Info about Of Ash and Steel:

Official game description:
**Features**
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*   45+ hours of main story, packed with dialogue, well-developed characters, books, and side quests.
*   Two major factions to choose from — each with its own unique storyline, quests, and exclusive rewards.
*   Combat system features three distinct battle stances, multiple weapon types, and active skills.
*   A vibrant, open-world island with diverse biomes to explore.
*   A wide range of professions to master, including fishing, hunting, blacksmithing (with the ability to craft your own one-of-a-kind sword), alchemy, and more.
**Of Ash and Steel** offers a challenging yet rewarding combat system. You are not a legendary bounty hunter or monster slayer by default. Instead, you must master the mechanics: manage stamina, time your attacks and parries, and determine which combat stances and weapon types suit you best. It takes time and practice, but the more you play, the more both you and Tristan evolve and gain an understanding of what is happening around you.
Learn to stand up for yourself using different weapons, environments, and active skills. Tailor your fighting style to suit you, from the agile rapier wielder to a heavy armour-clad knight, or create something unique!
Immerse yourself in a story full of twists, humor, and discoveries. Step into the shoes of a man who is destined to become much more than just a cartographer. Gain strength, survive, and forge alliances. Prove that even someone who has lost everything can become a significant force that can shape the fate of the whole world.
Talk to locals to learn about their daily lives, and help them with tasks. Watch how people’s opinions of you change as your character grows. Join one of the two major factions and complete its unique storyline to earn exclusive rewards. Your actions and choices will also affect the world and the characters around you.
**Of Ash and Steel** has no marker system, and quests won't lead you by the hand. Rediscover the joy of exploration and let curiosity be your guide; the world promises rich rewards for those who dare to uncover its secrets.
Listen carefully to what people tell you and pay attention to what is said in the quests to find your way. Read books and notes to learn more about the world. Mark interesting locations on your map, explore the island, and uncover hidden treasures!

Release date: Nov 24, 2025

Categories: RPG, Single-player Story, Open-World Exploration, Real-time Combat, Crafting, Character Progression, Faction Management, Choice-based Narrative


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Enjoyable, Soulful, Great Value (weight 0.99): The game receives overwhelmingly positive feedback, lauded for its soulful development, immersive atmosphere, and excellent value for money. Despite acknowledging some 'jank', players find it a refreshing and deeply enjoyable RPG that consistently creates positive impressions and long play sessions.
- Authentic Gothic RPG Feel (weight 0.64): Players consistently highlight the game's strong resemblance and spiritual succession to classic RPGs, particularly the Gothic series. It successfully captures the core mechanics, atmosphere, and challenging progression that fans of old-school role-playing games cherish, often evoking deep nostalgia.
- Excellent Story, Voice Acting (weight 0.36): The game's narrative elements, including well-written characters, engaging dialogues, and robust voice acting (especially praised for Russian talent), are consistently lauded. Players find characters memorable and lively, with witty, often humorous dialogues that are rich in choices, contributing significantly to immersion.
- Challenging, Tactical Combat (weight 0.26): The combat system is described as measured, tactical, and challenging, requiring players to learn mechanics like parries, dodges, and stances. While initially difficult, it becomes more enjoyable and reveals its depth as the character levels up and players adapt, offering a refreshing departure from mindless clicking.
- Open, Rewarding Exploration (weight 0.23): The game excels in world design and exploration, actively encouraging players to discover areas and quests without reliance on map markers or auto-pathing. The world is described as beautiful, detailed, and alive, making self-guided exploration feel incredibly organic and rewarding.
- Choices Matter, Deep RPG (weight 0.12): Players appreciate the game's deep RPG system, where choices in dialogue, character upgrades, and exploration truly matter and impact gameplay. The absence of hand-holding encourages players to learn from mistakes and actively engage with a world that offers freedom and varied approaches.
- Engaging, Non-Linear Quests (weight 0.12): The quest design is highly praised for being engaging, abundant, and handcrafted, avoiding generic 'run-to-marker' tasks. The absence of quest markers encourages players to pay attention and explore, making quest progression feel more organic and rewarding.
- Functional Crafting System (weight 0.08): The game features a good and motivating crafting system that encourages ingredient collection and offers various ways to create items. Players appreciate the tactile feel of crafting at special stations, contributing to the game's soulful atmosphere.

