Info about Astral Ascent - Yamat the Breach Traveler:

Official game description:
**_(If you own the DLC, Yamat will appear near Sova after you unlock the Poetic Peddler NPC)_**
**YAMAT, THE BREACH TRAVELER -**
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Play as Yamat, a powerful Breach Traveler who has been wandering through all of the astral prisons created by the Master to challenge the strongest fighters and prove herself.
The new prisoner has a very bold personality and carries a lot of mysteries within herself – her motivations and personal goals will unravel with each escape attempt.
**DLC CONTENT -**
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*   **21 new unique spells** - summons powerful wild creatures, spinning giant blades and more!
*   Pixel Art hand-drawn **cinematic animation**!
*   **Signature Spell** - Forbidden Power transforms Yamat into her flying draconic form allowing her to move freely around while shooting magic missiles to nearby enemies.
*   **37 Associated Perks** to modify her Signature Spell
*   **4 Weapons** types for different playstyles
    *   **Dark Energy Fists** - close range quick attacks of dark matter unleashing flaming magical creatures
    *   **Two-Handed Dark Sword** - longer range powerful slash that can hit several enemies at once
    *   **Dark Bow** - shoots from afar and shower enemies with arrows
    *   **Symmetrical Lance** - a weapon from a far island that has been devastaded by an infectious disease. Legend says it was used to bring down the king that ruled that place.
*   **12 Weapon Passives** - Each weapon comes with 3 unique passives to change playstyle, making Yamat an even deadlier fighter
*   **New Papa Yalee Stories** - 4 new stories to learn more about the mysterious Yamat
*   **1000+ new lines of dialogs** between Yamat and all the other characters of the Garden – including heroes – **fully voiced in English and Japanese**
*   Pixel Art **ending screen** - a new ending has been added to the game for Yamat!
**ADDITION TO THE BASE GAME -**
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Even if you do not own the DLC, you still will be able to-
*   See Yamat hanging out in the Garden
*   Collect and use **2 Yamat Echoes** during the runs
*   Fight **Yamat's Shadow Clone**

Release date: Jul 29, 2024

Categories: Roguelike, Action Platformer, Build Crafting, Pixel Art Style, Character Progression, Single-player Story

Feature scans:
- MTX: score 85; verdict: Predatory - Paid Power DLC; summary: The reviews center on a paid character DLC for a roguelike. Most feedback praises the DLC's quality and value, but one direct review states the paid hero is extremely overpowered and explicitly describes the purchase as 'paying makes me stronger' and improving clear rate. This is direct evidence of real-money paid power/pay-to-win. Other complaints concern DLC content value and price, which alone would be capped at 20, but the paid-power evidence pushes the monetization risk into the aggressive/predatory range.

- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price:
  - Community fair range: $14.99 - $29.99
  - Reasoning: The reviews show strong value approval for the game/content and say it is worth the price, but the Portuguese review advises waiting for a sale if the buyer is short on money, and the Chinese review complains about a recent discount. This suggests the community is price-sensitive and does not view full premium pricing as fair. No review gives a direct base-game price, so the estimate is a moderate, sale-friendly range around $15-$30.
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: 5.0h
  - Story completion: N/A
  - Session length: N/A
  - Endgame: N/A
  - Reasoning: The review explicitly describes Yamat as a '5 hour plus package if you wish to see everything,' which supports gameCompletion at roughly 5 hours for full DLC content. The other quotes confirm the DLC's scope is centered on one new character and mention beating the game after a few runs, but they do not provide hour estimates for a story-only completion, a typical session length, or post-completion endgame time. Therefore storyCompletion, sessionLength, and endgame remain null.
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes:
  - Character & Story Devotee (buy)
    - Motivation: Discovering new character dialogue, personality, and roster interactions with Yamat.
    - Playstyle: Replaying runs with different characters to hear new lines and see how the newcomer banters with the cast.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: N/A
  - Build-Crafting Roguelite Veteran (buy)
    - Motivation: Optimizing passive, spell, and elemental synergies and chasing build variety and satisfying power spikes.
    - Playstyle: Theorycrafts builds around spells, auras, and elemental paths (ice/fire), analyzing balance and clearing high-challenge bosses.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: Hades
  - Value-Conscious DLC Skeptic (sale)
    - Motivation: Getting enough content and reward value for the money spent on the DLC.
    - Playstyle: Clears achievements and base-roster content carefully, weighing whether the new character justifies the price.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: N/A
  - Power-Fantasy Crutch Seeker (buy)
    - Motivation: Feeling unstoppable by using a forgiving, high-power character to crush hard difficulties.
    - Playstyle: Leans on an overpowered newcomer to brute-force high-difficulty bosses with minimal mechanical skill.
    - Experience: mixed
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: clumsy player
    - Reference games: BlazBlue: Entropy Effect


