Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles
An all new dice-deck-building roguelike, Astrea, has you chart a path through the ruins of a lost civilization as one of six brave Oracles. Using an ever-changing deck of dice and enchanted Sentinels, Purify waves of Corrupted foes and a decayed goddess to save the Star System.
• Fortify Your Astrarium – Choose among hundreds of different dice that suit your penchant; reliably safe, perfectly balanced, or powerfully risky
• Purify vs Corruption – Tactfully wield an innate risk vs reward system by pacifying enemies through Purification, or Corrupt yourself to unleash abilities that help tip the scales
• Uncover Modifying Star Blessings – Imbue your Oracle with unique passives yielding potent effects that changes up your fundamental tactics
• Over 20 Upgradeable Support Sentinels – Enchanted constructs that offer supportive dice rolls making them reliable companions in the heat of battle
• Choose from Six Brave Oracles – Each possessing their own unique dice sets, abilities, and playstyles
• Choose Your Path Wisely – Laden with bountiful boons to enhance your chances for success and encounters against waves of enemies that impede your progress, chart a course through the ruins of a lost civilization to the source of Corruption
• Battle Challenging Enemies & Terrifying Bosses – Formidable foes all have multiple unique modifiers, skills, and interactions requiring strategic use of all your abilities to scathe by
Long ago – when ancient ruins were once flourishing civilizations and their populace lived in idyllic bliss – a mystical star governed all. Loyal disciples, called Six-Sided Oracles, were blessed by their star, granting them the strength to seal away the gift of heavenly bodies within mystic relics.
All was perfect and harmonious. Until that one fateful day – The Crimson Dawn Cataclysm. A ferocious inferno sundered down from the sky, engulfing the entirety of the star system, crumbling the foundations of their society and corrupting the souls of the weak-willed. The disciples of the star were lost to the chaos – their creations scattered across a vast world of ruin. Could there still exist those who were capable of wielding their power?
Eons later, brave young scions awoke to a mysterious call beckoning them to the ruins of the ancient disaster. It is there they find the lost six-faced relics of legend and writings detailing the original Six-Sided Oracles, a vengeful deity, and a Corruption Plague. The new Six-Sided Oracles embark on a journey to save their star system and search for the secrets of their destructive history.
Game Discussion
Steam User 10
Cosmic art done right. Interesting gameplay with some depth or lots of depth depending on how are you playing the game. But the art is just so darn wholesome.
Steam User 7
This game is a refreshing take on Roguelite Deckbuilders which is at least worth a try for fans of the genre. Using a bag of dice instead of a deck of cards allows you to weigh not only your desired method of play and odds of drawing the tool you need when you need it, but also degree of risk tolerance. There are in general "safe" dice with low-level positive effects on all sides, "balanced" dice with moderate positive effects on four sides and negative effects on two, and "risky" dice with strong effects on two sides and negative effects on four—exceptions do occur, of course.
On the downside, there are far fewer random encounter possibilities than many of the other games in the genre, so each run can feel pretty samey, with major variations provided only by which of the 6 characters you play, which dice you collect, which blessings (overall/passive powerups) you get, and your chosen difficulty.
I believe the art is a strong selling point, although it is heavily weighted towards only blue and red tones which may turn some people off; the videos and images are a good representative sample of what you're getting yourself into.
Steam User 7
Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles is a cosmic dice-battler that leans deep into risk vs. reward gameplay – ★★★⯪☆
Boons:
✅ Unique dice-based mechanics.
Unlike many roguelikes that revolve around card draws, Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles employs customisable dice to represent actions that can be used manage purification and corruption, the main mechanic that governs progression through the game. It's a very interesting and fresh approach that has you constantly juggling corruption and cleansing in a risky, forward-thinking dance.
✅ Multiple playable characters with distinct identities.
Each playable character, known as Oracles, come with their own set dice, abilities, and combat styles. It's like having six unique classes, each having their own layers and approach to the core gameplay loop.
