Ashen, the elusive indie action-RPG has been a long time in the making, with its first appearance way back in 2015. New details were drip-fed to public over the years but the limelight it once was presented on during its reveal at Microsoft’s E3 stage long vanished and fans have been left wanting to learn and see more.
Now, thanks to Gamescom, developer Aurora44 has released a current gameplay demo of Ashen. The atmospheric action game is drenched in a moody minimalist style, but never gives off a low-fi indie vibe. Quite the opposite, Ashen looks surprisingly well, utilizing the power of a brilliantly well done art style and gorgeous animations.
The Gamescom demo shows a lot of gameplay but also shares details about mechanics and story. For one, Ashen takes place in a massive open world, including varied locations. The demo starts in a snowy forest area, but we later see dark caves and even rocky deserts later on. Players will be able to fast travel between locations with the help of fantastical flying dragon-like creatures.
Ashen’s combat system is stamina based which means one will have to carefully decide when to attack and when to retreat. Coupled with an individual targeting system, the combat looks similar to Souls or Zelda games. We only saw melee combat in the video, but we wouldn’t be surprised if there was some sort of magic system as well.
The RPG system of Ashen is unique, in that you don’t level up arbitrary stats of your character but the capabilities and powers fully lie within the items you craft, unlock and find. The world is harboring valuable loot, some directly on your path, others hidden at ledges and on hard to get spots.
Similar to Souls games, the story of Ashen revolves around a decrepit world with a deep lore which you will slowly unravel by exploring new locations and building relationships with its inhabitants. Those play an important role not only by being vendors or offering you crafting services but also by accompanying you in battle. A really fascinating mechanic the developer is calling Passive Multiplayer is the option that real players will assume the role of friendly NPCs in these battles but unlike Souls games, they will still assume the form of the NPC. It’s likely you won’t even realize that you play with an actual human.
Early on, players will found a town which acts as a hub. By finding new characters in the world and fulfilling missions for them, these NPCs will steadily inhabit your town, build houses and offer you new services.
Ashen is looking to be something really special. Whether it is the simply gorgeous visual makeup or the unique gameplay elements, we can’t wait to get our hands on the game. There’s still no decisive release date but Aurora44 plans to release Ashen sometime in 2018 for PC and Xbox One.
