Feels very smooth to play, if a little janky at times, and the story and characters work very well to get you invested. It doesn’t break any new ground, but I still think the main concept was very well explored and tackled here. The combat might not add much to the experience but it kept me focused and it just felt cool to slash at enemies as I zoom by. The big boss battles didn’t hit as hard as I thought they would but they were always a highlight, and thankfully flowed very well for me. The trick is to not hesitate, because the timing can be quite unforgiving and the camera a bit janky. Definitely recommended.

A fun game with a unique art style.
This is my first dabble into a game so heavily focused on the flow of movement and I found it to be a nice change of pace from my usual games.

I did find the controls and camera to be a bit too loose and frustrating at times, but my main gripe was that I just didn't find the story gripping or memorable.

Regardless, it was a nice refreshing change up, but one that won't stick with me

6/10

My God This Game Never Shuts Da Hell Up!!!

An absolutely gorgeous looking feast for the eyes, with the camera panning to showcase some truly wondrous vistas. I'm not entirely surprised this thing is beautiful, as Hyper Light Drifter somehow had great looking vistas in pixel art. This team just makes games that look awesome.

What is a surprise is how fucking wordy this game is, as Hyper Light Drifter has NO words. Maybe they felt they needed to compensate by writing three million words, but if you like a ton of boring lore in a go-nowhere story, they have covered their bases!! Also if you want my professional opinion: shut the voices OFF. the voice acting isn't bad, it's just completely inappropriate in a game like this. I think a made-up language like what's in Gravity Rush or Shadow of the Colossus would be much more fitting, and maybe have Rei not QUIP ALL THE TIME and we can make it work. But this is a way too verbose game that tells so much story visually that you have to wonder if this was just them capitulating to someone. That someone barged into the development studio with a AAA game and said, "See, the protagonist comments on everything, you need this in your game."

Also combat mechanics. I have given up my battle against combat mechanics. I am going to have to interrupt my platforming to press square 4 times in front of a generic monster for the rest of my life.

This game is so enjoyable though. I love the boss fights, I love the flow of the game, I cannot believe a smaller indie studio could make something that feels so good to play. I've seen people complaining about the price tag (40 bucks) but this game looks like it was a massive pain in the ass to program so if they want to charge that much for their work they fucking should.

I feel so conflicted with this game. Fundamentally the core skating gameplay (traversal + boss fights) felt really good and was what kept me playing. However, a lot of other aspects of the game didn't quite hit for me. Exploration was cumbersome and difficult at times, I didn't care that much about the main or side stories, most of the characters are pretty forgettable. Lots of the art is very pretty and the overall style is cool, but the environments were all a bit samey. Glad I played, but I was also pretty done when I rolled credits after 5 hours.

i was genuinely sad when there was no more game left to play. i finished and immediately went back just to tool around because moving around in this game is SO FUN. i would finish challenges and say, out loud, "that was fun", like a simp.

part of it is that it's super legible. you aren't left guessing what you're supposed to do, moving fast is clearly the best option and poking around the shrubbery is obviously pointless. jump points and grind rails are always clear, and the hardest thing is occasionally finding a grapple point with your eyes while you're speeding along (and, ok, fine the boss fights can be a bit... finnicky) (however the difficulty settings are beautiful and reasonable and perfect in that i was able to finish this game without feeling too stressed, but sufficiently challenged)

another part is that the level design is super cool. it takes medium advantage of its setting with a fair number of "impossible" vertical rises and perspective/gravity shifts, but mostly: the colors! the glorious colors!

i actually found the writing super overwrought and while I liked the voice actress I ended up turning the voices off because it just kept tripping over itself. way too invested in its own lore when i would have preferred a Souls-ian lack of exposition. however thats such a minor criticism when its just such a joy to move in this game.

