PrinceWatercress plays Astal - Part 5 of 5

It's time for the final battle with Jerado, and we'll have to overcome a slew of challenges in order to get to that point before it can happen.

First | Previous

The Plains of Destiny

You'll be dealing with Jerado's forces as you cross this long desert, but the main enemy you'll be taking on is the huge centipedes that move back and forth. Be sure its jaw doesn't touch you as you approach its body. You'll have to go back and forth with them in order to get past the first one, and the trick is doing that without either touching or getting crushed by the legs. Walking instead of dashing while you're under them works best here. When you have an out, for of it.

The second insect will stand in place and stomp their numerous feet. The ones that twitch are the ones that are going to hit the ground, so stand under one that doesn't, then dash to the nearest, non-moving foot. These are the easier of the two.

That centipede isn't going to have it, and it will chase after you. Run to the right, and when you reach the green jumping gem creatures, hide behind the rock in the background. A huge gem will collide into the ground, wiping not only the rock out so you don't get killed but also the worm that's chasing after you.

From here, take cover against the gems. Turns out, Geist has arrived, and he knows you're getting close. His gems are dark matter, and he'll toss them at you in an attempt to get rid of you once and for all. Hide behind the small rock formations that jut out of the ground to keep from getting hit. 

If you can get on top of the platform under the fruit in time, you'll be able to grab it in case you've taken damage from Geist's assault. When you make it to the end, Geist will disappear and you'll enter the next level.

Destiny Unfolds

DAT BOSS MUSIC

Astal finally meets Geist. Geist explains that all of the bosses were actually parts of Jerado's body. By destroying them, Astal only made Jerado stronger instead of destroying him. Now that Jerado is reborn, Geist can finally do away with Astal and help Jerado take over Quartilia.

Geist's dark matter blasts will take up one of the two halves of the screen. Watch where each shot goes, and stay away from that area.

When Geist snaps his fingers, he'll summon orbs.

The two orbs shoot out bolts of lightning between each other a few times before coming straight at you. They then return to Geist, who kicks them at you (which he does with the orbs if you can't get to him in time).

The triad of orbs that revolve in a circle shoot down a prism of light before returning to Geist, who will then kick them at you.

The four orbs shoot lightning straight down towards the platform a few times before returning to Geist.

When Geist appears at one of the two sides of the platform, run up to him and grab him to throw him. This is how you're going to damage him. If you can't reach him, go ahead and use your breath attack on him.

After two hits, Geist becomes infuriated. The platform will rise towards the sky and towards Jerado's fortress. The platform also starts rocking back and forth.

When Geist flies right above you, he does a kick that drives his foot straight towards the platform. If you can get to him in time, you can hit him with a mid-air smash attack if you can time it right.

When he appears in the background and snaps his fingers here, he'll send five orbs out that surround you in a semi-circle. You can run past them and straight towards Geist to do some damage, but you'd better be ready to smash and/or grab some of the orbs to keep from swapping hits!

When you beat Geist, he'll teleport to the castle.

In the following cutscene, Jerado destroys Geist after getting angry with his inability to destroy Astal. He then kidnaps the bird and tries to destroy Astal, but Astal fights back and frees the bird.

The Fight For The Future

Jerado's first attack is to send crystal dragons after you. Jump over them and press B to extend your hangtime just enough the mid-air smash attack.

Whenever Jerado throws a crystal towards you, it will land on the ground and spawn a tree. Grab it and throw it at Jerado when he's visible in the background to damage him. Wait for him to appear on the same third of the screen as you are, so you won't have to carry it and get hit by one of Jerado's many dragons. Sometimes, it will turn into a rock, which you can't pick up. You have to wait for the crystal to turn into a tree to attack him. If you can stay in the center and pick up the tree from there, hitting him with the trees will be very, very simple.

After two hits, he'll appear right in front of you and try to punch you. If you can move out of the way and grab his hand, you'll throw him to the side and do some more damage. You can also hit his fist with the mid-air smash, but you'll have to pretty crafty to do that. It's still worth it just to see the wince of pain in Jerado's face.

Once you beat the game, it's all over. The bird transforms into Leda (whodathunkit?), and Antowas congratulates Astal by handing the world over to him and Leda, and giving them the power of creation. Her last command: bring happiness to the world of Quartilia.

PrinceWatercress plays Astal - Part 4 of 5

Welcome to ice physics, zoomed-out cameras and the one time in one-player mode where you play as the bird.

First | Previous | End

Glacial Rift

This is the first level in which you'll face the jumping gem monsters one-on-one without the aid of a giant turtle that swims across water. Thankfully, they're not any harder than any of the other normal enemies that you've had to face throughout the game. If you blow on them with your breath attack, their bodies just spin around, leaving them stunned.

