When one thinks of the roguelike genre, ‘randomness’ is almost certainly one of the first words that comes to mind. Randomly generated worlds, randomly selected upgrades, random enemies are all commonplace tropes throughout games of this kind. Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles takes this philosophy and asks: If randomness is such an integral mechanic to the genre, why not implement dice?

Inspired by the renowned Slay The Spire, indie ‘dice-deck-builder’ Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles is a roguelike with a beautiful artstyle. The game revolves around building a deck of dice to purify the corrupted heart of the goddess Astrea.

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The game features strong ludonarrative consistency within the purification and corruption system. Health bars are contextualised as ‘corruption meters’, so damage is dealt to enemies by applying purification to lower their corruption. Meanwhile, enemies are able to deal corruption against the player.

However, this distinction is important: if applied to the player or allies, purification heals instead of dealing damage. Similarly, corruption heals enemies if applied to them. Suddenly, each turn becomes an engaging puzzle of deciding whether to attack, heal, or minimise the negative effects of corruption.

Various layers of mechanics and options, with several distinct dice actions

Of course, as anyone with deckbuilder experience will know, it is not quite as simple as that in practice. There are various layers of mechanics and options, with several distinct dice actions in your deck in any given run.

The game initially has a high learning curve in terms of new information to learn in the first few runs. Virtues, blessings, status effects, and sentinels are a lot to learn, especially on top of the basic dice. This could definitely turn some players away.

Perhaps the game might benefit from a slower introduction that eases the player in. This could be achieved by introducing select mechanics only as the player gains more experience.

A unique experience, no matter how similar the playstyle

That being said, with a bit of patience, learning the game leads to rewarding moment-to-moment gameplay. At least one of these systems will result in a unique experience, no matter how similar the playstyle is between runs.

Another way the game bolsters variety is through its characters, or ‘oracles’. The starter oracle, Moonie, specialises in enhancing her weaker dice, as well as being able to convert her corruption dice into purification dice.

By instinct, the player may want to avoid collecting dice with high value corruption faces. However, via effective usage of her conversion virtue or dice, the strategy can prove to be risky yet effective for high damage turns.

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Mileage may vary with the complexity indicators given to each oracle, particularly with the first four oracles. That being said, the last two oracles are certainly more complex than the others.

That aside, all six oracles are fun to play as once understood. They each feel different to play as a result of their unique dice and mechanics.

Many ways of manipulating RNG to minimise unfair deaths

As for the dice themselves, those familiar with game design may question the generous helping of randomness in player actions, especially when, ‘Oh waiter, there’s a mandatory self-damage die in my soup’. Worry not, for the restaurant has come prepared with many ways of manipulating RNG to minimise unfair deaths.

You can choose to collect safe dice with more tame effects, or riskier dice with a greater emphasis on reward. Moreover, the player may have access to rerolls, discards, and dice that manipulate the outcomes of other dice mid-battle. With effective play, the game ensures that bad luck alone is never the cause of a run ending.

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The base difficulty never felt particularly challenging or punishing

In a way, the game may be a little too good at this. The base difficulty never felt particularly challenging or punishing, even on first runs with the more complex oracles. This may be due to (or even potentially the cause of) the inclusion of a stacking difficulty mechanic, which honestly came across as uninspired, forced replayability.

Four of the eleven ‘anomaly levels’ are mere enemy HP increases, including the first two levels. This made it seem tacked on as an artificial way to increase the difficulty and playtime. A better execution of this idea can be seen in the Eclipse mode in Risk of Rain 2. Difficulty modifiers are more varied, and the mode complements the main game’s punishment, despite being its driving force.

Despite balancing concerns like the initial learning curve and uninspired anomaly system, Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles has a strong foundation. That classic roguelike itch of wanting to try another run was very much present all throughout.

For deckbuilder fans wanting a deep and rewarding game to sink their teeth into, this one is hard to ignore.

Rating: 8/10

 

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