Solar Ash - Conheça a ti mesmo e quebre o ciclo
Solar Ash foi um jogo que eu já tinha interesse devido toda a arte e direção, o uso das cores e design geral, mas eu não esperava uma gameplay tão crocante.
É fácil de se acostumar a continuamente apertar o gatilho pra dar boost na Rei e ganhar uma boa velocidade mesmo que por um curto período de tempo, dar uns 3 ou 4 tapas com o ataque normal ou usar o gancho pra finalizar. Além disso, toda a ideia do jogo se resume a contextualizar uma seção de time attack, seja nas horas de destruir os pontos de anomalia e despertar os Remanescentes ou as lutas contra chefões, você tá contra o tempo e precisa usar e abusar das mecânicas, um vacilo e tu volta do zero a seção.
Fora tudo isso, existem coletaveis, subquests (3 pra ser exato) e roupas pra liberar que melhora algum atributo, tudo contribui pra que você gaste mais do que 3hrs.
Por fim, o texto até que surpreende, quem é o Eco não é surpresa pra ninguém desde o início, agora o que são os Remanescentes e como que a Eco a Rei tem essa conexão é fantástico.
O jogo cai em vícios de entrar em um loop de mostrar cutscenes de forma repetida, e tu só ignora, salvo os monólogos entre a Rei e a Eco.
São 6 fases distintas com seus obstáculos e mecânicas que mantém fresco a experiência, e as batalhas contea chefões são bem desafiadoras e instigantes principalmente com uma trilha sonora que fica lá no canto dela até concluir o build-up e se fazer presente nos momentos mais icônicos ou nas conclusões das lutas mais desesperadoras.
É claro que isso é baseado na minha experiência no difícil, tem o fácil, normal, e hardcore.
Solar Ash ainda trata temas sobre aceitar a morte e esquecer o passado, esperando que assim como a Rei, o jogador quebre o ciclo e siga em frente.
"O luto por seus sacrifícios é egoísta e diminui o objetivo de sua luta. O que deve ser feito é acreditar neles, na vida ou na morte.

A small cool indie adventure platformer with an unique setting and touch of existential dread. While the story, characters and ending are all okay, the giant and imposing platforming bosses which demand precision is the real hook. Another thing I like is the various spherical levels and how they play around with gravity which is nice but does make levels harder to design vertically. One could definitely see the effort and heart put into this game with its creative risks.

Sadly, I did not have fun with its simple movement system despite the potential challenge balanced around it. Without more advanced movement techniques such as air dash, long jump or anything to increase speed or height, the game depends so much on rails and grapple points for traversal which feel very passive. The only options are skating (sprint) or boosting (dash) that makes traversal not really interesting and more of a chore throughout my experience. Granted the physics and movement does feel responsive and weighty enough. As such I feel this is more of an adventure game with a light platforming combat elements.

The combat system is very light with auto aiming the closest enemies and the enemies are simple yet annoying enough. The real challenge comes from the timed platforming segments and bosses which can be fun but has two major problems. First, it does not have a quick restart option which can make failure unnecessarily tedious specially when falling on high places. When tackling a segment, not all points are revealed immediately to plan a route, so trial-and-error is expected but feels bad without that quick restart option. Second, the camera and spherical levels make it hard to make correct jumps with unstable depth perception. The way camera snaps to the next point is also an issue since it can ruin momentum. This would be easily solved if every or the next few points are revealed so that players can plan their camera movement.

While the bosses is an highlight of the game, it is also one of its biggest problems because of the prior issue being so tall or high and with so many hidden points. Waiting for the bosses to reveal their grapple point also adds to the tedium since they only do one specific animation which does not require much thought. Due to the circular bodies of the bosses, the edge of their platforms can be deceptive which results in a falling down. With how fast the player needs to be in these segments, the camera can have a hard time following and showing where the next points are. All these issues just make bosses feel inconsistent and tedious which is the reason I do not want to replay the game at the hardest difficulty.

As a beginner platformer, I think this game's challenge really works. I still do recommend this game only on a sale though

On paper, this had everything it needed to be a breezy time carried by its gorgeous art design, smooth skating mechanics and a fairly contained and manageable scope. It can be fun to quickly go from place to place and play around with gravity whenever it comes up, but it's held back by unnecessary creative decisions. The annoying/confused voice direction doesn't keep much interest over a played-out narrative, and the general lack of variety/mood escalation really drag it down.

There's slight variety as far as the size and shape of the not-Colossi at the end of each zone, but the approach and method in fighting them never changes between hitting the little needles on their backs. It's great for conveying the scope in conjunction with the art design, but only does so much to remain interesting when repeated six times. The music also fails to convey a distinct mood for each one; the game's soundtrack is pretty soothing synthwave for a lot of it that fits the vibe and gets slightly more intense at a boss but lacks emotional tone to make any key moments stand out. The game even denies you the satisfaction of toppling a boss by instantly blasting you into the mind dimension every time one is defeated. Doing this wouldn't interfere with the theoretically somber tone, as Shadow of the Colossus forced you to see the weight of your final strike as each beast fell; Solar Ash feels like it just wants to move on.