The avalanches of snow that fall every few seconds in parts of the level don't hurt you, but they freeze you in place temporarily. This can be a bad thing if there are enemies nearby. Interestingly, if any enemies get hit by the snow, they'll be frozen for a second or two before they shatter.

There are also icy floors, and yes, they do have ice physics.

The rock beetles will come at you whenever you're close to them. They're pretty fast, and you'll spend more time jumping over them than trying to destroy them (which is possible). If you pound the ground, however, it will get rid of 

The Crystal Palace

You'll meet green variations of the normal flying enemies and the gem soldiers from the very first level here, but they're not any different. The green variations of the normal flying enemies still divebomb towards you when you're in range like the red versions do, though.

The spikes hurt you when you touch them. You'll be able to get past them with the numerous platforms in this stage. Speaking of which, the light blue ones topple when you stand on them. Use their momentum to get to the next platform!

The huge collapsing platforms shortly after the beginning are really hard to cross, but if you know what you're doing and you can make it to the other side without having to deal with everything at the bottom and making your forward from down there (which isn't any harder), that's great.

In case you haven't noticed it already, the mosquito-like enemies dart down at you when you're under them. They have to be close enough to you for that to happen, though, so there is a gap in their vertical tracking abilities.

Your next obstacle are the large icicles that go up and down. Time your movements to get past each one, and watch out for those flying creatures with the huge hands. Believe it or not, if you jump up and hit the icicles, you can stop them for a few seconds, giving you time to cross.

Use the Yellow Gem near the end to get the bird to kick the icicles off the ceiling and into the lava, so you can use them as platforms.

Frostbite!

For this boss, you'll be playing as the bird. Astal will be frozen into a crystal, and a disgusting creature will hold him hostage in said crystal.

Your health bar will be on the bottom right instead of the bottom left, since you're playing as the bird. Take a minute to get used to the flying controls for the bird and get used to flying around, dashing and attacking. The bird has the same commands as Astal, even though you the divebomb you have for the dash attack actually hits instead of grabs. The bird has a multiple-hit combo that you can use simply by whacking the enemy multiple times. The bird isn't that bad of a fighter after all!

Once you deplete some energy off the boss's health once, the boss will finally start fighting back. He'll swing to the other side, and if you can catch up with him with that dash attack of yours and hit him in the eye, that'll be some more easy damage that you can tack on. Wait for the boss to hop backwards before hitting him for the first two hits.

After two hits, the boss will start spinning around like a tornado. Keep on the move and stay away from him, and he'll eventually stop spinning. When he does, whack him again. You can also hold Down-Left and Down-Right to crawl.

If sparkles come out of the boss, a few gems will eventually rain down from above. One of them will turn into a gem soldier that can easily be done away with.

Once you beat the boss, you'll free Astal. He'll figure out that the bird reminds him of Leda, then tells the bird not to follow him as he doesn't want anything to happen to the bird...yet the bird follows him anyway.

The cutscene shows that Astal can be emotional after all...

PrinceWatercress plays Astal - Part 3 of 5

The heat gets turned up on this adventure, both figuratively and literally! Not only do you have two bosses in this part, but you have one of the hardest stages in the game in the Sea of Clouds!

First | Previous | Next | End

Volcanic Valley

Blow on the pig enemies that are on fire so you can grab them. They'll be totally invincible to your attacks otherwise.

The fire dragons can easily be blown away.

It should be noted that the sounds the fire dragons make come straight from Panzer Dragoon. It's blatantly obvious, since the sound they make is the same one you hear when you get hit in the other game.

When the camera zooms out, you've reached the halfway point. Pound the ground for a star that will refill your entire power meter for the bird.

Midway into the level, you'll be dealing with fiery rocks spewing out of the volcano in the background. They cover a wide amount of space, but it's easy to get between two rocks. There's also a little nook in the ground you can hide halfway through this part. You'll eventually find a huge rock that you can pick up. Throw it, and Astal will instantly throw it into the background and plug up the volcano. The goal is at the end of this section.

Guardian of Fire

To beat this boss, you'll have to blow on the dragon to cool its body down. The head will separate and start blowing its fire breath in a spiral around its own face, but it's easy to avoid if you just go straight for the now-skeletal body and toss it into the ground. The head will relight its body up and become one whole dragon again after each hit. This spinning attack also gets faster the more you damage the boss.

The dragon will then fly into the foreground and come at you from there, breathing fire as it flies into the background. Keep an eye on which side of the screen its flies off to, as that's where it will re-appear when its attack pattern repeats.

After the third hit, the body dies and the head just goes crazy. Just use your breath attack on the head and it's all over. You can also make it easier on yourself and just use the yellow gem to sic the bird on it.

