Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles

Lore & Background

The game takes place long after a mystical star bestowed blessings upon a flourishing civilization. The star's disciples, the Six-Sided Oracles, sealed away magical gifts within relics called Astrariums. The civilization was struck by the Crimson Dawn Cataclysm, which engulfed the entire star system and corrupted many of its inhabitants, ultimately defeating the Oracles and bringing ruin. Descendants of the disciples, finding the relics left behind by the Oracles, travel to finish the battle and find the origin of the Cataclysm.

The game's main characters are each a member of a different race of anthropomorphic beings inhabiting one of six planets. Moonie is an owl who wields a grimoire; Cellarius is a hammerhead shark with an anchor weapon; Hevelius is a golem created in the image of the nearly extinct Lacertians, using a scepter to control mechanical sentinels; Sothis is an exiled jackal who uses a magical hourglass to control time; the insectoid Austra wields a lantern allowing manipulation of the elements; and Orion, a cuttlefish-like being from the Aquarian race, is the last surviving member of the original six Oracles, using orbs to manifest four types of magic powers at once. The main villain is Astrea, the goddess of the six worlds, who has become corrupted.

Moonie is called to planet Aquarius by her book and meets Saiph, a fish-like robot who realizes she is an Oracle. She helps free Meissa, an Aquarian who had become corrupted, who then acts as a shopkeeper. Moonie and four other Oracles journey to Ground Zero to find Astrea, but the path is locked by a magical gate. Once the first five Oracles arrive, Meissa releases Orion from stasis, revealing him to be her older brother. Orion reveals that Astrea has been corrupted beyond purification and must be destroyed. After facing a corrupted Oracle doppelgänger, they defeat Astrea's Avatar and then her true form. Astrea loses her power but survives as a crystal, explaining that her search for power caused her to accidentally corrupt herself, and that her defeat prevented a black hole from annihilating the system. She enters the system's sun to repair remaining corruption, saying she will always watch over the Oracles.

Reader's Guide

Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles is notable for adapting the deck-building roguelike structure of Slay the Spire into a dice-based system, earning it the descriptor 'dicebuilder' from PC Gamer. The game's structure is nigh-identical to that trailblazer, with a top-down map of branching paths containing battles, minibosses, shops, and events, culminating in area bosses and a final challenge called Astrea's Heart. However, the replacement of cards with dice creates a different moment-to-moment experience, emphasizing risk-reward dynamics as players roll Safe, Balanced, Risky, and Epic dice, each with varying degrees of corruption and purification effects. The Virtue system, triggered by a corruption meter, adds an ingenious layer of strategic tension, making each run a 'tense tightrope walk' according to one critic. The game's six playable characters, each with unique abilities and relics, offer significant replayability. Prior to release, it was noted as 'punching above its weight' for a small studio, with its art called 'gorgeous' and characters 'stunningly designed'. Critics praised the game's overall design, though some random and confusing elements were noted. The soundtrack was described as 'a tad generic' but still 'memorable'. The game's reception established it as a well-regarded entry in the roguelike genre, particularly for fans of dice manipulation and risk management.

Did You Know?

• The game was dubbed a 'dicebuilder' by PC Gamer due to its use of dice and similarity to deck-building games.
• There are six playable characters, each representing a different race of anthropomorphic beings from six planets.
• The main villain, Astrea, is the goddess of the six worlds who became corrupted by her own search for power.
• Epic dice are entirely safe with very powerful beneficial effects and cannot be duplicated.