There are some good ideas I'd hope to see Sonic pick up in the future, a particularly good one being using the colored plants to open doors and rail-lines before time runs out or managing the platforms around radiation pools to avoid dying from too much exposure, but even with its pretty environments there's not much to break up the gameplay formula being repeated six and a half times over.

Lastly there's the storytelling. For some reason even though the art direction would suggest the world's design itself can carry the narrative like the Ori duology, there's pretty constant chatter from the main character Rei, who is directed to sound angrier and more resigned than desperate as the narrative wants her to seem. Her relation to Cyd was adequately done if a bit detached, but the side characters you run into or hear logs from feel like they were from a different game entirely. There's a quirky, almost cartoony way of speaking that feels at odds with this game stylistically in a way that seems uncanny. Characters like the captain and his various crews with their acting wouldn't be out of place in a kids network comedy show.

I was thinking of ways to convey a lot of the game's story ideas and other indie games already showed me better ways of accomplishing each element of its narrative delivery. If the game was more like Furi, where your protagonist's only verb of communication was their core gameplay (in that case, combat, in this case, moving) in contrast with everyone around them, that would've conveyed a more thorough emotional tone. I dogged on Neon White for its writing, but it was at least wholly separated from its slick game feel and did actually convey interesting storytelling through character-based stages while Rei's unnecessary chirping is in conjunction with playing. There are also audio logs, which felt much more interesting in a game like Outer Wilds because they were slowly unraveling a vast mystery with a lot of turns which worked alongside what the main character was doing in slowly exploring a galaxy. Here, on top of the tonal issue you can't even listen to them while running despite them being baked into the world, which feels like an oversight for the focus on constant flow.

Solar Ash had plenty of potential to convey a strong feeling and a generally swift game feel that carries it through its brief runtime, but it just came off as distracting and at odds with itself. I wish it embraced its strong stylistic elements and speed more than it does.

I played on KB&M and I think it was a mistake. The camera is really awkward and boss fights are a little hard to manage. Anyway, this game is pretty solid. It's quite short. It's essentially Mario Galaxy mixed with Jet Set Radio. I enjoyed playing with the gravitational pull of locations.

The story is ehh, ok, I guess? It all just boils down to it was all in le head (not exactly, but still) which is kind of getting tiring. It's pretentious and unenjoyable that games give you characters and expect you to care about them out of the blue.

I think the art style is gorgeous and enjoyed my time looking at the beautiful vistas of the game. That being said though, it's a very simplistic art style yet the game doesn't run as well as it should with dips in specific areas and inconsistency.

Solar ash is a weird one to describe, it's a bunch of genres into one, but for the most part it provides you with a the felling of freedom while jumping around it's gorgeous worlds, for me it's like you picking up a 3d platformer, merging it with a game like the pathless or journey and finish it up with some shadow of the colossus and then you have this game.

As a fan of 3d platformers this game is a blast, just skating around, dashing, waving , grappling hooking into points to defeat enemy's is a lot of fun, sure the game isn't precise, but that's alright because the game isn't punishing either, quite the opposite really it respects the player with a clever checkpoint and retry system that incentivises you to go as fast as you can and to not be afraid to fail.

Overall a great experience, even though the narrative bits went a little over my head, those were just a little counterpoint to the mechanical prowess that Solar Ash provides.

After completing it: Yeah, this is an all-time favorite.

Feels like a grab-bag of games I really love: Shadow of the Colossus, JSRF, Sonic Adventure 2, Prince of Persia Sands of Time (no joke), and Outer Wilds. Surprisingly, its highs are as high and sometimes moreso than those games. However, it does falls a little short of Sonic Adventure 2, but you can't ding a painting because it isn't the Mona Lisa.

Momentum is just such a fun thing to experience in video games, and skating around such beautifully varied environments is basically just asking me to give your game a near 5 stars. I was consistently just so overjoyed with the new ways they found to create challenges for the mechanics, as skating, grinding, climbing and jumping are all you do in this game. There is NEVER any stupid ass gimmick to detract from what is such a solid foundation. There is one section that involves grappling and grinding to get to a ship in the sky and my god, it is so fun. There are so many moments throughout this game that I am going to think back on and go; "Damn, that was really fucking fun!" Which, to me, is the litmus test for a good game.