The boss also makes the same sounds as the Dark Dragon from Panzer Dragoon.

Sea of Clouds

This is probably one of the nastiest levels in the entire game. Even the invincibility cheat that the game has won't be able to send you back up to the platforms. If you fall into the pits, you're going down. It's instant death from there.

You'll start seeing some new enemies here, such as red and yellow variations of the blue flying enemies you've seen all game. These will stop and divebomb straight ahead, much like the bird's dash attack. You'll also see teal, mosquito-like flying enemies that can only be taken down with the breath attack or with the bird attack.

Using the Yellow Gem in certain spots will allow you to send the bird to a platform and have it beat the crap out of it and stop it from moving temporarily. Use this as an opportunity to get free passage onto one of the level's many moving pink crystal platforms that you'll be seeing. This can be a good thing, since the momentum of the platforms also affects the momentum of your jump. If they're moving forward, you will be pushed forward; if they're moving back, your jump will be pushed back quite a bit. Just bide your time and know when to make your move.

The Behemoth

Grab the boss's head when it rears its horns back and tries to attack you with them. It's pretty easy for all but the last hit. Just wait for it to jump over you at the beginning, then dash towards it and grab him when it rears its horns up to attack. You'll be doing this for the first four hits. You can wait for him to stop doing those last-ditch maneuvers it does and try to attack you before grabbing him, but it's easier to land the coup de grace with the bird. Once you beat him, he'll change into a dark orb and travel straight to Jerado.

PrinceWatercress plays Astal - Part 2 of 5

The difficulty heats up as we cross the nearby waters in our quest to rescue Leda. All the while, Jerado is watching...

First | Next | End

The Deep Forest

Love how both the water and the background cycle through the color spectrum.

Anyway, the water hurts you if you jump into it, but thankfully jumping over the pits isn't really that hard, especially since controlling your jump while bouncing off enemies is easy. Take it slow, as running has the potential to steer you into trouble.

The brown creature with the huge hand that flies around will try to grab the bird and kill it. Thankfully, you can hear it coming, and whacking it in midair will cause it to fly away immediately. If it keeps the bird for too long, however, you'll lose the bird...and a life!

You'll have to use some of the enemies here as stepping stones. To do that, simply jump on them.

The River Of Dreams

Jump on the giant turtle in the water (I'm guessing that's what it is), then pound the ground on it to get it going. Use it again whenever you need to reach things and get over obstacles that you won't able to jump over otherwise.

You'll see gem-shaped creatures jumping up and down on platforms. The turtle will eat these platforms automatically, and you can attack the gem creatures if you want.

The flowers will hurt you. Some of them can be jumped over, while others can be ducked under.

After a while, the turtle will be trying to lunge at a fish. There is a rhythm to how he lunges, and you'll need to recognize it as you will be sent flying into the air when his head returns. When you reach the end, the turtle will stop lunging...but he never gets the fish! Dammit!

The Forest Fiend

The boss here is a giant flower that you'll have to smash with your fists.

At the beginning of the battle, the flower spits out pods that turn into platforms that you can jump onto. Get one on, then whack the flower's head when it lowers itself. From this point, the seeds he spits will grow plants that spit two spores upward as an attack before dying. You can grab and toss the plants to get rid of them, and from there, whack the flower's head when it lowers.

After three hits, the flower will rise out of the ground and start moving around. It will keep creating those plants, but you can still wait for it to lower its head and whack its head in midair when it comes your way. Another easy boss when you know what to do, but using the bird to land the coup de grace makes it even easier at the end.

After you beat the flower, its head turns into a grey sphere and floats off. We finally find out what's going on with these grey spheres in the cutscene: they actually make Jerado even more powerful, and the more you look for Leda (who isn't there, according to our antagonist), the more powerful we unintentionally make him.

PrinceWatercress plays Astal - Part 1 of 5

This was an interesting game to me on the Saturn as a kid, but I never beat it legitimately until years later. Fun game, too, even if it's still a bit hard at points.

Next | End

The game takes place on a planet known as Quartilia, where everything is made from gems by the goddess Antowas, including our hero Astal and his female human friend Leda. An evil being known as Jerado created his own human, Geist, to kidnap Leda. Astal freed Leda, but Astal was banished to the moon by Antowas - who was awoken from her slumber - after he broke the bottom of the sea to free Leda, and was chained to it for all eternity. Jerado may have been banished from the world and defeated by Antowas, but Geist is trying to bring Jerado back. When Geist kidnaps Leda again, Astal hears Leda's cries for help and breaks free. He makes his way back to Quartilia and hunts her down.

