Ashen

Easily one of my favorite games of all time. It's beautiful, sounds amazing and the difficulty is just the right amount of tough. Paired with co-op, you're bound to have a wonderful time with a friend. Of course there's a couple things I don't like or wish were different but overall it's a 8/10 for me. Some of these reviews are complaining it's "not a real souls game" or something ridiculous like that and I'm glad. The souls community is one of the most toxic communities in gaming. Give the game a try and if you don't like the first 2 hours of it then refund. Easy. Enjoy the ride, enjoy the scenery, take on all the quests and be awed by inspiration.

Ashen is a quietly captivating entry in the Soulslike family, blending the punishing combat and exploration of FromSoftware’s formula with a minimalist art style and a refreshing emphasis on co-op companionship. While it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it refines the core experience into something uniquely meditative and subtly emotional.
Combat in Ashen is deliberate and tactical, emphasizing stamina management, timing, and positioning. Enemies hit hard, and your attacks feel weighty but fair. Unlike some Soulslikes, Ashen tends to keep things a bit slower and less frantic, encouraging players to read enemy patterns and strike with patience.
Weapon variety is decent, ranging from light spears and swords to heavy two-handed axes. Each weapon has unique movesets and attack speeds, and the dodge-roll mechanic is reliable, making evasion rewarding. The absence of shields or heavy armor choices nudges players toward a more mobile and reactive playstyle.
Where Ashen truly distinguishes itself is in its open-world design. The landscapes are vast, sprawling, and marked by muted earth tones and stylized, cel-shaded visuals that feel both timeless and painterly. There’s a quiet melancholy to the world, a place where ruins stand as silent witnesses to forgotten civilizations.
Exploration is non-linear, with hidden caves, ruins, and NPC encounters scattered throughout the environment. The game’s minimalist HUD and narrative style encourage players to interpret the world on their own terms.
A standout feature of Ashen is its emphasis on companionship. NPCs you meet can join your journey as AI-controlled allies, assisting in combat and exploration. Additionally, the game supports seamless online co-op, where players can summon friends or strangers to help tackle tougher challenges.
This sense of shared struggle creates a rare and meaningful social dynamic in a genre often associated with isolation. Moments of silent cooperation add warmth to an otherwise stark and desolate world.
The story is deliberately vague, revealed through environmental storytelling, brief NPC dialogue, and item descriptions. Themes of survival, legacy, and connection run quietly beneath the surface. The game trusts players to piece together its lore without overt exposition, which may frustrate some but rewards careful attention and exploration.
Ashen offers a distinctive take on the Soulslike formula—one that replaces gothic horror with open skies, and loneliness with companionship. It’s a thoughtful, atmospheric journey that’s as much about the people you meet as the enemies you defeat. While some may find its combat less deep or its story too sparse, those drawn to quiet exploration and subtle emotional beats will find a hauntingly beautiful experience.
Pros:
-Unique cel-shaded art style with stunning environments
-Seamless co-op and AI companion system enrich gameplay
-Balanced, tactical combat rewarding patience
-Open-world design encourages exploration
-Minimalist storytelling adds mystery and depth
Cons:
-Combat can feel slower or less varied than other Soulslikes
-Sparse narrative may leave some wanting more
-Some technical hiccups and occasional camera issues
-Limited weapon and armor variety
Ashen is a Soulslike for those who prefer companionship over solitude and open horizons over claustrophobic castles. A quiet, beautiful, and often moving adventure worth experiencing.
Rating: 7/10

I don't think this game deserves mixed. Def not overwhelmingly positive but it should be positive. It takes a while to get the hang of and the tutorial is kinda terrible but its actually great after that.