Common complaints:
- Unfinished, unpolished, low budget (weight 0.77): Players widely report the game feels incomplete, unpolished, and suffers from a clear lack of budget, impacting graphics, animations, and overall technical state. Many feel it was released prematurely and is far from a finished product, requiring significant further development.
- Outdated graphics, stiff animations (weight 0.74): Players heavily criticize the game's outdated graphics, low-quality textures, and crude character models, particularly noting stiff, clunky, and often comical facial and movement animations that detract from immersion. The visuals are consistently described as cheap and unpolished, resembling older game generations.
- Frequent crashes & critical bugs (weight 0.68): The game is plagued by numerous critical and game-breaking bugs, including frequent crashes, freezing, and failure to launch, especially on Steam Deck. These issues severely hinder or outright prevent gameplay, making the game often unplayable.
- Inconsistent audio, poor voice acting (weight 0.46): There are widespread problems with the game's audio, including missing voice-overs in introductory cutscenes, fluctuating dialogue volumes, and a poor audio mix (quiet voices, loud effects). Lip-syncing is also frequently described as non-existent or terrible, and general voice acting is considered unprofessional.
- Buggy, unguided quest system (weight 0.26): The quest system is heavily criticized for numerous bugs, including disappearing NPCs and quest items, which often make quests unfinishable. Players also report a severe lack of quest guidance, vague objectives, and missing map markers, leading to frustration and wasted time.
- Clunky, unengaging combat (weight 0.16): Combat is widely described as clunky, slow, and unresponsive, lacking fluidity and dynamism. Issues include awkward movement, bad hitboxes, and a repetitive cycle that players find unengaging and frustrating, sometimes comparing it unfavorably to older titles.
- Poor NPC design, empty cities (weight 0.15): The game's cities are perceived as large but empty, populated by non-interactive NPCs with generic dialogue. NPC behavior is reported as buggy, with jarring AI/pathing, and some models feature visual glitches like bald spots, detracting from world immersion.
- Incomplete controller support (weight 0.1): The game's controller support is deemed inadequate, with incorrect button prompts, inability to re-assign controls, and functionality issues in menus and dialogues. This makes playing with a gamepad difficult or impossible for many users.
- Inconsistent difficulty balancing (weight 0.07): The game's difficulty is perceived as unbalanced, with early game combat being overly punishing and enemies capable of one-shotting players even on easier settings. Randomly placed strong enemies also contribute to a frustrating and unfair experience.

Gameplay feedback:
- Challenging Early Game Combat (weight 0.18): Players begin as very weak characters with limited stamina, making early combat clunky and difficult. The game intentionally designs this 'zero to hero' progression, forcing players to learn combat mechanics like parrying and dodging while facing disproportionately strong enemies initially.
- No Map or Quest Markers (weight 0.18): The game intentionally omits a traditional map and quest markers, forcing players to navigate using environmental clues, journal entries, and NPC directions. While some find this challenging, others appreciate the immersive, old-school exploration it fosters.
- Classic Gothic-Style RPG (weight 0.13): Many players describe the game as a 3rd-person, old-school RPG, drawing strong comparisons and inspiration from the Gothic and Risen series. This includes its design philosophy and even specific elements like dialogue style.
- Unforgiving World Exploration (weight 0.09): The game presents a dangerous world where players must carefully explore, remember hazardous locations, and strategize encounters. Venturing into the wrong areas can lead to death, emphasizing the need to save often and revisit challenging zones later.
- Minor Technical & UI Issues (weight 0.08): Players reported issues with controller support, requiring manual setup, and observed problems with the first cutscene, including missing voice acting and overly fast subtitles. Additionally, the option to change difficulty mid-playthrough is unavailable.
- Diverse Crafting & Skills (weight 0.08): The game offers a variety of activities such as gathering, hunting, fishing, and a comprehensive crafting system for armor, weapons, and cooking. Progression in skills is handled through learning from specific trainers and masters.
- Evolving Combat Mechanics (weight 0.07): Combat is designed to be slow and deliberate, especially early on, with an expectation that it will become faster and more fluid as the character levels up. Players have also found a meta-game mechanic of luring enemies to NPCs for help, though this reduces XP gain.
- Cartographer Protagonist (weight 0.06): The player character begins as a cartographer with no prior combat experience, which further emphasizes the game's "zero to hero" progression as they are forced to learn how to fight and survive in a dangerous world.