The Journey Begins

You can already tell this is a good looking game. The level environments are not only pre-rendered, they're seemingly hand-drawn!

Your main attack (B) is your grab. When you grab an enemy, you can hold them with the B button and toss them behind you whenever you let go.

You have three fruits which act as your health. You can have up to five if you find a specific power-up. A red fruit refills one unit while a green one refills the whole shebang.

Your blow attack (Up+B) stuns enemies and changes them into gems. From there, you can defeat them. You can jump off the tops of their heads to stun them for a second if you need to.

Down+B lets you pound the ground with your fist. This lets you shake the ground and also stun enemies.

Pressing B in the air lets you smash things in mid-air. When you perform this attack, you'll stop falling as you perform it. This can be used to your advantage at times, as you'll see later in the game.

If you press B while running, you'll do a grab that has even longer range than if you're just standing.

To get rid of the trees blocking your path, just walk up to them and pick them up with B. With tree in hand, you can slowly amble forward and clear a whole line of foes.

The gem enemies that you see are pretty easy. Some of them leap out from both the foreground and background, but they're still not that hard.

Midway through the level, you'll come across a gold version of the enemies you've seen before as well as some of his gold henchmen. They've held a bird hostage in a cave. Get rid of the henchmen, then get rid of the captain (who just stands there and strikes every couple of seconds). When you finish these guys off, you'll free the bird...which follows you around, much to Astal's chagrin. 

This is where the purple bar comes into play. The more you fill it up, the more you can get the bird to do things with the gems. The blue gems allows the bird to search for power-ups, and can be activated with X. (You may get a 1-up sometimes, so try it out in certain areas.) The red gem allows for the bird to attack around the screen, and you can press Z to activate it. When this purple bar is glowing, it's completely filled. You can get energy from any enemy that has small, yellow flashing spheres of light surrounding it. (I shall refer to this purple energy meter as the "bird meter" to keep from confusing the heck out of everybody.) (You can also perform bird actions by selecting between them with L and R and pressing the A button to perform the action you want, though X, Y and Z are easier.)

If you have a friend and a second controller, you can play two-player simultaneous. The "1P" will change into a "2P" as soon as the other player presses Start. The bird can go in any direction and also strike at enemies with a variety of moves that is as wide as Astal's, too. Heck, the bird has dashing attacks and can also divebomb! The bird can also rest on Astal's shoulder and regain health from Astal. If the bird rests too long, the game reverts back to one-player mode, but the second player can still rejoin at anytime.

While you're in two-player mode, the bird has its own health meter. The health meters will act as a scale, and if they're not balanced, somebody has less health than the other. If the bird dies, you lose a life just like if Astal died, so be very careful.

There is a team attack that involves one of the bird's attack and Astal's breath, but it takes practice to time perfectly. If you pull it off right, the bird flies around furiously and takes out everything on screen.

There is one point in every level where you can pound the ground and cause a white sparkle to show up. Picking this up fills your power meter completely. 

The enemy carrying the jewel underneath has a red fruit, though this enemy can carry other things. The red fruit refills one hit. Later on, you'll find green fruit that refill all your health.

Near the end, you'll meet archers. Avoid the arrows and make it to the end. You'll also meet the default flying enemies as well as the flying creature carrying a gem under it (which can leave power-ups sometimes).

Into The Darkness

The pig enemies slowly amble back and forth. They're pretty easy as well. They jump back a bit and rear back before attack, but you can see this a mile away.

Some enemies will have lights rotating around them. If you defeat these enemies, you'll get power for the power meter.

Throughout the level, you'll see bats flying across the ceiling. They'll run across the screen like a crushing ceiling, so at some point you'll have to duck in a low area and let them pass and rise up before you can continue on.

Sometimes, as you make your way through a level, you'll get the yellow gem in the center to show up. When this happens, you can press Y and use it to perform a level-specific action, such as lighting a dark cave or attacking a boss. Here, you can use it temporarily clear all the bats from above your head. The bats do come back, though. It should be noted that the bats can take out other enemies.

There's a red fruit hidden behind the foreground. The sparkles from the fruit are a sort of clue.

The Evil Eye

We're now going to take on our first boss!

This one is a giant version of the bats that we saw in the last level. This one has a big yellow eye and wants us dead, sadly.

The boss health meter is in the upper-right corner, and it shows up in the form of a purple crystal. As you damage the boss, the crystal shrinks and changes color. When it starts flashing, he's nearly dead. Kill him to shatter the crystal.

Whenever you see the boss flying around, smash him. He'll fly around in the background before flying out into the battlefield. As you fight him, his bat minions will show up in the background, and after a while, they'll attack you. If you use the yellow gem here, the bird will help you take them out while you concentrate on the boss.