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:
- Yamat is a fun, powerful character (weight 0.99): Many players praise Yamat for being extremely fun to play, with high damage output and a unique, versatile skill set. She is often cited as a top contender for the best character in the game.
- DLC adds substantial content and value (weight 0.63): The DLC enriches the game with a dozen new spells, over thirty blessings, new auras, weapons, story, and dialogue, offering great value for its price. Players consider it a fantastic expansion that adds many hours of gameplay.
- Yamat has unique spells and weapons (weight 0.6): Yamat's arsenal includes fists, greatsword, and bow, each with multiple passives and exclusive spells like 'Forbidden Power' and 'Dragon's Pride'. The variety and flashiness of her skills are widely praised.
- Game offers rich build variety and content (weight 0.52): Players highlight the extensive build variety from weapon, spell, and aura combinations, along with random doors and key boxes that add replayability. The game is content-rich with many unlockables and a constant flow of updates.
- Yamat is well-integrated into story (weight 0.47): The developers seamlessly wove Yamat into the game's narrative, adding fully voiced dialogues, interactions, and backstory without it feeling forced. This integration enhances the overall experience.
- Yamat has engaging personality and dialogue (weight 0.43): Yamat's charismatic and humorous personality, along with her high-presence and bold dialogues, adds charm to the game. Her interactions with other characters are entertaining and well-received.
- Yamat has unique flight and air combat (weight 0.42): Yamat can fly and move freely in the air, with spells that enable air stalling, dodging, and even auto-firing bullets. This mobility makes her stand out and is frequently highlighted as a major strength.
- Yamat excels in air combat and mobility (weight 0.4): Yamat's ability to fly and her air-based spells give her exceptional mobility, making dodging and aerial combat easy. Her exclusive spell 'Forbidden Power' provides long air time and free movement.
- DLC character is balanced and versatile (weight 0.39): Yamat is considered balanced with the base roster, offering multiple playstyles from ranged bow to melee greatsword to unarmed combat. Her versatility allows for diverse builds and she is not overpowered compared to other characters.
- DLC adds new narrative and voice acting (weight 0.38): The DLC expands the story with a thousand new dialogues, all fully voice acted, enriching the lore and character development. Players appreciate the additional narrative depth.
- Game has excellent pixel art and action (weight 0.35): The game features top-notch pixel art, smooth action feel, and outstanding boss fight presentations. Its movement system, including double jump, air dash, and wall climb, is praised as top-tier for a side-scrolling roguelike.
- Developer shows sincerity and continuous support (weight 0.29): The development team is praised for their sincerity, releasing multiple updates even after full launch and providing crossover content for all players. This ongoing support is seen as rare and commendable.
- Yamat's visual and audio presentation (weight 0.27): Yamat's gorgeous art, flashy skills, and high-quality voiceover contribute to an excellent presentation. Her effects and animations are on another level compared to previous characters.
- Game has smooth and responsive controls (weight 0.22): The action feel is smooth and stands out among roguelikes, with fluid movement and spell casting. Basic attacks reset double jumps, allowing continuous aerial combat.
- Yamat is compared to other characters (weight 0.17): Players note that Yamat feels like a mix of existing characters but remains distinct, with a personality similar to Kiran's yet unique. She is often ranked highly among the cast.
- Weapon unlock conditions are reasonable (weight 0.15): The conditions to unlock Yamat's weapons are not too difficult, such as reaching 100% strength or clearing a battle room without damage, which can be done by adjusting difficulty. This makes progression accessible.
- Yamat is strong and helps low clear rate (weight 0.14): Yamat is extremely powerful, with high stats that can easily beat high difficulties like 16 and defeat Serpent. She is recommended for players who struggle with normal progression.
- DLC provides a complete 5+ hour experience (weight 0.09): Yamat offers a complete package with hours of content if the player wishes to see everything, including her story, weapons, and spells. This makes the DLC feel substantial.
- DLC is pay-to-win in multiplayer (weight 0.08): Some players feel that the DLC character is overpowered in multiplayer, giving an unfair advantage. However, others consider her balanced.
- Base game receives crossover updates (weight 0.05): Even without buying the DLC, the base game receives crossover updates such as seeing Yamat in the garden and fighting her shadow clone. This adds value for all players.