Performance notes:
- Game suffers severe instability (weight 0.18): Many players report frequent game freezes, crashes, and significant lag spikes, often during auto-saves or loading new areas. Some users couldn't even progress past the prologue, while others experienced multiple crashes within short playtimes, despite meeting or exceeding system requirements. Game launch failures and memory leaks also contribute to instability.
- Stable performance on some systems (weight 0.13): Despite widespread issues, a notable number of players, particularly those with high-end or well-configured systems, report excellent and stable performance with high frame rates and no crashes or critical glitches. This suggests the game can run well, but consistency across hardware is lacking.
- Excessive RAM/VRAM usage (weight 0.12): The game consumes unusually high amounts of RAM (up to 30GB) and VRAM (over 12GB), leading to performance issues like long loading times, lag, and crashes due to resource shortage, particularly at higher resolutions. This indicates a lack of proper optimization.
- Limited display options (weight 0.04): The game lacks support for certain high resolutions and ultra-widescreen aspect ratios. Players also noted the presence of forced TAA and visual glitches, specifically related to lighting and shadows during loading sequences.
- Inconsistent audio and voice-over (weight 0.04): Issues include missing or incorrect subtitles and voice-overs, particularly in introductory scenes. Some players also reported NPCs changing their voices inconsistently when interacting in spatial audio.
- Mixed Steam Deck experience (weight 0.04): The demo showed inconsistent performance on Steam Deck, with some users reporting smooth play and others experiencing issues. There is a clear desire for better optimization for portable platforms, though the use of Unreal Engine 4 raises some concerns.

Recommendations:
- Critical Technical Issues Hinder Gameplay (weight 0.43): Players report significant technical problems, including numerous bugs (e.g., disappearing quest items, crashes), poor optimization, and specific issues like forced TAA or lack of controller support. A strong consensus advises waiting for major patches before playing or buying to avoid a frustrating experience.
- Niche Appeal to Classic RPG Fans (weight 0.41): The game strongly resonates with players who enjoy classic, challenging RPGs reminiscent of Gothic, Risen, or Elex, favoring exploration without hand-holding over modern AAA design. It's frequently recommended as a must-buy for this specific niche, though it may deter those preferring polished, modern RPG experiences.
- Mixed Value Perception & Refunds (weight 0.35): The game's low price is often cited as a factor, making it a 'must-buy' for some niche fans despite its issues. Conversely, the game's unpolished state has led many other players to request refunds or strongly advise against purchase, indicating a low perceived value for them in its current form.
- Hopeful Player Base Despite Flaws (weight 0.28): Despite the current technical challenges, many players are committed to continuing the game, expressing hope for robust developer support and future content. Some even provide positive reviews 'in advance,' banking on forthcoming fixes and demonstrating a belief in the game's potential.

Other player notes:
- Tentative Reviews Awaiting Polish (weight 0.21): Many players have only just begun their experience or are basing feedback on demos and playtests, planning to update their reviews later. This indicates a cautious optimism, with players waiting for patches and more content before forming a final opinion.
- Strong Developer Support & Future Hopes (weight 0.16): Players are highly supportive of the indie developers and express confidence that current issues will be addressed. There's a strong desire for ongoing fixes, future updates, and potential DLCs, indicating a long-term investment by the community.
- Embrace of Indie Identity & Value (weight 0.15): Reviewers clearly recognize the game as an indie project from a small studio with a tight budget, not an AAA title. This understanding, combined with the friendly, low launch price, often leads players to forgive certain rough edges and appreciate the game's inherent value.
- Strong Appeal for 'Gothic-like' RPG Fans (weight 0.13): The game deeply resonates with fans of classic 'Gothic-like' RPGs, drawing comparisons to beloved titles like Gothic 1 and 2. This niche appeal fosters a dedicated player base willing to overlook initial flaws for the nostalgic and immersive old-school experience.
- Controller/Steam Deck Support Needed (weight 0.08): Players specifically on Steam Deck or using gamepads report issues with controller support and express a strong desire for improved and full gamepad functionality. A workaround for a critical bug was even provided by one reviewer.
- Initial Bugs Forgiven by Discount (weight 0.04): Some players noted that the day-one or launch discount helped them overlook the game's initial bugs and technical issues. This suggests the pricing strategy mitigated negative sentiment regarding release-day imperfections.
- Poor City Navigation (weight 0.03): A specific criticism highlights the game's very large city environment. Reviewers find it challenging to navigate due to a lack of clear signposting and insufficient guidance from NPCs.

