Solar Ash

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Yeah. 
• Time Played: 6-7 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's not that long but it maybe feels a little drawn out at times - as much as it can be hard to control the speed of the game in some tighter more precise sections, some of the more open areas could benefit from being able to traverse more quickly.
• Did I cry: No
• Soundtrack: Pretty good soundtrack, atmospheric and dynamic and fits the setting.
• Why I played: I've had it for awhile. I liked Hyper Light Drifter a lot - I backed it on kickstarter... now 13 years ago, though released 10 years ago, yet I only finished that 4 years ago. It's hard to believe that Solar Ash was already released 5 years ago, time just goes too quick. Before I looked it up, my guess was 2 years ago. I thought I got to it much quicker. Though in only half the time. Maybe I'll try out Heart Machine's next game only two and a half years after release, oh wait I already played it. I only just started Possessor, but as I was playing it, hot off the heels of Sword of the Sea, I thought of Solar Ash. A game by the same people, with gameplay leaning more into the feel of Sword of the Sea. I guess in a sense Sword of the Sea was "Too short" for me, as I still wanted something with a similar vibe. Thankfully, I had some options.
• Jank: The jankiest part of the game probably is also the best part of the game, the controls. When it works well it's fluid and fast, fun, and snappy. But sometimes it just doesn't work how you'd think. Rei - the character you play as, fails to snap to rails, has weird collision with walls, or maybe doesn't grab a ledge you'd think she would. Sometimes you can also get stuck in a bunch of items where you awkwardly fall hover until you can control the character again. You could probably just teleport to another location or something in the worst case scenario, but I never had to. Just had to endure a moment of impatience.
• Difficulty: For the most part the game is pretty easy - except when it's not. The final phase of some of the bosses can be pretty arduous.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I enjoyed it. It's not mind-blowing. It's hard to live up to the expectation set from the creators of Hyper Light Drifter, and Giant Squid is better at that floaty exploration that I liken this game to Sword of the Sea for.
• Recommend to others: I may if it's your type of game, but I wouldn't go out of my way to. While it has more action and actual challenges than a typical Thatgamecompany or Giant Squid game, it does feel like that kind of game play. It's like Journey+Mario Galaxy+Jet Grind Radio+Shadow of the Colossus blended together, but not necessarily the sum of it's parts or surpassing them in any way. It's just an easy comparison to make.

Having just played Sword of the Sea, it's hard for me to not compare it to that. It's a very floating exploration game with kind of a sports-like movement. Sword of the Sea was like surfing/skateboarding across the desert and other various environments. Solar Ash has you skating across clouds in space and other various environments. Solar Ash does have things actually attacking you pretty regularly and combat, though it's pretty simple. As soon as you are near an enemy and attack they are defeated. Some take a few hits - but it's more about avoiding their attacks and closing the distance than it is skillfully aiming your hits toward them.

Fighting the bosses of this game is pretty unique though, and a friend compared it to a Sonic boss battle - having never played a Sonic game. To be fair, she was kind of correct. There are some Sonic boss battles that are similar, but it's not as common as it ought to be. The boss battles, or more like challenges, are kind of like Shadow of the Colossus, where you climb up a giant beast and hit is glaring weak points. Except in this game where momentum is key, it's very different from the stop and attack, practically the opposite. If you stop for just a moment, you've taken too long and will be knocked off. You also have to deftly aim your jumps and landing, for if you land within a crevice of their armor you will be knocked off as well, having to start the little challenge from the beginning, and you have to do this three times, each one more difficult than the last. For me, for each boss, only the final challenge posed any problem, but it was a drastic increase in difficulty in most cases.

The world is unique and obtuse. It's interesting though, and definitely alien - as it should be, unfortunately with it being a bit of a shorter game, as soon as I began to grasp and understand everything, it was over. It may have served better to have a bit more exposition about the situation from the beginning, but it's not an uncommon issues with sci-fi/fantasy that is making an attempt to be wholly unique. When you disconnect it from what is familiar too much, and especially when you have a bunch of unique terms for what things are, you risk alienating any kind of familiarity the audience has to comprehend what is happening. It's not the worst offender, and the story is more or less secondary to the experience as a whole, so it's more or less forgivable.