The Earth — Astalon Tears Of

Without spoiling: The “Tears of the Earth” are not just a macguffin. The game has multiple endings, and the true finale requires you to not just beat the tower, but to understand the tragic cycle of death and resurrection you’ve trapped yourself in. It’s a surprisingly melancholic tale wrapped in an action-platformer shell. Composer Takafumi Taniguchi (of Cathedral fame) delivers a chiptune soundtrack that punches far above its weight class. The main theme, “Tower of Serpents,” is a driving, percussive earworm that perfectly captures desperate adventure. The boss theme adds frantic arpeggios that sound like a NES overclocking itself.

Developer: LABS Works Publisher: DANGEN Entertainment Release Date: June 3, 2021

The catch is that . If Arioch takes a hit, everyone bleeds. This forces you to treat your party as a fragile, multi-tooled organism rather than three disposable lives. 2. The "Campfire" Loop: Death is a Shopkeeper This is where Astalon distinguishes itself from the brutal corpse-runs of Dark Souls or the permadeath of Spelunky . Astalon Tears of the Earth

The game rewards obsessive pixel-hunting. Break every candle. Check every wall. Fall down every pit. You’ll often find a —a checkpoint that, once activated, becomes a respawn point even after death. Finding these statues is the true measure of progress. 4. The Meta-Progression is the Real Story Astalon hides its narrative inside its gameplay loop. As you die and return to the Gate of the Dead, you speak with Blight , the skeletal gatekeeper. He taunts you, offers lore, and slowly reveals why the heroes made this pact.

The Tower of Serpents is a colossal vertical labyrinth. You’ll spend the first hour desperately trying to climb past crumbling floors and hostile gargoyles, only to realize that the shortcut you need is a hidden elevator shaft two screens above you. Without spoiling: The “Tears of the Earth” are

When you die—and you will die often—you are sent back to the at the tower’s base. However, death is not a failure state. It’s a resource run .

The level design is dense with . Using the three heroes’ abilities, nearly every single screen has a hidden room, a healing fountain, or a key. Do you switch to Algus to burn a wall? Crawl as Elda through a vent? Or climb as Arioch to reach a crumbling ceiling? Composer Takafumi Taniguchi (of Cathedral fame) delivers a

In an indie landscape saturated with pixel-art Metroidvanias, Astalon: Tears of the Earth could have been easily dismissed as another retro homage. Instead, developer LABS Works—the team behind the cult hit Cathedral —has delivered a masterclass in subverting expectations. It looks like a forgotten 8-bit NES cartridge, but it plays like a modern roguelite that respects your time and cunning.

The genius twist?

This transforms the classic Metroidvania frustration of “I made it to the boss, died, and now have to trek 15 minutes back” into “I made it to the boss, died, and now I have enough Ore to buy the double jump upgrade before I try again.”

Here is why Astalon is a hidden gem that deserves a spot beside Hollow Knight and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night . The premise is deceptively simple. The Tower of Serpents has risen from the earth, plunging the world into drought. You control three unlikely heroes— Arioch the Swordsman, Algus the Wizard, and Elda the Thief —who make a pact with Death herself to ascend the tower and save their village.