Astalon: Tears of the Earth

Can nostalgia be more than a cheap parlor trick? In the indie development scene, the 8-bit aesthetic has often been used as a shorthand for retro-charm to mask shallow design. Yet every so often, a project arrives that understands that true NES-era magic lay not in the limitation of colors, but in the density and cleverness of the mechanics. Astalon: Tears of the Earth, developed by LABS Works and published by DANGEN Entertainment, is one of those rare exceptions. Released June 3, 2021 at $19.99, it sits at the crowded intersection of Metroidvanias and retro revivals, and it actively iterates on classics like Castlevania III or Legacy of the Wizard with modern design principles.

Set in a bleak, post-apocalyptic fantasy wasteland where war has left the land scarred and a village’s water supply poisoned, Astalon places players in control of three desperate survivors who must climb the mysterious Tower of Serpents. On paper, it looks like a standard retro-platformer. In practice, LABS Works has crafted a carefully paced exploration game that leverages character-swapping and a rewarding rogue-lite progression loop. Instead of letting players wander aimlessly, the game demands tactical thought, requiring mastery of three distinct heroes with radically different toolkits to solve puzzles and navigate hazards. In a market saturated with cheap pixel-art platformers, Astalon positions itself as a premium experience for players who demand mechanical depth alongside nostalgic aesthetics.

The title manages to capture the feeling of discovering a lost cartridge from the late NES era. Unlike projects that rely on artificial difficulty to pad their length, Astalon emphasizes smart level design and discovery. It shows how to build a retro-style game without adopting the frustrating archaic limitations of forty years ago.

• Dynamic Character Swapping: Master three distinct heroes—Arias, Kyuli, and Algus—each sporting unique abilities and playstyles that must be alternated on the fly to solve environmental puzzles.
• Interconnected Tower Exploration: Navigate the massive, shortcut-heavy Tower of Serpents, which rewards backtracking and observant cartography in true Metroidvania fashion.
• Epimetheus’s Roguelike Progression: Spend gathered orbs in the realm of the Titan of Death upon dying to purchase permanent upgrades and new sub-weapons.

The Trio and the Tower

At the heart of Astalon’s design is its dynamic character-swapping mechanic. Unlike many games where alternate characters are simple skin swaps with minor stat variations, the three protagonists here—Arias the warrior, Kyuli the archer, and Algus the wizard—are fundamental mechanical keys. Arias is the close-quarters brawler, equipped with a sword that can cleave through specific blue barriers. Kyuli uses a bow to attack from safety, but more importantly, her lightweight frame allows her to wall-jump, opening up vertical pathways. Algus, the wizard, fires slow-moving magic projectiles that pass through solid walls, allowing players to activate levers and mechanisms hidden deep within the environment.

This division of labor turns the Tower of Serpents from a simple obstacle course into a complex, multi-layered puzzle box. Players do not just explore; they analyze. A blocked pathway poses an inquiry: Who has the key to this lock? The level design shines as it constantly forces consideration of how these three toolkits intersect. A player might wall-jump to a ledge with Kyuli, pull a switch that opens a gate below, and then swap to Arias to slice through a barrier blocking a treasure chest. It forces thinking about spatial layout in three dimensions, making every discovered shortcut feel like a major victory. The user interface is simple, though swapping is restricted to specific campfire checkpoints early on before more flexible options unlock, which adds a layer of deliberate tension.

The Cycle of Death and Rebirth

Where Astalon truly separates itself from traditional Metroidvanias is in its adoption of a rogue-lite progression loop. Metroidvanias usually penalize death by sending players back to their last save file, erasing progress. Astalon takes a page from modern rogue-lites by turning death into a progression valve. When a character falls, their soul is transported to the realm of Epimetheus, the Titan of Death. Here, the red orbs harvested from defeated enemies and broken containers become currency.

Players can spend these orbs on permanent upgrades: beefing up maximum health, increasing defense, purchasing new magical sub-weapons, or improving the attack power of individual heroes. This loop completely reframes failure. Instead of frustration, death brings anticipation. Players return to the bottom of the tower stronger, faster, and better equipped to handle the challenges that previously bested them. Because the map remains fully unlocked and shortcuts stay open, the run back to the previous high-water mark is never tedious; it becomes a victory lap where formerly difficult enemies get steamrolled with new-found power.

Pacing and Backtracking Fatigue

No design is perfect, and Astalon’s loop runs into a few late-game snags. In the first two-thirds of the journey, the progression feels immaculate. The constant drip-feed of upgrades and new shortcuts keeps the momentum high. However, as the tower climbs higher and the map becomes massive, the inevitable backtracking fatigue sets in. Since swapping characters is restricted to specific points early on, realizing Algus’s magic is needed to hit a switch halfway across a massive zone can lead to tedious return trips.

The game also suffers from a reverse difficulty curve. Because the upgrades purchased from Epimetheus are so potent, a player who thoroughly explores and collects orbs will eventually outpace the game’s challenge. By the final quarter of the tower, fully upgraded characters can become walking gods, reducing tense encounters and epic boss fights to trivial button-mashing affairs. It is a common issue in RPG-infused platformers, but it is particularly noticeable here because the early hours are so beautifully balanced.

Aesthetically, the game is a standout. Ryusuke Mita’s character designs give the game a distinctive anime-influenced dark fantasy look, reminiscent of classic late-1980s manga. The pixel art is crisp and clean, utilizing a carefully selected color palette that evokes nostalgic NES aesthetics without looking muddy or amateurish. Every environment, from the dusty base of the tower to the glow-in-the-dark caverns, carries a distinct identity.

Matt Kap’s extensive chiptune soundtrack is another standout feature, providing driving, energetic anthems that heighten the tension of exploration and turn boss battles into memorable, high-octane clashes. On a technical level, a 2D game of this scope is light on hardware, and its design—precise wall-jumps and mid-air strikes—depends on responsive controls, which the tight, deliberate input design is clearly built around.

The experience depends slightly on where it is played. On Steam, the game’s modest technical demands should pose little trouble for most PCs, and while keyboard mapping is fully functional, a gamepad with a responsive, tactile D-pad is highly recommended to handle the precision movement and diagonal aiming required in later sections.

On the Nintendo Switch, Astalon seems entirely at home. The hybrid nature of the console makes it a natural fit for this type of game. The bite-sized loop of dying, upgrading, and running back up the tower suits handheld play sessions, and the crisp pixel art is the kind of style that holds up well on a smaller screen.

Astalon: Tears of the Earth is a fine example of retro-modern design. LABS Works has not just built a nostalgia trap; they have synthesized the exploration of Metroid and the team dynamics of Castlevania III into a tight, deeply satisfying loop. While the late-game backtracking can drag and the difficulty drops off once heroes are fully upgraded, the journey up the Tower of Serpents is one of the more rewarding indie platforming experiences in recent memory. For anyone with a love of the genre, this is a tower well worth climbing.