Stay on the move when the bats attack. You know this is about to happen when the background starts warping quite a bit. As long as you're running (double tap left or right on the Control Pad), you should be fine and their attempts to lock on to you will be useless.

If you send the bird to fetch an item here, you may get a 1-up, signified by a small glowing statuette of Astal that cycles through a color spectrum. It also refills your health, so go ahead and take satisfaction in that as well.

It takes three measly hits to take down the Evil Eye. After that, you'll take on his second form. He'll have no wings and he'll just bounce around the screen. Three more easy hits and it's done.

When you leave, Geist shows up behind you. He steals the life force of the boss you just beat and then teleports away. You'll then get a cutscene involving Astal being ticked off with the bird, then it's on to the next level.

Astal - The Longplay and OST

And now, the longplay.

Also, here's the unofficial soundtrack.

plasticallan plays Astal - Part 5 of 5

This section has what is quite possibly the best in the game.

The Plains of Destiny

You'll be dealing with Jerado's forces as you cross this long desert, but the main enemy you'll be taking on is the huge centipedes that move back and forth. You'll have to go back and forth with them in order to get past the first one, and the trick is doing that without either touching or getting crushed by the legs. Walking instead of dashing while you're under them works best here. When you have an out, run of it.

The second insect will stand in place and stomp their numerous feet. The ones that twitch are the ones that are going to hit the ground, so stand under one that doesn't, then dash to the nearest, non-moving foot. These are the easier of the two.

That centipede isn't going to have it, and it will chase after you. Run to the right, and when you reach the green jumping gem creatures, hide behind the rock in the background. A huge gem will collide into the ground, wiping not only the rock out so you don't get killed but also the worm that's chasing after you.

From here, take cover against the gems. Turns out, Geist has arrived, and he knows you're getting close. His gems are dark matter, and he'll toss them at you in an attempt to get rid of you once and for all. Hide behind the small rock formations that jut out of the ground to keep from getting hit. 

If you can get on top of the platform under the fruit in time, you'll be able to grab it in case you've taken damage from Geist's assault. When you make it to the end, Geist will disappear and you'll enter the next level.

Destiny Unfolds

DAT BOSS MUSIC

Astal finally meets Geist. Geist explains that all of the bosses were actually parts of Jerado's body. By destroying them, Astal only made Jerado stronger instead of destroying him. Now that Jerado is reborn, Geist can finally do away with Astal and help Jerado take over Quartilia.

Geist's dark matter blasts will take up one of the two halves of the screen. Watch where each shot goes, and stay away from that area.

When Geist snaps his fingers, he'll summon orbs.

The two orbs shoot out bolts of lightning between each other a few times before coming straight at you. They then return to Geist, who kicks them at you (which he does with the orbs if you can't get to him in time).

The triad of orbs that revolve in a circle shoot down a prism of light before returning to Geist, who will then kick them at you.

The four orbs shoot lightning straight down towards the platform a few times before returning to Geist.

When Geist appears at one of the two sides of the platform, run up to him and grab him to throw him. This is how you're going to damage him. If you can't reach him, go ahead and use your breath attack on him.

After two hits, Geist becomes infuriated. The platform will rise towards the sky and towards Jerado's fortress. The platform also starts rocking back and forth.

When Geist flies right above you, he does a kick that drives his foot straight towards the platform. If you can get to him in time, you can hit him with a mid-air smash attack if you can time it right.

When he appears in the background and snaps his fingers here, he'll send five orbs out that surround you in a semi-circle. You can run past them and straight towards Geist to do some damage, but you'd better be ready to smash and/or grab some of the orbs to keep from swapping hits!

When you beat Geist, he'll teleport to the castle.

In the following cutscene, Jerado destroys Geist after getting angry with his inability to destroy Astal. He then kidnaps the bird and tries to destroy Astal, but Astal fights back and frees the bird.

The Fight For The Future

Jerado's first attack is to send crystal dragons after you. Jump over them and press B to extend your hangtime just enough with the mid-air smash attack.

Whenever Jerado throws a crystal towards you, it will land on the ground and spawn a tree. Grab it and throw it at Jerado when he's visible in the background to damage him. Wait for him to appear on the same third of the screen as you are, so you won't have to carry it and get hit by one of Jerado's many dragons. Sometimes, it will turn into a rock, which you can't pick up. You have to wait for the crystal to turn into a tree to attack him. If you can stay in the center and pick up the tree from there, hitting him with the trees will be very, very simple.

After two hits, he'll appear right in front of you and try to punch you. If you can move out of the way and grab his hand, you'll throw him to the side and do some more damage. You can also hit his fist with the mid-air smash, but you'll have to pretty crafty to do that. It's still worth it just to see the wince of pain in Jerado's face.

