As promised, Astra Knights of Veda has officially launched today under the HYBE IM banner. The free-to-play fantasy anime mini-MMO boasts crossplay between the Steam, Android, and iOS platforms.
“ASTRA: Knights of Veda gives players a fresh take on classic beat ’em up and side-scrolling combat, having been worked on for over six years by developers FLINT,” the studio says. “Players can fight the forces of evil alone or raise the banners and gather up to three other knights to rally behind the cause in team-based combat to rid Planis of undead hordes and monstrous beasts, finally freeing it from under the rule of the tyrannical King Magnus.” We spy multiple heroes to pick up along the way, as well as what the company refers to as a “semi-auto gameplay function [that] enables players to gain EXP and collect rewards even when away from the screen, making every second count in the fight against King Magnus.”
Worth a warning here is that the gacha mechanics are apparently a sight to behold, at least if you believe the “mostly negative” Steam reviews. “You ain’t Genshin [Impact] and you will never be,” one reviewer snarked. Even some of the positive reviews that declare the game fun are still calling out the gacha, so put some caveat with that emptor.
HYBE says that it picked up “over one million pre-registrations in less than a week” when it opened registrations last month.
