Aksun
- TheAwakening
- 18 hours ago
- 3 min read
Overview
Aksun it’s a hack n’ slash roguelite heavily inspired by Korean shamanic folklore, where you must defeat the General Spirit’s enemies by slashing wildly and remorseless blade dancing through the hordes of weird minions and their lieutenants. The demo so far includes two weapons and locations to play, with their respective bosses.
Gameplay
Combat is defined by the weapon you choose in the main menu. We have the dual shaman blades, which excel at 1v1, or the Bladent polearm, a good option for area-of-effect attacks. Both weapons are decently good for the task ahead, but they have their own unique combos and special abilities. Our basic abilities consist of dashing, basic attack, special attack, and tactical attacks, all with their respective movesets. Doing enough damage will charge our ultimate skill, which will transform us temporarily and buff our attacks.
Right at the start we get to pick up to three trinkets and a weapon modifier. Trinkets can have random properties and how they trigger under a specific move (dashing, special/tactical attack, etc.). They can unleash lightning strikes, make our foes bleed, incinerate them, fire tracking projectiles, plant explosive mines, or boost our ultimate ancestral spirit skill. Some upgrades can belong to an echo; choosing these upgrades with the same echo type across all three trinkets will increase their values. Echo types are based on healing, damage, critical strike chance, defense, our ancestral spirit skill, haste, etc.
Levels are filled with all sorts of mobs that come in hordes up to three waves. Most are melee-based, but some can throw homing projectiles from a distance or summon lesser foes. The battleground may include spikes and flamethrower traps. Most mobs drop some coins, which can be used to purchase upgrades or echoes once per level scenario. Once a stage is cleaned, we get to choose a random upgrade for up to one or all three of our trinkets. The upgrade pool can be previewed from the status menu.
After completing several stages, we get to face a spirit boss. They have their own set of attacks, which range from big area of effect to bullet-hell projectiles. To achieve victory in Aksun, it is important to choose one build of upgrades that can deal absurd amounts of damage with a few attacks and/or healing upgrades paired as well. Healing is very scarce in the battleground, and we cannot avoid damage due to always being surrounded by mobs. Read about what the upgrade does before choosing.
Audio & Visuals
The music is very good and fits perfectly. I don’t personally like to hear our character huff with every attack. The graphics are good, and the performance is very good, given it’s the demo. The enemy design suits as well; it's helpful they blink a lighter red when they’re about to attack. The UI is okay and it shows everything we need, but I wish the health bar were a bit bigger as the numbers are small.
Conclusion
Aksun delivers good combat and progression towards the upgrades we get to choose. I already found two builds that are particularly efficient and make the game easier, so I hope it gets rebalanced a bit after the game’s release. The demo shows the right amount of content, and personally, I'm kind of intrigued about what the other third weapon will be. This is a hidden gem that follows Hades core, and I can't wait to finish it fully after release.
Rating: 8/10
So a bell spinner, a vine, and a china doll walk into a bar…