Common complaints:
- DLC lacks content for price (weight 0.23): The DLC adds no new areas, bosses, or achievements, and the single new character doesn't justify the cost for many. Players who have beaten the game find it a waste and feel it should have been free.
- Yamat's slow attack feel (weight 0.23): Reviewers note that Yamat starts weak due to slow attacks and lacks reach, requiring attack speed to feel comfortable. Dislike of her basic attack feel is common, with some hoping improvements come from unlocking other weapons.
- Yamat's controversial personality and writing (weight 0.22): Yamat's condescending attitude, constant praise from other characters, and overall writing are off-putting to some players. This may reduce enjoyment for those who dislike her characterization.
- Yamat's limited spell selection (weight 0.2): Multiple reviews state Yamat has fewer spells than other characters, reducing variety and build options. This is a frequent and specific complaint about the new DLC character.
- Troublesome weapon trait unlocking (weight 0.2): Unlocking weapon traits is seen as overly tedious, with players resorting to lower difficulties and feeling it wastes time. Requirements like no-damage runs at high difficulty are considered too hard.
- DLC character bugs and effects (weight 0.17): Several bugs affect the DLC character, including a permanent light effect from Yamat's skill, a broken barbecue reset aura, and an infinite ally summon with dodge cancel. These issues impact gameplay and require fixes.
- Spell balance and build issues (weight 0.13): High spell costs hinder refresh-focused builds, while some flashy spells like Void and Phoenix Ascension deal minimal damage. Early access lacked spell loop and build cohesion, and fragmentation persists after release.
- Yamat overpowered with default attacks (weight 0.13): Yamat is considered overpowered due to large range and high damage, making her feel like a 'wheelchair' character. Compared to Kieran using default punching, she trivializes content.
- Game difficulty concerns (weight 0.09): The game remains consistently difficult, troubling action-impaired players, and some special moves leave the protagonist vulnerable. These factors can make the experience frustrating for certain audiences.
- Trait spell missile bug (weight 0.09): The trait spell 'missile kill' only counts one kill when multiple enemies die simultaneously, blocking the 30-kill achievement. It may also trigger normal attack blessings and the black obsidian dragon skill incorrectly.
- Guardian Angel achievement too hard (weight 0.09): The 'Guardian Angel' achievement is extremely difficult, with players never encountering their own guardian constellation. This makes the achievement nearly impossible to complete.
- Chinese text variable exposure (weight 0.05): The Chinese text for the aura 'Reckless Whisper' displays an internal variable and a BD interface name when summoning spirits. This is a localization bug that breaks immersion.
- Yamat's average normal skills (weight 0.05): Yamat's normal skills feel average, with many being summoning slam types that lack variety. This contributes to a less engaging play experience.
- All spells unlocked from start (weight 0.05): Having all spells unlocked from the beginning removes the surprise and progression between runs. Some players prefer unlocking abilities over time.
- DLC does not work out of box (weight 0.05): The DLC does not function properly upon installation without additional troubleshooting. This technical issue prevents immediate access to content.