Once you beat the game, it's all over. The bird transforms into Leda (whodathunkit?), and Antowas congratulates Astal by handing the world over to him and Leda, and giving them the power of creation. Her last command: bring happiness to the world of Quartilia.

plasticallan plays Astal - Part 4 of 5

I don't remember the fourth boss being this bad...

Glacial Rift

This is the first level in which you'll face the jumping gem monsters one-on-one without the aid of a giant turtle that swims across water. Thankfully, they're not any harder than any of the other normal enemies that you've had to face throughout the game.

The avalanches of snow that fall every few seconds in parts of the level don't hurt you, but they freeze you in place temporarily. This can be a bad thing if there are enemies nearby. Interestingly, if any enemies get hit by the snow, they'll be frozen for a second or two before they shatter.

The rock beetles will come at you whenever you're close to them. They're pretty fast, and you'll spend more time jumping over them than trying to destroy them (which is possible).

The Crystal Palace

You'll meet green variations of the normal flying enemies and the gem soldiers from the very first level here, but they're not any different. The green variations of the normal flying enemies still divebomb towards you when you're in range like the red versions do, though.

The spikes hurt you when you touch them. You'll be able to get past them with the numerous platforms in this stage. Speaking of which, the light blue ones topple when you stand on them. Use their momentum to get to the next platform!

The huge collapsing platforms shortly after the beginning are really hard to cross, but if you know what you're doing and you can make it to the other side without having to deal with everything at the bottom and making your forward from down there (which isn't any harder), that's great.

In case you haven't noticed it already, the mosquito-like enemies dart down at you when you're under them. They have to be close enough to you for that to happen, though, so there is a gap in their vertical tracking abilities.

Your next obstacle are the large icicles that go up and down. Time your movements to get past each one, and watch out for those flying creatures with the huge hands. 

Use the Yellow Gem near the end to get the bird to kick the icicles off the ceiling and into the lava, so you can use them as platforms.

Frostbite!

For this boss, you'll be playing as the bird. Astal will be frozen into a crystal, and a disgusting creature will hold him hostage in said crystal.

Your health bar will be on the bottom right instead of the bottom left, since you're playing as the bird. Take a minute to get used to the flying controls for the bird and get used to flying around, dashing and attacking. The bird has the same commands as Astal, even though the divebomb you have for the dash attack actually hits instead of grabs. The bird has a multiple-hit combo that you can use simply by whacking the enemy multiple times. The bird isn't that bad of a fighter after all!

Once you deplete some energy off the boss's health once, the boss will finally start fighting back. He'll swing to the other side, and if you can catch up with him with that dash attack of yours and hit him in the eye, that'll be some more easy damage that you can tack on.

After two hits, the boss will start spinning around like a tornado. Keep on the move and stay away from him, and he'll eventually stop spinning. When he does, whack him again.

If sparkles come out of the boss, a few gems will eventually rain down from above. One of them will turn into a gem soldier that can easily be done away with.

This was hilarious. Also, love the rage face at the continue screen.

Once you beat the boss, you'll free Astal. He'll figure out that the bird reminds him of Leda, then tells the bird not to follow him as he doesn't want anything to happen to it...yet the bird follows him anyway.

The cutscene shows that Astal can be emotional after all...

CGR Undertow reviews Astal

another review yay

plasticallan plays Astal - Part 3 of 5

There's so many blowing references in the first level, it's unreal. I think I almost laughed.

Volcanic Valley

Blow on the pig enemies that are on fire so you can grab them. They'll be totally invincible to your attacks otherwise.

The fire dragons can easily be blown away.

It should be noted that the sounds the fire dragons make come straight from Panzer Dragoon. It's blatantly obvious, since the sound they make is the same one you hear when you get hit in the other game.

Midway into the level, you'll be dealing with fiery rocks spewing out of the volcano in the background. They cover a wide amount of space, but it's easy to get between two rocks. There's also a little nook in the ground you can hide halfway through this part. You'll eventually find a huge rock that you can pick up. Throw it, and Astal will instantly throw it into the background and plug up the volcano. The goal is at the end of this section.

Guardian of Fire

To beat this boss, you'll have to blow on the dragon to cool its body down. The head will separate and start blowing its fire breath in a spiral around its own face, but it's easy to avoid if you just go straight for the now-skeletal body and toss it into the ground. The head will relight its body up and become one whole dragon again after each hit. This spinning attack also gets faster the more you damage the boss.

The dragon will then fly into the foreground and come at you from there, breathing fire as it flies into the background. Keep an eye on which side of the screen its flies off to, as that's where it will re-appear when its attack pattern repeats.

