Solar Ash (2021)

So nice I played it twice, and I’ll probably play it thrice.

Finished my first and second play-through today, with the second a speedrun. I’m not usually one for chasing achievements but I enjoyed my first play-through quite a bit and one achievement encourages a second play-through so I was willing to go for it.

Apparently there’s also an a achievement for completing it on hardcore mode. I’m debating whether I want to do that now or to save and savour another time.

I couldn’t resist the sale. This game is absolutely stunning.

It’s interesting to note that I was aware of Solar Ash prior to The Pathless so I had anticipated comparing the latter to the former but since The Pathless released first I can’t help but make the opposite comparison. Although there are similarities, both in style and mechanics I’m happy to say Solar Ash is very much a different game and a compelling one in its own right.

Movement and combat feel just as smooth and enjoyable but the focus on melee combined with a hook shot makes this game feel very satisfying in ways that separates it from the arrow driven momentum of The Pathless. But while both incorporate quite a bit of verticality, Solar Ash really leans into the grappling mechanic where The Pathless focused on flight-like elements.

And since movement is tied to a sort of skating meets hover concept, Solar Ash feels a bit like Haven, another game where smooth, quick movement across terrain is key, except it’s Haven if Haven wasn’t terrible. Which is a blessing because there’s none of Haven’s awful camera, terrible stop and go and accidental backtracking each time the camera goes wonky. No, Solar Ash feels responsive, with a camera that doesn’t whip you around if you hit the wrong bit of bumpy terrain. Its skate, boost and double jump all feel solid and satisfying. So far a dream to play.

I don't understand what the hell is going on with this game. A game all based on speed and fluid motion should never stop, but Solar Ash only stops. Both the fragility of the character and the design of the boss "fights" makes the tiniest of errors a lead to deaths, so most of the time the game is me going from the last checkpoint to where I was before. This is most egregious during the boss events which require to essentially memorise a series of keypresses. There's absolutely no way of beating a boss other than to try and die several times until you repeated the same maneuvers in order so many times that becomes second nature and turns what should be exiting, fast-paced movement into a boring chore.

It doesnt help that the controls are not at all tight. Your character mostly slip through the world and jumping is imprecise. I never feel like I'm fully in control able to perform cool platforming movements because I'm more busy frantically trying to correct my fall as I go from one rail to another because they are positioned too close for the length of the jump.

On top of that, traversal is just not that interesting. Is impossible not to compare this to The Pathless. Whereas in that game movement itself was the gameplay, as you gained speed by actively shooting targets, here it's just "press RT to go brrrrr".

Some of it can be patched out, i think. The issue with the lack of flow can be ameliorated by being more lenient with timing so that you don't need pixel perfect jumps to advance, and by removing deaths during boss events so that you don't die and go back to checkpoint and instead you're just fall to the ground and get to try again instantly. The issue with the uninteresting traversal, not so much. That's really a core design issue.