He’s finally here! 
From the very first time I saw this handsome devil I wanted to play though his route!
There is a distinct lack of dark-skinned men in the otome world and he is just perfect!
The main story of Castle Break is thus: You are Celestia, a maiden who has lost her memory and is stuck inside a very dangerous castle. With the help of your love interest, can you escape the castle and find freedom and happiness?
Astaroth is a brooding sort. He is cryptic at the beginning, and tells not-quite lies, but not-quite truths either. And if you’ve played the other routes, you know why. He is the one responsible for Celestia’s imprisonment.
But with her memories wiped, she can only see Astaroth from a blank slate point of view. In that aspect, she is able to learn to love him, instead of being indoctrinated by her hate or even fall into a “stockholm syndrome” sort of romance. 
One of my all time favorite romantic stories is Beauty and the Beast, so I am perfectly fine with this narrative setup. 
You can get a sense of Astaroth’s apprehension towards Celestia losing her memories. On one hand, he seems happy with her wanting to get to know him better and speaking to him, but on the other, you sense his sadness at knowing what she was like before, and knowing that her affection may vanish the moment she learns the truth. This forlorn aspect to him is appealing as a reader and really makes you feel for his character.
Celestia does end up finding out the truth, and she’s as upset as you would expect. But after she calms down, she’s no longer interested in the fact that she was imprisoned. Her concern lies with why he felt the need to imprison her, and why he feels lonely.
Delving into Astaroth’s past reveals a tragic tale. He was the son of a demon and human, and lived happily in the earth realm until he was ripped away from his parents and taken to the underworld where they wanted him to train and be a powerful demon.
One day he had enough, and he let his true power overflow, destroying the lab he was in. That made him dangerous, and he was put into solitary confinement where a dark power took hold of his heart.
This dark power possesses him to this day. For each moment he spends loving Celestia and wanting to express that love, that darkness in his heart fights him and threatens his happiness. In the end, the final showdown is between that darkness and Astaroth.
Astaroth’s character is portrayed beautifully. Despite being the normally “quiet/brooding” archetype, he has a variety of emotions. You can really sense the moments when he lets his true self appear vs moments where he’s guarded. Celestia heals the scars on his soul, and that sort of healing love is one I always enjoy reading. I loved everything about this route, and I can’t find a single thing I didn’t like.
Rating: 
CGs:
Favorite Parts:
First of all, I apologize for the huge gallery. At the rate I screencapped this route, I honestly should have done a Let’s Play. 
So even if you don’t click through these, (and I don’t blame you!) I do recommend buying his route and seeing for yourself. If you would like me to do a Let’s Play for this, comment and let me know! 
You got me into Castle Break. I was so hesitant.
I loooved this. I even loved the MC (which is rare) she handles herself a little more adult and speaks her mind (while trying to think things through). I felt myself saying some of the options before they showed up lol. I liked that she was honest and strong willed even if she second guessed herself sometimes. In Roy’s route she threatens to rip out Levi’s throat.
Have you played any other routes? I recommend Roy and Jordan, they are interesting. Even Ronove’s was funny.
Astaroth was my favorite by far though, it was so sickeningly sweet I couldn’t contain myself.
So, thank you!
I played Roy’s, but I didn’t enjoy his as much because the constant… ellipsis… really annoyed… me… so the few good parts were washed away by my annoyance, haha.
Jordan’s made me laugh with the constant way he screwed you over whenever possible. I never ended up finishing his, though. Before I lost everything on my old site, I was doing a Let’s Play of his story. I lost motivation to finish it after that. I think I’ll go back to it now, though!
Astaroth is such a good character and yes, his story was so sweet <3 I still think of his story fondly, ahahaha
I do recommend finishing Jordan’s it’s funny-cute.
You’re right through about Astaroth. I can’t picture MC with anyone but him. The whole thing is adorable to me.
I get that you wanted to shake Roy with the whole talking issue. It made some things awkward, but I thought it was a sweet route. I mean, he was always loyal and sweet.
Lancelot was surprisingly sweet as well. Although I couldn’t with Astaroth at the end after reading his route <\3.
Noah's is the only one that made me somewhat sad for some reason. Even the ending was bittersweet to me.