After the third hit, the body dies and the head just goes crazy. Just use yourbreath attack on the head and it's all over. You can also make it easier on yourself and just use the yellow gem to sic the bird on it.

The boss also makes the same sounds as the Dark Dragon from Panzer Dragoon.

Sea of Clouds

This is probably one of the nastiest levels in the entire game. Even the invincibility cheat that the game has won't be able to send you back up to the platforms. If you fall into the pits, you're going down. It's instant death from there.

You'll start seeing some new enemies here, such as red and yellow variations of the blue flying enemies you've seen all game. These will stop and divebomb straight ahead, much like the bird's dash attack. You'll also see teal, mosquito-like flying enemies that can only be taken down with the breath attack or with the bird attack.

Using the Yellow Gem in certain spots will allow you to send the bird to a platform and have it beat the crap out of it and stop it from moving temporarily. Use this as an opportunity to get free passage onto one of the level's many moving pink crystal platforms that you'll be seeing.

The Behemoth

Grab the boss's head when it rears its horns back and tries to attack you with them. It's pretty easy for all but the last hit. Just wait for it to jump over you at the beginning, then dash towards it and grab him when it rears its horns up to attack. You'll be doing this for the first four hits. You can wait for him to stop doing those last-ditch maneuvers it does and try to attack you before grabbing him, but it's easier to land the coup de grace with the bird. Once you beat him, he'll change into a dark orb and travel straight to Jerado.

plasticallan plays Astal - Part 2 of 5

Bah gawd, this game just gets more and more beautiful.

The Deep Forest

Love how both the water and the background cycle through the color spectrum.

Anyway, the water hurts you if you jump into it, but thankfully jumping over the pits isn't really that hard, especially since controlling your jump while bouncing off enemies is easy.

The brown creature with the huge hand that flies around will try to grab the bird and kill it. Thankfully, you can hear it coming, and whacking it in midair will cause it to fly away immediately.

The River Of Dreams

Jump on the giant turtle in the water (I'm guessing that's what it is), then pound the ground on it to get it going. Use it again whenever you need to reach things and get over obstacles that you won't able to jump over otherwise.

You'll see gem-shaped creatures jumping up and down on platforms. The turtle will eat these platforms automatically, and you can attack the gem creatures if you want.

The flowers will hurt you. Some of them can be jumped over, while others can be ducked under.

After a while, the turtle will be trying to lunge at a fish. There is a rhythm to how he lunges, and you'll need to recognize it as you will be sent flying into the air when his head returns. When you reach the end, the turtle will stop lunging...but he never gets the fish! Dammit!

The Forest Fiend

The boss here is a giant flower that you'll have to smash with your fists.

At the beginning of the battle, the flower spits out pods that turn into platforms that you can jump onto. Get one on, then whack the flower's head when it lowers itself. From this point, the seeds he spits will grow plants that spit two spores upward as an attack before dying. You can grab and toss the plants to get rid of them, and from there, whack the flower's head when it lowers.

After three hits, the flower will rise out of the ground and start moving around. It will keep creating those plants, but you can still wait for it to lower its head and whack its head in midair when it comes your way. Another easy boss when you know what to do, but using the bird to land the coup de grace makes it even easier at the end.

After you beat the flower, its head turns into a grey sphere and floats off. We finally find out what's going on with these grey spheres in the cutscene: they actually make Jerado even more powerful, and the more you look for Leda (who isn't there, according to our antagonist), the more powerful we unintentionally make him.

plasticallan plays Astal - Part 1 of 5

Before we begin, let's watch this. If there was ever a game besides NiGHTS that made me glad to have a Sega Saturn, this was it.

Oh, and here's the song you'll get if you play the game CD in a CD player and play track 2.

Alright, here is. First vid.

The game takes place on a planet known as Quartilia, where everything is made from gems by the goddess Antowas, including our hero Astal and his female human friend Leda. An evil being known as Jerado created his own human, Geist, to kidnap Leda. Astal freed Leda, but Astal was banished to the moon by Antowas - who was awoken from her slumber - after he broke the bottom of the sea to free Leda, and was chained to it for all eternity. Jerado may have been banished from the world and defeated by Antowas, but Geist is trying to bring Jerado back. When Geist kidnaps Leda again, Astal hears Leda's cries for help and breaks free. He makes his way back to Quartilia and hunts her down.

The Journey Begins

You can already tell this is a good looking game. The level environments are not only pre-rendered, they're seemingly hand-drawn!

Your main attack (B) is your grab. When you grab an enemy, you can hold them with the B button and toss them behind you whenever you let go.

You have three fruits which act as your health. You can have up to five if you find a specific power-up. A red fruit refills one unit while a green one refills the whole shebang.

