toiling is worth anything at all. And to top it off, these stories often begin at the end of the life cycle of the world the player’s character inhabits. Their journey and actions tend to spur a new cycle or plunge the world into the nothingness of permanent darkness.

While Ashen has a lot of this, its opening moments are immediately laced with a bright and shining hope. Where many Souls-like games drown the player in misery and undeath, Ashen is almost the antithesis to the Dark Souls narrative. It thrives in telling a story of rebuilding a society, harnessing the light to cast out the remains of darkness and prevent the cycle of the Ashen from occurring again. While the journey may begin in darkness, it is immediately shattered so that the player character can get to work setting history straight.

Setting the Foundations

Ashen sets itself apart with the existence of a dedicated narrative structure. Souls-likes often lean on lore and visual world building cues to tell its story. Cryptic dialogue is often used to sketch characters and much of the energy of these stories lies in atmosphere. This is an accurate application of heartbeat of the Gothic genre, but Ashen opts to entice the player with quests that flesh out the personalities of the townspeople they will come to find on their journeys. The writers at A44 obviously had a story they wanted to tell, and they wasted no time making sure the player knows that. Within a few minutes the groundwork is laid, and the player character sets off with their companion Jokell to reclaim Vagrant’s Rest from a band of violent squatters.

With the town reclaimed, the most charming part of Ashen comes to light: the town grows over time. With each successful quest completion and new citizen added, the town grows little by little. This system gives a sense of tactile feedback for the player character’s exploits throughout their travels and questing. The visual progression gave a sense that time was passing and was a constant reminder that the player’s deeds were good. This mechanic was quite refreshing and maintained the hopeful themes of the story.

“Git Gud,” or Something Like That

Souls-likes are usually not remembered for their stories, but their brutal combat. Thankfully, Ashen is far less frustrating than other mainstays of the genre, like Bloodborne, Nioh, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Of course, balancing the game to be easier for the sake of the narrative seems to bring a clumsy AI with it. At times, the game was laughably easy which felt a bit jarring compared to its difficult dungeons.

Often while playing Dark Souls III in college, it was necessary to request help from strangers to make my way through levels. The monsters and bosses were positively punishing at certain moments and having the help of another player was my key to victory. But with Ashen, having an AI partner meant that I almost always had help. Which was nice at first, but they also suffer from not being extremely smart. They could walk off cliffs, drown, or kite a mob away from my downed character, but then neglect to return to revive them.

Yet somehow, enemies can’t walk off ledges because of their pathing code, and that was quite obnoxious. If I know anything about Souls-likes, abusing pathing can be the key to victory. Having this mainstay generally obstructed felt unbalanced. It ultimately left the impression that the developers wanted the AI companions to die in ways other enemies can't, to artificially inflate difficulty at random.

With that said, it made me appreciate that Ashen had clearly learned from the player vs. the mechanics nonsense that often lead me to cheese hard fights in other Souls-likes. And if there’s one saving grace to the combat it's that bosses can be beaten in a few tries. Their movements and attack strings are rarely punishing, and while they can be long affairs, they never feel constructed to completely decimate the player upon entering the boss chamber.

These more forgiving boss encounters occur because Ashen has a story to tell. While Dark Souls and its kin have some story to tell, the stories of those games largely come down to the player experience, and so extreme difficulty is fair game. But A44 knew they couldn’t push away players, and this feeling kept me pushing through when I felt like I hit a wall. While the story of Ashen isn’t going to win awards, I think it’s a testament to the writing that I kept pushing through when I felt stuck. I wanted to learn the fate of Vagrant’s Rest and its citizens. I wanted to see the player character succeed in locating the Ashen and setting the world right.

The Pressure of the Progress Bar

The brilliant thing about featuring side questing in Ashen is that the main story doesn’t have to dump excessive world lore on the player if they’re trying to push through the game quickly. Ashen is designed to reward the player for digging into the optional side quests. And the way that this accomplished is something to behold.

In order to progress the main quest, the player will have to interact once or twice with the characters who give side quests. Each of these quests are necessary to get further, but they also sprinkle in a little bit about the character giving the quest, which in turn builds a minor investment into them. Then, when the player completes the steps necessary to continue in the main quest, something crazy happens:

A progress bar appears in the quest directory.

Being constantly reminded that there was something more in the overarching story of these supporting characters I could learn about kept me completing their quest objectives. Whether it was killing traitors, breaking familial curses, or stopping loved ones from being consumed by darkness, these side quests felt substantive (even if they were still relatively light fare given the Souls-like genre).

The main quest is fairly linear, outside of helping the different citizens of Vagrant’s Rest to progress, and this creates very little need to explore, especially with combat difficulty. However, these side quests bring the player to some wonderful sights and to the far corners of each area. This was ultimately refreshing as a player because it felt like the developers at A44 cared enough about the game they created that they wanted to give the player a reason to experience all of it.

Closing Thoughts

While I still need to play through the DLC for Ashen, the base game is worth experiencing. I think that it properly built on the foundations set by Dark Souls (even Demon Souls), and took a step in advancing the genre, by presenting a world that still has hope. I think gamers looking for a challenge and good storytelling should pay this world a visit. It’s far more forgiving than other Souls-likes, and it’s clear that it cares about its players and the story it wants to tell them.

Additionally, I would like to thank A44 for providing me a review copy for its recent release on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation 4. With so many different ways to experience Ashen I highly recommend taking the plunge, even if you’re wary of its genre.

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Video review: https://youtu.be/vaWnmdVVcAc