Astellia Royal’s Steam Launch Goes Poorly


Everyone hates it and a lot of people can’t even play.

Astellia Royal has officially hit Steam and everyone hates it. Well most people hate it. The free to play relaunch for the buy to play game currently sits at a 33% mostly negative rating from 240 reviews. Why? Well a lot of people simply can’t get into the game. I took the time to dump the negative reviews and a fair number of people are referencing an “illegal program” error preventing them from logging in. It appears that certain devices are triggering the game’s anti-cheat.

Astellia Royal releases as the previous buy to play version is still running, although languishing in increasing irrelevance as the Steam population dips further and further. The free-to-play version is functionally similar to its buy-to-play predecessor only with exactly the kind of pay-to-win mechanics, shoddy quality (as seen by the anti-cheat), and anti-consumer practices you’d expect from a low tier publisher like Way2bit.