Your blow attack (Up+B) stuns enemies and changes them into gems. From there, you can defeat them. You can also jump off the tops of their heads to stun them for a second if you need to.

Down+B lets you pound the ground with your fist. This lets you shake the ground and also stun enemies.

Pressing B in the air lets you smash things in mid-air. When you perform this attack, you'll stop falling as you perform it. This can be used to your advantage at times, as you'll see later in the game.

If you press B while running, you'll do a grab that has even longer range than if you're just standing.

To get rid of the trees blocking your path, just walk up to them and pick them up with B. With tree in hand, you can slowly amble forward and clear a whole line of foes.

The gem enemies that you see are pretty easy. Some of them leap out from both the foreground and background, but they're still not that hard.

Midway through the level, you'll come across a gold version of the enemies you've seen before as well as some of his gold henchmen. They've held a bird hostage in a cave. Get rid of the henchmen, then get rid of the captain (who just stands there and strikes every couple of seconds). When you finish these guys off, you'll free the bird...which follows you around, much to Astal's chagrin. 

This is where the purple bar comes into play. The more you fill it up, the more you can get the bird to do things with the gems. The blue gems allows the bird to search for power-ups. (You may get a 1-up sometimes, so try it out in certain areas.) The red gem allows for the bird to attack around the screen. When this purple bar is glowing, it's completely filled. You can get energy from any enemy that has small, yellow flashing spheres of light surrounding it. (I shall refer to this purple energy meter as the "bird meter" to keep from confusing the heck out of everybody.)

If you have a friend and a second controller, you can play two-player simultaneous. The "1P" will change into a "2P" as soon as the other player presses Start. The bird can go in any direction and also strike at enemies with a variety of moves that is as wide as Astal's, too. Heck, the bird has dashing attacks and can also divebomb! The bird can also rest on Astal's shoulder and regain health from Astal. If the bird rests too long, the game reverts back to one-player mode, but the second player can still rejoin at anytime.

While you're in two-player mode, the bird has its own health meter. The health meters will act as a scale, and if they're not balanced, somebody has less health than the other. If the bird dies, you lose a life just like if Astal died, so be very careful.

There is a team attack that involves one of the bird's attack and Astal's breath, but it takes practice to time perfectly. If you pull it off right, the bird flies around furiously and takes out everything on screen.

Near the end, you'll meet archers. Avoid the arrows and make it to the end. You'll also meet the default flying enemies as well as the flying creature carrying a gem under it (which can leave power-ups sometimes).

Into The Darkness

The pig enemies slowly amble back and forth. They're pretty easy as well. They jump back a bit and rear back before attack, but you can see this a mile away. Some of them 

Throughout the level, you'll see bats flying across the ceiling. They'll run across the screen like a crushing ceiling, so at some point you'll have to duck in a low area and let them pass and rise up before you can continue on.

There is one point in every level where you can pound the ground and cause a white sparkle to show up. Picking this up fills your bird meter completely.

Sometimes, as you make your way through a level, you'll get the yellow gem in the center to show up. When this happens, you can use it to perform a level-specific action, such as lighting a dark cave or attacking a boss. Here, you can use it temporarily clear all the bats from above your head. The bats do come back, though. It should be noted that the bats can take out other enemies.

There's a red fruit hidden behind the foreground. The sparkles from the fruit are a sort of clue.

The Evil Eye

We're now going to take on our first boss!

This one is a giant version of the bats that we saw in the last level. This one has a big yellow eye and wants us dead, sadly.

The boss health meter is in the upper-right corner, and it shows up in the form of a purple crystal. As you damage the boss, the crystal shrinks and changes color. When it starts flashing, he's nearly dead. Kill him to shatter the crystal.

Whenever you see the boss flying around, smash him. He'll fly around in the background before flying out into the battlefield. As you fight him, his bat minions will show up in the background, and after a while, they'll attack you. If you use the yellow gem here, the bird will help you take them out while you concentrate on the boss.

Stay on the move when the bats attack. You know this is about to happen when the background starts warping quite a bit. As long as you're running (double tap left or right on the Control Pad), you should be fine and their attempts to lock on to you will be useless.

If you send the bird to fetch an item here, you may get a 1-up, signified by a small glowing statuette of Astal that cycles through a color spectrum. It also refills your health, so go ahead and take satisfaction in that as well.

It takes three measly hits to take down the Evil Eye. After that, you'll take on his second form. He'll have no wings and he'll just bounce around the screen. Three more easy hits and it's done.

When you leave, Geist shows up behind you. He steals the life force of the boss you just beat and then teleports away. You'll then get a cutscene involving Astal being ticked off with the bird, then it's on to the next level.