The devs of Acme Game Studio, who are behind the upcoming action-adventure game Asterigos: Curse of the Stars, sat down with us at SegmentNext in order to promote and tell us more about their game, which will be releasing on October 11. Featuring huge environments and fierce monsters, Asterigos seems to be shaping up to be a great game.
The story of Asterigos is that of a young woman named Hilda, a young warrior who travels to the mystical city of Aphis in order to find and rescue her father. All of this is helped along by an art style that Acme Gamestudio believes can help tell the story in an appealing way. The full interview is as following:
Q: Tell us a little about Acme Game Studio. How many people are currently working on Asterigos?
Acme Gamestudio is composed by 25 passionate and seasoned developers from Taiwan. We strives to work hard and dedicate ourselves to create the fun and entertaining experience for people who play the games!
Q: The first look at the game immediately gives us an Immortals Fenyx Rising feeling. What were your prime inspirations behind Asterigos?
In terms of art direction, our prime inspiration is from the Pixar and Disney animation movies. We feel that the aesthetic style could fit well for the story and adventure we want to show to the players – a brave, young girl who ventured to the city lost in time, in search for her father.
Q: The specs of the game mention that the game supports AMD FSR 2.0. Can you elaborate your experience on implementing FSR for Asterigos and how it is expected to improve overall performance of the game? Will Asterigos also feature Nvidia’s DLSS as well or it’s just FSR only?
AMD is a fantastic tech partner to work with! Their tech supports are very timely and helpful. And with the integration of FSR 2.0, the game performance is greatly improved without too much quality loss. It is really an amazing tech. What’s more, the feature works not only on AMD graphic cards but also others. So, for now the game will have FSR as the primary solution for performance improvement.
Q: How big of a world Does Asterigos: Curse of the Starts have? And how dense it is with content?
The world of Asterigos is rich with content! We have primary design 10 levels, with one additional quest hub. Other than the first level, which would be featured in the game demo, all other levels are at least 4 times size or bigger. And they are all seamlessly connected! The game will be hub-based, with many routes spreading across the whole city of Aphes.
Q: How long, on average will it take to beat Asterigos if we just consider the main storyline of the game? And if we consider side quests and collectibles as well, how many hour worth of content are we talking about here?
The main story will be roughly 15-20 hours, depending on how good you are in terms of action games. And with all the side quests and collectibles, the full completion of the game can take up to 40 hours or more. And not even counting the New Game+ mode.
Q: The game will also have side-quests, right? What sort of side-quests can we expect in the game and how important are they going to be for the players?
Yes. There will be a lot of side quests and discoverables across all regions of the game. The side quest will lead you to knowing more of the city of Aphes, with a lot of side stories and different characters. And some of the side quests will even have impacts on the outcome of the main story. We hope that people will grow to enjoy their adventure in Aphes not only in pursuing Hilda’s main objectives, but also other aspects of the world.
Q: Decisions in Asterigos are supposed have effects on the Story, right? Can you elaborate how those choices are going to matter with an example or two?
Yes. The decisions to have impacts to the stories. Sometimes the choice you make have immediate effect. Sometimes it has a more long-term effect and you won’t be able to see the outcome right away until you reach the later stage.
For example, when you are tasked to retrieve the cargo for a merchant, you will encounter a werewolf who had taken it. And you will now have a choice to let the werewolf go and he would share some items from the cargo with you; or you can kill the werewolf and get discount from the merchant when you are going to purchase from him in the future. Each choice gives you different outcome!
And there’s another side quest that would give Hilda some kind of “personality twist” by making her “more mature” and with enough maturity by a late-stage event, Hilda will have a different choice. We want to bring players the experience of everything that you have encountered will finally lead you to this moment. It’s like a culmination of all events and adventure!
Q: Since choices will matter in the game, does this mean that Asterigos is going to have multiple endings? If so, how many endings we can expect?
Yes. There will be two major endings for the main story and many more for other characters. And the combination of the “full ending” is varied from how you progress throughout the story and quest.
Q: The game will have different difficulty options, right? Can you share with us how these difficulty settings are going to affect the gameplay? Is there a new game plus mode planned for Asterigos?
The difficulty “Story” is designed for people who simply wants to enjoy story rather then having any challenges. The enemy AI will be easier, as well as you have higher HP and the AP required for using skill will regenerate automatically, making you easier to unleash powerful skills.
While “Challenge” difficulty is designed for people who is really good at action game and have no fear at testing the deadliness of the enemy. The AI will be more complicated as well as the damage will be a lot higher.
And there’s new game plus mode for even higher-level players who wish to journey again with all your current equipment and talents and attributes inherited. In new game plus mode, there will be new and stronger items for you to collect as well!
Q: Can you guys share post-launch plans for Asterigos with us? Will we get new expansions for the game?
Yes. We have plans on expanding the universe of Asterigos. But first we want to ensure the game can continually getting supported. We read a lot of feedback and forum when the demo is released and we heard what the players want and love. We want to ensure that the game will constantly update for a better version.
As for the expansion, we have one content DLC “Asterigos: Call of the Paragons” in planning, which will feature more boss challenges, new maps, and new items and game systems. The DLC is aiming to release early next year.
Q: Does the game feature any crafting mechanics or it’s just loot or buy the items and equipment?
There will be a crafting system, from the blacksmith. You will have to collect the blueprints across your adventure and gather enough materials in order to craft that specific equipment.
Q: The game has over 100 collectibles as well. What sort of collectibles are we talking about here and how rewarding are they going to be?
There will be tons of equipment, readable documents, and even song scores and voice records for you to collect. Of course, in terms of equipment there will be different outfits or items that can greatly improved or change the way you play the game. And a lot of documents and voice records are for people who love and enjoy the story- with very very juicy lore! As for people who love music, the song scores you collect can let you order the singer to sing the song you want to hear.
Q: What resolution and Framerate can we expect Asterigos to run on PS5 and Xbox Series. Are there performance and quality modes for the game on Xbox Series and PS5?
The game is running 60 FPS on PS5 and XBX with Full HD.
Q: Does Asterigos have any Dualsense specific features? If so, can you provide details about that?
The game supports Dualsense! We try to give the players some heavy feels when they are holding or charging up the attacks they are about to release, and with a strong shock when they release it! And this is just a small part of the example.
The game has a playable demo on Steam and if you are even least bit interested in the game, you should definitely check it out.