Gameplay feedback:
- DLC adds new character Yamat (weight 0.31): Multiple clusters note that the DLC introduces a new playable character named Yamat. This character is described as coming with her own spells and dialogue, expanding the roster to five characters.
- Weapons and passives unlock via progression (weight 0.22): Weapons and their passive traits are unlocked by completing specific conditions during gameplay. Some conditions require no-damage room clears.
- Game has storyline and dialogues (weight 0.16): The game features a storyline and character dialogues, adding narrative depth. The DLC introduces new dialogues as well.
- Yamat has three weapon types (weight 0.14): Yamat can use fists, a greatsword, and a bow, each with three perks. This gives her three distinct weapon sets to unlock and master.
- Base game has four characters (weight 0.13): The base game includes four playable characters, each with achievements. The DLC adds a fifth character, Yamat.
- Roguelike with pixel art combat (weight 0.1): The game is a roguelike featuring pixel art, action combat, a spell queue system, and build construction. These elements define its core gameplay loop.
- Characters use spells and weapons (weight 0.09): Characters in the game utilize both spells and weapons in combat. This dual system allows for varied playstyles.
- Game features playable characters (weight 0.09): The game includes multiple playable characters with distinct gameplay. Each character has their own abilities and playstyle.
- Characters have multiple skill sets (weight 0.09): Playable characters possess multiple skill sets, allowing for customization. This adds variety to combat and strategy.

Performance notes:
No performancepoints

Recommendations:
- DLC highly recommended overall (weight 0.66): Many reviewers strongly recommend the DLC, praising its abundant content and value for money. It is described as a must-buy for fans of the base game and hardcore players.
- Great value and content (weight 0.31): Reviewers consistently highlight the DLC's solid amount of content and excellent value for the price. It is considered worth the extra cost.
- DLC character overpowered (weight 0.13): The new character is extremely strong, often referred to as having 'DLC character privilege'. This makes it a recommended pick for players seeking a powerful and unique playstyle.
- Recommended for specific genres (weight 0.12): The DLC is particularly recommended for fans of side-scrolling action games, high-operability roguelikes, and satisfying spell-based combat. Players who enjoy these genres will find it highly enjoyable.
- Negative review and refund (weight 0.11): One reviewer cannot recommend buying the DLC due to it not working and is seeking a refund. Another suggests waiting for a deep sale.