The sheer fantastic delight on display here reminds me of playing Spyro the Dragon as a kid, interestingly enough. The sheer amount of color and whimsy is such a visual treat, and make no mistake, this game is an artistic triumph. The fact this thing was sent out to die on the Epic Games Store is an Art Crime because no one fucking played it because of that. I have nothing but respect for how difficult this game looks like it was to make. No game is easy to make, but this game in particular is so well-made and functions so tight that I'm stunned by how SHORT the credits were, how SMALL this team was for how ambitious this game is.

One thing that struck me was that I 100% completed it my first run through. That isn't me saying that I have the game mastered due to my Gamer Instinct, that is more a testament to really good level design and FOCUSED design that meant I always knew what I was looking for, where to find it, and how to get to it. By keeping the systems so simple, there was never an overwhelming amount of shit to look for, it always came naturally. Also the amount of times I would just explore random stuff that had no benefit proves a truth that Super Mario 64 got and no one else did: gamers will explore for its own sake if exploring is fun. If playing the game and moving around the game world is fun, I don't care if I find something useful.

The boss fights are also really something special. The game is obviously drawing a lot from SoTC, which it makes no secret of, but the way you interact with the bosses here is much different, it gives the game a very one of a kind playstyle. You skate around the bosses, timing jumps and hits almost like a rhythm game, with each variation becoming more challenging and requiring more precise timing. I don't think any of the fights can match Shadow of the Colossus's finest moments, HeartMachine does a really great job giving Solar Ash's bosses an identity all their own.

That identity is why it is such a bummer that it is trying to remind you SO MUCH of Shadow of the Colossus. It feels like a very insecure game in that regard, that it doesn't think it can stand on its own so it needs to evoke SoTC in almost every regard. The ALMOST here being that SoTC was a very quiet game, that had very little voice acting, and let its gorgeous visuals do a lot of the talking.

Solar Ash almost has this, but for some GODFORSAKEN reason they have elected to have Rei not SHUT UP EVER. I find the voice acting completely out-of-place too: a made-up language would be fine, but having a very graceful and divine looking being like Rei speak like she is ringing me up at the record store is just a total mismatch. Turn the voices off if you want to be able to get into the alien-nature of this world, as the writer's are trying to sabotage it with every fucking quip. There is so much writing in this game, and the writers were not in their bag for much of it. The lore is not well-explained, over-written and too dense to be interesting, the whole "protagonist is actually doing something bad" angle is so foreshadowed that it actually felt like a joke at a certain point. The game was inspired by SoTC, of course the protagonist is doing something bad. I would be lying if I said that some of this didn't actually work though. I started to grow fond of Rei and CYD, the twist was actually fairly well done and the final fight has some good groundwork laid for it narratively that I'm not opposed to its rather hokey nature. I have no idea who the writers are, and they ARE hacks, but they're at least creative hacks.

I would love for HeartMachine to make another game like this, as this gameplay loop is something I am absolutely crazy about, I just want them to be more confident in their game, and not feel this aching need to remind me of a completely different title. Solar Ash is a beautifully made game and it IS one-of-a-kind. If only people actually knew it came out!!

é o jogo do sonic q nunca existiu

Como alguém que não gostou muito da direção de Hyperlight Drifter, eu fiquei muito satisfeita com a evolução da equipe em Solar Ash. Os visuais continuam impecáveis, mas dessa vez compõem um universo surpreendentemente bem estabelecido e interessante, cuja profundidade você descobre através da sua própria exploração e teorização. tem diversos diários e textos que nem sequer contam como coletáveis, servindo apenas para complementar o world building do jogo.

Na mesma linha, Solar Ash também foi um passo à frente pra equipe na área de jogabilidade. A movimentação é muito satisfatória e o level design acomoda perfeitamente a velocidade e fluidez da Rei, sem se tornar tão técnico e preciso a ponto de prejudicar a vibe contemplativa dos cenários. Ainda assim, eu senti falta de partes mais difíceis no jogo, principalmente nas boss fights. Os designs dos Remnants são incríveis e as lutas são visualmente legais, mas a dificuldade pífia desceu muito o nivel de tensão, principalmente no boss final. Acho que um puzzlezinho pra de fato SUBIR no bicho faria uma diferença ENORME.

Esse jogo tem plot!! No começo eu fiquei preocupada com a adição de diálogo nesse ambiente ambíguo e interpretativo; e realmente, tem umas falas bem ruinszinhas (principalmente no final), mas num geral eu fiquei muito positivamente surpresa com o lore. O tema principal já é bem explorado pela main quest, e as side quests o temperam perfeitamente.