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.19): Players experienced frustration primarily due to numerous technical issues, including frequent crashes, game-breaking bugs, lost save progress, and poor optimization, especially on Steam Deck. Additionally, inadequate quality-of-life features like the absence of an in-game map, vague quest guidance, clunky controls, and poor animations contributed significantly to their negative experience.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.17): Satisfaction stemmed from the game's successful evocation of the classic 'Gothic' RPG spirit, offering enjoyable exploration, engaging narrative, and challenging old-school gameplay mechanics. Players appreciated the immersive world design, compelling character progression, good voice acting, and overall value for money, even with minor flaws.
- Disappointment (weight 0.14): Disappointment was largely driven by the game's unpolished and unfinished state at release, characterized by critical bugs that prevented gameplay, poor optimization, and outdated graphics and animations. Many players, having eagerly awaited the game, felt it failed to meet basic quality standards or live up to its potential, leading to an unplayable or unenjoyable experience.
- Excitement (weight 0.09): Excitement was generated by the game's immersive atmosphere, challenging world, and strong resemblance to beloved 'Gothic'-style RPGs, promising extensive exploration and rich content. Players expressed eagerness to continue playing, discover secrets, and anticipated future improvements or sequels, often feeling it could become a benchmark for the genre.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.04): Players found enjoyment in the game's core gameplay loop, including its challenging combat system, engaging quests, and interesting characters, which provided a sense of progress and an old-school feel. The atmospheric qualities, pleasant music, and well-written dialogues further contributed to an immersive and fun experience, despite acknowledging some roughness.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.04): Nostalgia was a strong emotion, frequently caused by the game's undeniable resemblance to classic RPGs like Gothic and Risen, evoking childhood memories and a longing for that specific style of gameplay. The game successfully recreated the atmosphere, challenges, and overall 'feel' of these older titles, making players feel like they were returning to a beloved genre.
- Joy (weight 0.04): Joy arose from the overall harmonious and fun gameplay experience, often linked to the game's immersive qualities, nostalgic appeal, and even unintended comedic value from animations or quirky mechanics. Players frequently reported having a lot of fun, feeling young again, and appreciating the game's unique 'soul' despite its imperfections.
- Appreciation (weight 0.04): Players expressed appreciation for the developers' evident passion and effort in creating the game, often acknowledging its 'soul' and love despite technical flaws and budget constraints. The game's old-school design philosophy, fair price, and unique charm as a 'Euro Jank' RPG were particularly valued, especially in the context of a small studio's output.
- Hope (weight 0.03): Hope was consistently expressed for future patches and fixes to address the game's numerous bugs, technical issues, and performance problems. Players believed in the game's core potential and wished for its improvement and polish, anticipating that future development would make it an excellent and fully playable experience.
- Anger (weight 0.02): Anger stemmed from critical, game-breaking bugs, poor design choices, and the game's unpolished state at release, which many felt was unacceptable. Players were frustrated by misleading demos, perceived lack of developer effort, and issues like forced anti-aliasing or high video memory consumption, leading to strong negative reactions and calls for refunds.
- Amusement (weight 0.02): Amusement was often found in the game's jankiness, awkward character animations, and humorous bugs, which some players perceived as part of its 'Gothic soul' or charm. Intentional humor in quests and dialogues also contributed to a lighthearted and enjoyable experience, even when acknowledging the game's flaws.
- Anticipation (weight 0.01): Anticipation was driven by players' strong desire to continue playing and exploring the game's world, often coupled with a longing for specific issues, like controller support, to be fixed. Many eagerly awaited future patches to improve the experience and looked forward to updating their reviews as the game evolved.
- Gratitude (weight 0.01): Gratitude was expressed towards the developers for creating a game that evoked good memories, captured the 'Gothic' spirit, and offered a valuable experience, especially considering the price point and small team. Players thanked the developers for their effort, love, and for bringing a game of this genre to market.
- Acceptance (weight 0.01): Players often showed acceptance of the game's flaws, such as graphical imperfections, wooden combat, or minor bugs, viewing them as part of its inherent 'jank' or charm, similar to old-school RPGs. They recognized that these imperfections did not detract from the overall positive aspects, which ultimately outweighed the negatives.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion arose from counter-intuitive design choices, such as difficulties with map progression, vague quest mechanics, or seemingly broken stat scaling. Specific issues like the fishing mechanic or unexpected game crashes after a working demo also left players bewildered about functionality and expected behavior.
- Optimism (weight 0.01): Optimism was rooted in positive early impressions despite minor technical flaws, with players believing that the game held enormous potential for future improvement. They expressed confidence that developers would resolve issues through patches, leading to a much better and highly enjoyable experience for RPG lovers.
- Curiosity (weight 0.01): Players felt curiosity about the game's unfolding world, intricate storytelling, and diverse mechanics, eager to discover what the developers had prepared. They were interested in exploring the environment, understanding character progression, and seeing how the narrative would develop over time.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Surprise was felt by players who were unexpectedly impressed by the game's quality, often exceeding their initial expectations, or by the surprisingly low price point. Conversely, some were surprised by the unexpected poor quality of specific elements, such as the combat system.
- Annoyance (weight 0.01): Annoyance was caused by specific tedious game mechanics, such as one-time use shovels or a difficult fishing system, which interrupted gameplay flow and added unnecessary frustration. Initial bugs and technical glitches also contributed to an early sense of irritation for players.
- Determination (weight 0.01): Determination was evident in players' resolve to continue playing and finish the game despite encountering various flaws, bugs, or technical issues. Their enjoyment of core aspects of the game motivated them to push through the imperfections and complete their experience.}