Other player notes:
- Consistent updates and roadmap (weight 0.36): The game has received numerous fixes and balance adjustments since Early Access, with major updates every 1-3 months following a detailed public roadmap. This shows the developers' commitment to long-term support.
- Yamat DLC character addition (weight 0.32): The first DLC introduces Yamat, a new rift traveler character, as a paid addition to the roster. This expands the base game's four characters to five.
- DLC price and value (weight 0.23): The DLC costs $5 and is considered affordable, offering over 5 hours of content. It has a higher positive review rate than the base game.
- Yamat spell update imbalance (weight 0.13): The v2.2 update gave Yamat 5 new spells while other characters received only 2 each, raising balance concerns. Developers have indicated they are working to add more spells for Yamat in the next update.
- Game compared to Hades (weight 0.13): The game is praised as the best action roguelike combat experience since Hades. It features a rich meta-progression system with 12+1 challenging bosses.
- Character comparisons to other games (weight 0.12): Players compare Yamat to Dante from Devil May Cry as a female counterpart, and the character's stats to Hakumen from BlazBlue. Other characters are likened to a 'Zagreus lite' from Hades.
- Base game content and pricing (weight 0.09): The base game is great, well priced, and offers a large amount of content to unlock. It has a solid foundation with room for expansion.
- DLC character locked for new players (weight 0.09): The DLC character is not unlocked immediately for new players, requiring purchase or progression. Without buying the DLC, players can still obtain 2 Yamat echoes in the game.
- Humble Bundle exposure (weight 0.08): The base game entered a Humble Bundle in August 2024, which may increase the player base. Despite being fun, the game is not widely popular.
- DLC lacks new areas (weight 0.06): The DLC adds no new areas, bosses, or achievements, focusing solely on the new character. It includes some spells and new dialogue.
- Game renamed after full release (weight 0.05): The game was renamed from 'Constellation Ascension' to 'Astral Warriors' after its full release. This change may reflect a shift in branding or focus.
- Original concept art vibe (weight 0.04): Original concept art gave a more pensive, brooding vibe, described as an angrier Pisces. This contrast highlights a shift in artistic direction.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.29): Players feel satisfied because the DLC offers a powerful, balanced character with high damage and versatile abilities that make combat enjoyable. The content is considered rich, reasonably priced, and well worth the extra cost, providing an advantage in multiplayer. The character's strength and complete package with entertaining personality contribute to a rewarding experience.
- Excitement (weight 0.13): Excitement stems from the new character's flashy skills, flight ability, and overpowered moves that make dodging easier and gameplay fun. Players look forward to future content on the roadmap and enjoy seeing more of the character's lines. Playing as a character whose attacks feel like a boss fight adds to the thrill.
- Frustration (weight 0.1): Frustration arises from technical issues like the DLC not working out of the box and bugs such as the missile kill count not increasing correctly. Players are annoyed by difficult requirements like no-damage unlocks and achievements that are too hard due to never encountering the guardian constellation. Additionally, skill light effects persisting and aura reset failures after DLC installation cause irritation.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.1): Enjoyment is driven by the fun gameplay of the new character with unique spells and weapons, and the great new dialogues and conversation events. The character is insanely fun to play, with well-made detailed skills that enhance the overall experience.
- Appreciation (weight 0.1): Players appreciate the developers for integrating the new character well into the story and showing sincerity through free crossover updates and continuous large updates after full release. The game is praised as one of the best side-scrolling action roguelikes, with voice acting that benefits the character.
- Disappointment (weight 0.08): Disappointment comes from the new character having fewer spells compared to others, and disliking the basic attack feel. High spell costs make refresh builds difficult and some spells feel ineffective. The DLC adds no new areas, bosses, or achievements, and the character has too few skills.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0.06): Enthusiasm is fueled by the character's unique moveset, weapons, and passives, as well as fantastic DLC at an affordable price. The character design, diverse weapons, fun spells, fluid movement, bold and humorous dialogue, sharp combat style, and diverse arsenal all contribute.
- Dissatisfaction (weight 0.03): Dissatisfaction is expressed because the paid character is not considered great value, and the character being overpowered makes another character feel weak in comparison.
- Surprise (weight 0.03): Surprise stems from the development team releasing multiple updates and an ambitious roadmap in a short time, and the game still receiving content updates.
- Fun (weight 0.03): Fun is derived from playing as the new character, who is considered one of the most fun and stylish characters.
- Annoyance (weight 0.02): Annoyance is caused by having to troubleshoot a paid product.
- Approval (weight 0.02): Approval is given to characters that have a greatsword in their arsenal.
- Adoration (weight 0.02): Adoration is expressed for the new character being the best girl/bird.
- Supportive (weight 0.02): Support is shown because the development team is not having it easy and the game is worth supporting.
- Amusement (weight 0.02): Amusement comes from the character's casual personality compared to other characters' marveling.
- Suspicion (weight 0.02): Suspicion arises from believing certain behavior is a bug rather than a mechanic.
- Impressed (weight 0.02): Players are impressed by the size of the game and the amount of content to unlock.
- Anticipation (weight 0.02): Anticipation is felt while waiting for every update and DLC.
- Dislike (weight 0.02): Dislike is directed at the new character's writing and condescending attitude.
- Uncertainty (weight 0.02): Uncertainty exists about whether the trait spell missile interaction is a bug or intended design.}