✅ Gorgeous visuals and art direction.
From its UI to its celestial themes, the game maintains a mystical, ethereal quality using blueish-purple colour palettes to represent purification and reddish-black colours to represent corruption.
✅ Atmospheric, ethereal soundtrack.
One of Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles underrated strengths is its soundtrack, which does an exceptional job of reinforcing the game’s cosmic tone.
Blights:
⚠️ The game desperately needs a combat log.
Late into a run there can be so many modifiers and passive abilities active that it becomes very difficult to keep track of what just happened and what will happen. This is especially so when playing Oracles with higher complexities. A lot of the time I found that I would suddenly do extra purification damage or for some reason I am dealt more corruption damage than I had calculated which is frustrating, especially when I have no idea why.
⚠️ Learning curve is steep and can be complex.
The dice mechanics, especially corruption vs. purification, aren’t immediately intuitive and require a bit of getting used to. This can also be exacerbated by the higher complexity Oracles that have several mechanics and specialisations, so it can feel overwhelming sometimes.
⚠️ Relatively short runs.
I wish the runs could be longer because it definitely feels like there could be one more "world" area that can be explored before reaching the final challenge.
Steam User 7
First off, I think Astrea has its charm! The idea of using a random deck of dice instead of cards with exchangeable faces with various effects is certainly novel. Also, the idea of healing and damaging based on who it is cast on is also very interesting. There are moments where you may want to take intentional damage to activate your abilities at low health.
The problem is the information overload. I think Astrea could use a better UX design for players to easily tell what each die face does. It's overly stylized. The icons don't really tell what it does immediately.
Passing that, you will need a serious time to analyze what you actually have in your deck. Because each die has 6 faces, you need to read what each of them does. That kind of number analysis can be quite exhausting after some time in the game, especially because the game is already using a stylized artwork.
If you can get past that, I'm pretty sure you'll have fun with the game, just like I did with my first run clear to the boss! Sadly, I will put this one on the shelf until I find a mod to fix the UX or if the game updates again.
Steam User 6
A lot of reading to make sure you understand exactly what's happening, but very fun. Fantastic to play after Slay the Spire
Steam User 5
Roguelike deckbuilder in which you collect dice, not cards. If you're a fan of Monster Train and Slay the Spire, you should enjoy this game.
PROS:
- Interesting mechanics of Corruption vs Purification with variety of synergies. You can use the Purification to heal yourself, or to damage enemy. Your choice!
- 6 clans ("Oracles"), each with completely different focus in your tactics and build.
- 20 Upgradeable Support Sentinels - you have two mechanical soldiers that you select on your way, creating additional fun level of deck planning.
- All dice can be modified via in-game events. You can create super-dice with awesome powers this way.
- Visuals are simple, hand-drawn, but rather meticulous and pleasant.
- Audio doesn't annoy: acceptable sound effects and nice music.
MEH:
- I didn't care for the lore and story. It's there in the background, but not very important.
CONS:
- This is not an actual con for me, but learning curve may be steep. First 1-3 clans are manageable, but the clans unlocked later require some serious planning and tactical ideas to have a chance to win.
GAMEPLAY 10/10
GRAPHICS 8/10
AUDIO 7/10
STORY 5/10
Steam User 5
If Slay the Spire hooked you, Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles is likely your next obsession. For everyone else, what’s on offer is a robust and imaginative dice-based deckbuilder, swapping out cards for six-sided tools of chance and strategy. The game leans into a unique mechanic built around the opposing forces of Corruption and Purification, pushing players to create momentum through clever chain reactions. There's a mountain of content—unlockable characters, modifiable dice, passive upgrades, and a steady stream of foes to overcome. However, the sheer number of possible setups can tilt things toward randomness more than some might prefer. Visually, it’s well-crafted, though the washed-out blues and deep reds don’t always make for the easiest viewing.