YMMV / Astalon: Tears of the Earth

• Anticlimax Boss:
  • The Black Knight proves to be an extreme example of Villain Forgot to Level Grind following his fearsome introduction. While his first battle might catch the player off guard, he tends to become hopelessly outclassed in the following encounters, both in terms of raw power and techniques (the player will have gained several useful upgrades, while the changes to his moveset are fairly limited). To add insult to injury, it's possible to stop him from even attacking at all by having Kyuli wall jump out of his range every time he gets near her.
  • For a Superboss, Dullahan is quite underwhelming. It's a red, headswapped Rhaecus with two new attacks, neither of which is especially impressive or hard to counter, and which can only be damaged by hitting its head. Even worse, the game treats Dullahan as a miniboss, meaning that it keeps all the damage it took if you die fighting it.
• Awesome Music: Matt Kap's soundtrack is easily one of the game's strongest points.
  • "Threads of Fate," the theme that plays during the resting scenes, is a warm medieval-sounding track that does an excellent job of accentuating the bonds the protagonists share. The version on the Super Arrange Version album gives it a symphonic rock flavor.
  • Both of the themes that play in the Catacombs:
    • "Dark Serenity," the theme that plays in the first part of the area, is a very... well, darkly serene song that sets the stage well for what is likely to be the first secret area the player discovers.
    • On the other hand, "Arteries," which plays during the second part, is a blood-pumping track that wouldn't be out of place in a Mega Man (Classic) game.
  • "Bloodstained Glass," the Cathedral's theme, is a climactic-sounding theme befitting one of the game's most dangerous areas.
  • "Requital of the Fallen," the theme that plays during the final confrontation with the Black Knight, is the perfect track for a climactic showdown. The theme that plays during the rest of the final boss fight, "The Tower Awakens," is also a very good battle theme.
• Game-Breaker: Hidden in the Tower of Serpents are three Money Multipliers that cumulatively double the orbs you receive, up to a maximum of eight times. Making full use of these will rapidly result in your characters becoming monstrously overpowered. The "drawback" is that you take damage activating them, but even setting aside the fact that you'll have more than enough orbs to regenerate the healing candles after every death, the damage you'll take doing this becomes a pittance once you've bought enough health and defense upgrades.
• Goddamned Boss:
  • Gorgon Tauros alternates between attacks that make him vulnerable and attacks that do not. The attacks in the latter category are quite slow, with his shockwave attack lasting an entire 18 seconds before he opens himself up to damage again. Between the three characters he can be fought with, Algus and especially Arias may not always be able to hit him when he's vulnerable, while Kyuli has the slowest attacks of the trio and is horrible at getting rid of the bouncing red orbs he summons.
  • Gorgon Volantis becomes this in the second phase of the fight, where he takes the form of a giant, fleshy worm that flies back and forth from one end of the screen to the other. Volantis' attacks are easy to evade in this form, but you'll usually only be able to do a sliver of his health bar each time he crosses the screen (especially if you're using Kyuli, who's the best at dealing with his first phase), and after he goes offscreen, he'll wait about five seconds before attacking again. To make matters worse, one of his attacks only gives you a small, very risky window of opportunity to damage him, and another one doesn't give you any opportunity. If you've been neglecting your attack power, you're going to spend a long time fighting Volantis.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: Of the "reverse difficulty curve" variety. The game starts off difficult, but unless you deliberately limit the amount of upgrades you buy, it's easy to wind up becoming more powerful than you'll ever need to be, especially if you spend all your orbs on one character rather than spreading them around.
• Narm:
  • The tragedy of the Black Knight's Start of Darkness is somewhat undercut by the fact that his abusive father is named Malus. It gets even more cartoonish if you turn the more realistic alternate portraits on, which inexplicably changes him from a normal-looking man to a Gonk with a Gag Nose.
  • Resting after collecting all three of the gorgon eyes and gaining access to the final boss results in a scene where Algus reveals the details of his pact with Epimetheus to Arias and Kyuli. It's a very sober moment... which is then followed up by one of the scenes of Algus cooking his companions food. Nothing is changed to accommodate the nature of the previous scene, the characters just engage in the exact same goofy dialogue as usual as if nothing had happened.
  • The first part of the ending involves the heroes conversing while the Black Knight slowly crawls to the other end of the screen. If you reach a certain point in the dialogue before he reaches the point where he stops—which, unless you're a very slow reader, is likely to happen—then he seemingly just teleports there instead.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The Black Knight's backstory. He's born deformed to the extent of "looking more like beast than man" to a father who despised him to the point of loudly suggesting to his mother that he "put him out of his misery," he's taken by a gorgon cult to be sacrificed to the gorgons while his mother watches in horror and guilt, and the gorgons raise him to be their servant, molding him into a weapon who knows nothing but hatred.
  • Algus reminiscing on his adventures with Arias and Kyuli after Epimetheus takes his soul in the normal ending. Then there's the reprise of "Threads of Fate" during the end credits, which either accompanies or plays just after a shot of Arias and Kyuli sitting at his grave depending on whether you recruited either of the optional characters or not.