14 DAY TRIAL // 
Hevelius, known as The Ancient Warden, goes into battle accompanied by two powerful sentinels, which can quickly tilt a battle in his favor by rolling their own dice and launching purification strikes. It gives players more options on this chance-driven battlefield and can lead to complex strategies and combos. It can also become a problem because I need to spend actions repairing them when enemies assault them.
This particular oracle is oriented toward defensive play, able to apply shields each turn. It creates space to absorb enemy strikes and re-roll dice to get more favorable results. And the game constantly asks me to choose between keeping my hero's health up and taking enough corruption to activate my more powerful virtues.
A combination of solid offensive dice and bad opponent rolls makes it easy to win the fight without losing a full-health heart. Back on the overland map, I choose to pick up more shards because I want to try and craft a little later on. A mysterious node gives me the option to look through a telescope for a permanent modifier. I have three more spaces to visit before a boss fight and I’m not sure I’m tactically ready for a big, tough battle.
Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles was developed by Little Leo Games, with publishing from Akupara Games. I played it on the PC using Steam. It is also designed for the Nintendo Switch, the Xbox Series X and S, and the previous platform from Microsoft. The title takes classic deck-building concepts but uses dice instead of cards to power its core gameplay.
The game takes place in a high-fantasy universe where the mystical powers of celestial bodies can be wielded by selected disciples. A massive cataclysm has corrupted the world and players can pick their hero before trying to save their world, one boss-dominated area at a time. There’s a lot of lore depth and all of it is reflected in the title’s mechanics. Purification and Corruption are the two sides locked in conflict and only by manipulating them can creatures be redeemed.
But the heroes don’t talk much while on their adventures. They have a limited set of interactions with a few allies and there are random events that will ask for a choice. But other than that, players will interact with the world using dice and special powers. The overall structure is that of a rogue-lite but unfortunately, there’s no beautiful overworld map, just a series of nodes to move between.
Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles uses a classic deck-building loop but with one big twist. Players enter battle but, instead of cards, they get dice, based on the hero they are playing and the choices they have made. Dice for both the players and his potential companions and all enemies are rolled at the start of a turn. Gamers can then decide how to use them to redeem enemies with minimal losses.
Purification will harm enemies and heal players; Corruption will do the opposite. There are also plenty of other keywords that come into play, featuring familiar ideas such as shielding, boosting, stealth, and more. Most of the time, enemy moves are clearly shown by their own dice, giving players the info required to carefully plan their turn.
Each oracle also has access to special abilities linked to its health bar, increasing battle complexity. Am I ready to use some Corruption on my own character to get access to a strong Purification double strike? Or is it better to simply heal an enemy and conserve HP, hoping to get better options next turn? Characters can re-roll dice or significantly change their effects. Taking risks sometimes pays off handsomely and sometimes leads to a lost heart just before a difficult boss fight.
Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles creates interesting situations and gives players the tools to develop and execute a variety of strategies. Experiment as much as possible for a few runs with each of the oracles and then find a tactical approach that works and focus on that. Even more depth is introduced with sentinels that act alongside the player, as well as ways to create powerful dice from gathered shards. In this universe, constellations and black holes also affect heroes and enemies.
Astraea has a lot of moving parts and, initially, it might seem that the game is overloaded with mechanics. But by the time I unlocked a few more heroes, I saw how everything fit into place and how much variety the title offered. Even normal battles can be tense, and the boss battles require careful analysis and a bit of luck. Playing Moonie, I thought the first one was all but impossible to cleanse but by my third playthrough with Cellarius beating the demon turtle had become routine.
Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles does a lot with a little in the presentation department. Both the player-controlled heroes and their enemies express a lot of personality and there are a lot of small details that make the entire universe feel alive. The dice might be small, but gamers can hover over keywords and values to get detailed information. The entire interface is equally easy to understand and use.
The soundtrack is very good, with an operatic element that emphasizes the cosmic nature of the battles and how important each player's action, as well as choice is. I didn’t feel the temptation to turn it down and replace it with my own music, which is rare for the genre. There’s no voice acting but the characters chirp when they communicate, which doesn’t add much to the atmosphere.
The Good
- Dice-driven deck building
- Combat system
- Solid presentation
The Bad
- Some difficulty spikes
- Limited rogue-lite innovation
- Some grinding required to unlock all heroes
Conclusion
Any combat encounter delivers interesting tactical situations, and the boss fights are suitably difficult. There’s innovation in the dice system and the Corruption and Purification mechanics but I feel the rogue-lite elements are a little classic. Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles has variety, and depth, and will give fans of this genre tens of hours of dice-driven fun.
Review key provided by the publisher.
