JRPGs have always had a place on Nintendo's systems, a tradition carried on even today. One game coming to the Switch is Astria Ascending, a new title developed by major game veterans.
Astria Ascending is a traditional JRPG, with turn based battles and a grand story concerning the fate of the world. According to the game's website, players take on the role of demigods cursed with a singular fate they must struggle against. Along the way they will gain incredible powers and save the world, if they don't turn out to be the evil all along.
The world of Astria Ascending, called Orcanon, is not original to the game. It made its debut in a 2015 title called Zodiac: Orcanon Odyssey, but never really got off the ground. Now the same creators of Zodiac are using Astria Ascending to try and bring their vision to life once more. The art is a stylized mix of hand drawn and animation loops, with a distinct style seen in few other games. The world itself is unified, largely through a sacrifice the main characters, the demigods, must make: every three years, they die so that new demigods can ascend to the position. With a veteran JRPG composer, the music may well go the way of Bravely Default 2's soundtrack before long.
Speaking of Bravely Default, Astria Ascending's battle system bears one striking resemblance to that series. In Astria Ascending players can take an action called Focus, which stocks up a Focus point for the entire party. When using certain abilities, these Focus points can be spent to improve those abilities, amplifying damage and increasing the odds of inflicting status effects. It's similar to Bravely Default's brave and default system, where Brave Points can be stored for later. It will likely lead to some abilities always being taken over others, just because of how much they can be improved with focus.
The demigods themselves have a wide range of powers and party roles, as well as a wide range of species and ages. This could make for a very interesting cast, something that improves any JRPG significantly. That and a good way to avoid backtracking could endear it to many players.
In the end, Astria Ascending's success will depend mostly on its gameplay and side content. It's almost a given that its story and score will be up to par, but as to whether the rest of the game will hold up, only time will tell.
Astria Ascending releases for PC, Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Xbox Game Pass on September 30.