Astral Ascension
Story
After being wrongfully terminated from the Investigations Agency of Polaris, our Protagonist struggles to find a piloting job that doesn’t have him blacklisted. With no options left, he joins the mercenary ship of Aetos to continue supporting his ill sister and to find a way to clear his name.
Embarking on missions with the stoic captain Iris, the cheery engineer Vaela, the playful doctor Luna, and the suave navigator Kai, the team will travel across multiple star systems and meet all sorts of personalities!
As the player, your choices not only affect mission outcomes, but also determine how relationships grow… and possibly blossom into romance!
Key Features
Your Story
A choice heavy, sci-fi visual novel set in space! With hundreds of decisions leading to branching paths, a uniquely personalized story will unfold.
Full Relationship-Sim
Your decisions and behavior organically shape your relationships and what party members feel about you over time. A romantic bond may even be forged with three possible characters!
Complete Voice Over
Astral Ascension features an English voice cast for not only your main party, but also all side and extra characters. Every line of dialogue is fully voiced!
Fully Animated Sprites
Astral Ascension features Live2D® technology to bring characters to life! Experience unrivaled immersion with facial expressions and body language all animated seamlessly.
Explore the galaxy of Astral Ascension!
Game Discussion
Steam User 28
Pixelfade is the standard for me when it comes to visual novels. The characters, story, and setting in all their games are great, and so far this is no exception. The animated characters are a very neat touch, and something I haven't seen outside their games. Easy buy, even at full price.
Steam User 12
A bit of a slow start compared to earlier PixelFade games, but a great focus on the characters, both on and off the Aetos' crew. As usual, you have a nod towards how you react to the antics and are surrounded by charming, amusing personalities. Episode 1 is pretty polished, and sets the tone pretty well--for just the beginning, it leaves you wanting to know what develops next. Looking forward to episode 2 :).
If you've enjoyed any of PixelFade's other games, I'd say buy it but be prepared to be patient until all the episodes are finished.
Steam User 7
Another fantastic entry from the best Western VN studio. Astral Ascension is shaping up to be Pixelfade's most complex game yet, with 3 distinct romance paths and many robust choices along the way that shape the story. Their use of Live 2D is also greatly improved over previous games, with character reactions being fully animated and other animations feeling smooth and seamless. Every dialogue line will be voiced as well (though only 2 episodes are voiced at the moment). The sci-fi story is compelling, and full to the brim with references and jokes from the genre, as well as those signature PF moves. Also, pangos make an appearance (very important), and there is also a cute robot called Beep Boop.
With each new game Pixelfade successfully releases, it becomes easier to see how one day they will take everything they have learned and return to the Ace Academy story with a sequel that surpasses the first in depth, complexity and technological prowess. I'm happy to support these devs in their mission to make the best English-language VNs.
Steam User 8
It's shaping up nicely! I've been waiting desperately for this one for years. I was hoping it would full-release rather than early-access, but PixelFade has produced some of my favs, so I'll extend them some trust.
I like the characters. It's a solid line-up for a line-up focusing on three romanceables. Logical selections of traits were given to each. The reliable/stoic leader that needs inspiration to soften, the mysterious flirt who CLEARLY has more going on than she admits, and hides with overt affection, and the too-sweet-for-this-world, bubbly, sincere one. What's here is good and enjoyable. We'll see if it crosses the finish line.
What's available of the story and routes is engaging and entertaining. Exactly the type of sci-fi-rom-com tropes you want if you're browsing this kind of VN. I also really appreciate that letting the ladies stick up for themselves and respecting their boundaries are very real, meaningful moments for relationship building. That's wonderful to see.
The only real con (being mindful of early access) is that I'm not sure the live2D was worth it (I have no idea if that's what makes production so involve/delayed). Other than specific moments, the characters' ability to gesture and emote still comes off fairly wooden (literally, like shadow puppets), so it's not reaaaaally that much better than high-quality stills.
Steam User 7
A long while back, when Ethereal Enigma was still Pixelfade's latest title, I asked in their Patreon, "Can Pixelfade into space?" Director Dishu's reply was a solid "Maybe." Having finally gone through a full playthrough of this game, I can confidently say that Plxelfade can, in fact, into space.
As usual, the art is beautiful and colorful. The story is so much more involved this time, reaching a level of replayability not reached since Ace Academy. The voice work is superb. And the music of Eric Benaim (the intro theme featuring the lovely Liz Robinett) lives up to the high expectations set in his previous work.
I highly recommend this visual novel.
Steam User 7
This game is a lot closer to Crystalline in terms of immersion, and an upgrade from Ethereal Enigma.
The dialogue and most art is actually complete, but voice acting will be incrementally added over the next few months or so, so at the point of writing only the first chapter of seven is voiced.
Also, Kai best boi.
Update: Kai best poi. Chapter 2 is out now.
Steam User 8
I've never bought a visual novel so quickly. You can't go wrong with PixelFade. They have the perfect combination of world building, storytelling, feels, and humor.