Curti bastante!!! Estou empolgadíssima pra ver o próximo passo dessa equipe.

The "finish in 3 hours" achievement seemed possible, and the difficulty seemed interesting enough that I cranked it up. It totally transformed in my hands from a, fine, fairly mid exploratory platformer to a racing game. Suddenly those weird anomalies I limped my way through were tight puzzle to find the fastest route. The bosses became intense race courses whose tracks slowly dissolved. I threw myself into it with my whole voidussy and fell short by 5 minutes. So i did it again, and got the achievement :)

I think it's fascinating how the difficulty totally changed the game for me. Monsters weren't things to hunt down, but damage soaks only eliminated when you had time to spare. Shortcuts launch you across sections of the map as you race from anomaly to anomaly. Your health when you spend time exploring is easily supplemented by the troves of treasure in the nooks and crannies. But when you're on a time crunch, your health is suddenly limited by the genius decision to have each boss permanently slice away a bar, and you are forced to reckon with 1-2 slivers - which is fine! you shouldn't be taking hits anyway, and if you are, monster resets shouldn't be bothering you because killing them is a waste of time!

So this becomes one of the few games where I said "actually let's turn up the difficulty" as well as one of the games where I sat down and started a new game as soon as I finished the last. A memorable gem for me. (Still way too much dialogue, though, especially if you're trying to speed through!)

Piacevole action/platform ispirato a titoli come Shadow of the colossus (per quanto riguarda i "boss") oppure Gravity Rush (per estetica e per movimenti). Solar Ash è un titolo dai colori sgargianti, iper dinamico e iper chiassoso per via del suo sistema di vibrazione del controller.

Inizialmente non dà una buona impressione, perché per quanto il dinamico sistema di movimento basato sul pattinaggio risultasse molto divertente e spettacolare, nonostante una calibrazione dei salti non sempre precisissima, il level design si dimostrava piuttosto claustrofobico e privo di attrattiva, riproponendo sempre gli stessi schemi senza alcuna evoluzione. Fortunatamente, tuttavia, dal terzo "mondo" in poi la qualità delle mappe di gioco migliora esponenzialmente, regalando al giocatore sezioni di gameplay da togliere il fiato, grazie all'aumento in ampiezza delle aree su cui potersi muovere liberamente, senza timore di incappare in ostacoli che interrompano la fluidità degli spostamenti.
Prima ho parlato di "action", in quanto nel corso della nostra esplorazione ci imbatteremo in alcuni mostriciattoli da abbattere con pochi attacchi, rendendoli di fatto una pura formalità, talvolta fastidiosa e basta. Le sezioni action sono dunque superflue ad un livello tale che la loro assenza non sarebbe minimamente notata. Grande spreco di risorse e di opportunità.

Esteticamente nulla da dire, è una prelibatezza per gli occhi, nonostante qualche glitch grafico e una ripetitività di fondo nei primi momenti di gioco, tra aree e nemici simili.

La trama di Solar Ash diventa più profonda man mano che si prosegue nel gioco, arrivando a toccare temi quali l'accettazione del lutto o del trauma. Il problema è come viene narrata; i dialoghi sono piuttosto altalenanti, talvolta intriganti talvolta banali e superficiali. Forse proprio a causa di questo non si riesce mai a creare un vero climax; una volta giunti alla fine lo spettatore accoglie il colpo di scena finale in maniera passiva, senza grande trasporto emotivo. Stesso discorso per il true ending, piuttosto scontato.

In conclusione, al di là di qualche bug che mi ha costretto a riavviare il gioco, posso ritenermi soddisfatto del tempo passato in compagnia di Rei e dei suoi pattini quantistici. Certo, avrei preferito vivere un'esperienza più curata nei dettagli, ma alla fine si tratta sempre di un team indie. Se avete attivo il Game Pass, dateci un'occhiata, ne varrà la pena.

um jogo do sonic mas sem musica chiclete.
A gameplay é gostosa e enfrentar os bosses gigante é bem satisfatório, principalmente quando vc entra num flow e consegue derrotar em uma ou poucas tentativas.
os ambientes tbm são legais e a historia, apesar de ser um pouco confusa, até que compensa pelo ser final bom e a interpretação da Rei é fenomenal, adorei a dublagem.
Foda que, certamente eu esquecerei desse jogo em uns 2 meses, recomendo jogarem mas é só isso, um jogo de final de semana quase esquecível.