I had high hopes since seeing it premiere in whatever PlayStation 5 showcase it was first teased in and knowing the strength of Hyper Light Drifter. Actually, it is a wonderful game that nestled itself in my mind in the last month of 2021, a year that has seen an incredible amount of games. My warm experiences in the game were becoming cooler with each passing minute and each baffling stumble… I started to feel like the game wasn’t fast enough, that gliding along the worlds was not seamless nor serene. This section of Solar Ash made the rough edges of the game even sharper and jagged. And this reality came to an agonizing head when I attempted to jump and grind across these small, tight platforms of landmasses and tiny spacecraft. Rei, on the other hand, would often miss her transfer when jumping from rail to rail, regardless of how careful I was. Ratchet would seamlessly jump left or right on a rail and his boots would slam down, magnetized without any worry on my end. Was this user error or poor design?Įarlier this year I was left thrilled by the on-rails sections of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, watching the scenery around me explode as I would perform carefully timed jumps to avoid death. I spent the next 30 minutes of a 10-hour game stumbling around like it was my first time with a platformer. Electrified rails allude to eventual shortcuts that will be unlocked to make traversal less of a hassle. Over the halfway point through the game, players are asked to grind and jump across small alien craft idly hovering in the sky, hoping to reach a point high up in the playable space. Solar Ash got me to the point where I shouted in anger at the screen, a slave to confusion and frustration as to why something so simple felt so foreign and broken to me. The next I would miss a calculated jump and fall, fall, fall… forced to repeat seconds if not minutes of gameplay. At one moment I would be swept up in Troupe Grammage’s Disasterpeace-inspired soundtrack, grinding along a rail as distant playable lands loomed in the background. Yet I can’t escape that nagging feeling constantly eroding my memory of Solar Ash.
There’s a warmth and mystique about its world and gameplay, an allure that constantly reminded me that I was having a great time. Gravity and perspective shifts around globular environments, defying logic at dizzying vantage points. Rather than merely climbing up a monstrous leviathan, players skate and jump across its carapace. It’s in those pockets of familiar comfort that Solar Ash creates its most ideal synergy.
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Hell, one might pepper in a bit of Tony Hawk Pro Skater or Jet Set Radio. Much like Hyper Light Drifter paid tribute to The Legend of Zelda yet remained singularly unique, Solar Ash does not shy away from staples like Shadow of the Colossus and Super Mario Galaxy.
Solar Ash proudly wears inspiration on its sleeve. Throughout Heart Machine’s second game, I was thrilled with the sense of serene beauty and speed as main character Rei skated across clouds and gravity-defying landscapes. My time with Solar Ash is crystalized by the two opposing forces of fun and frustration.
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