In the first work and pixel soulslike Dark Devotion Tester Olli was still bothered by “clumsy fights”. In his roguelite project Astral Ascent The small French indie studio Hibernian Workshop has apparently learned something new and has completed the early access phase (as already Hades) used for fine tuning.
You grab one of four unlockable heroes with their own fighting style to face twelve amazingly friendly bosses in four worlds, each assigned to a zodiac sign. In addition to the fluffy, fast movements, the motivating build construction is one of the great strengths of the beating action. With each run you unlock passive bonuses or active abilities, which you can then find, level up and strengthen with additional buffs within one attempt. This means, for example, that little helpers spawn in battle or you trigger useful element debuffs. In addition, you can collect up to four powerful, levelable auras that further round off your build.
It's a matter of taste that your skills rotate during use. Not only does this take some control away from you, it can be particularly annoying if you no longer know where in the rotation you are in the demanding boss fights with full-screen attacks. The simple, less concise level structure could have been more varied overall.