Got the game on sale for $12. This a souls like with firewatch animation style. This is the first souls like that I have played and I will 100% recommend this game. The story line was good, the pacing was pretty good. At the start of the game you dont get much scoria (money), by the end it is just thrown at you so upgrading really happens in the later half of the game. All the bosses were well scaled and for my first souls like it was achievable, the last boss however was very difficult but I suppose it is the last boss. 10/10 game

Ashen looks like a dark souls type of game.
Reality is slightly different. The maniability is close. But game design and art direction are not a from software game.
Devs removed complex stats or hidden mechanics. Quests are simple and straight forward. Some people here are complaining about this. Probably because they think everything has to be painful and super challenging.
And I think this is why ashen is great. Not looking like a dark fantasy we have seen 400 times. Simplified build and combats. The game can be finished in 20h without rushing. The coop is great and very easy to access. I have done the whole game like this and we enjoyed a lot.
To sum it up, it is a very good game when you have a dark souls overdose or to make discover the genre to someone with a nice difficulty curve without frightening them.
It is an excellent choice during sales.

I will start this review by stating the most important piece of information you need to know before buying this game. Ashen is a great co-op soulslike that rewards exploration, skill expression and different playstyles. Albeit, the difference is not vast in terms of character building but there are for sure options for different kinds of players.
So this game is not very long and I think to some this could be a negative but imo I think this is a great pro in it because it encourages more replay-ability and there's a value there if you've played the game you will know what I mean. So there's room for experimentation and it isn't too punishing if you want to try different playstyles before committing to one, but as with all soulslikes you will need to commit to a weapon and armor if you want to have a chance at the late game.
The exploration is really nice and rewarding with the different landscapes and the amount of hidden loot and platforming you need to do to collect everything is actually staggering but in an amazing way because it always seems like there's a corner you didn't look around or some hidden platform that you need to notice let a lone figure out how to reach this platform and then return from it to where you were before.
The boss fights are not that plentiful but the ones that are present are absolutely memorable and contain both high mechanical impact as well as story impacts. Speaking of which, the story is really easy to follow which is a breath of fresh air to be able to follow a story from start to finish in a soulslike game and it is kind of generic and for sure a case can be made that it's heavily inspired by darksouls but I would say it's distinct enough to be borrowing some elements but at the same time doing it's own thing.
Finally the co-op is kind of dodgy at time but with almost 25 hours in the game, it worked just fine with me and my friend and we were able to play through the entire game together, apart from one slight hitch where I killed a boss when he died to and so we couldn't do the boss fight again because there's no single instance of one player or the other so I had to wait for my friend to kill the boss to be on the same quest step together. So just watch out in instances like this.
I do recommend this game for someone who's looking for an entry level soulslike even alone, especially if you have someone to play with through this game. And for the price that this game is at and the effort the devs put into it, I really do think this game is a steal and should be at least considered by most people if not outright recommended to give it a try for how much it's worth the asking price. Doubly so if it's on sale which it is on the regular.

I have a lot more hours in this game than my profile shows as I got the game when it released on Epic games, and after over 6 years I can still say Ashen is my favourite game of all time. The atmosphere of the game is incredible, its beautiful art direction lends a minimalist aesthetic to the game which makes it's environments all the more enrapturing, and the sombre music that plays alongside does so much to invest you in the mood of the game. I still remember entering the ruined city of Lathyrus for the first time and being left speechless by its majesty. The world of Ashen is one which I got so in to that my only criticism is that the game doesn't elaborate on the lore more, I wanted to know more about the Listeners, more about Lathyrus and it's downfall, just more about everything.
The gameplay loop is one I never got bored of, the combat is solid and feels satisfying, the progression is simple but intuitive, enemies are challenging but learnable, and while the game is also amazing to play solo, I do recommend playing with a friend. Despite being very much engaging, I always felt playing Ashen was also strangely comforting and relaxing. Exploring new areas and getting deeper into a dungeon never got old for me, especially when I first played as it was common to get paired with random people and it was almost always a great experience trying to navigate to and beating a boss together.
I can't entirely convey why this game is so incredible for me, it just kind of is, and I can't recommend it enough.