It is also important to note, the nearly two-month delay Solar Ash had was worth it. Every beautiful world has something new to showcase. For instance, upon entering Eternal Gardens, you’ll need to learn and master the colored mushroom mechanic, or on Mirrorsea, you’ll need to find the perfect timing for skating on the toxic green lakes. Each world presents a new mechanic to keep things fresh, but familiar. It being a platformer, the levels need to be fun to navigate, and they are. Not only are these worlds beautiful, they are also well constructed. and remove them from your path to power the Starseed, an enormous structure at the heart of the map that Rei believes will solve everything. With dynamic worlds, rewarded curiosity, fluid combat, and a meaningful message, Solar Ash delivers a tight, nonstop joyride of fun. Solar Ash is uniquely its own extraordinary experience.
Every detail within these worlds works to further immerse you into Solar Ash. The sky color of each stage shifts from light purple, vivid green, and burnt orange while your home planet grows bigger in the sky, drawing nearer to the Ultravoid. Without fail, my favorite level would always change to the newest world I’d encountered, which speaks to each world’s individuality and fun factor. In one word you’ll be grappling from skyscraper to skyscraper, and in another, you’ll be grinding on a mushroom rail upside-down on a lava globe. There are six worlds in total with each one being more eccentric than the last. And though the levels are separate, the lack of loading screens mixed with the memorable silhouettes of each stage filling the horizon makes the entirety of the Ultravoid feel seamlessly connected. Instead of being one massive open world, Solar Ash splits its stages up into bite-sized levels, which works perfectly. Here, she encounters the broken remains of devoured cultures that once were, each offering different architecture, moods, and mechanics. Solar Ash starts with the game’s protagonist, Rei, leaping into a black hole to save her planet. As Rei, a masked Voidrunner with silky skating-like skills, you’ll be flinging yourself across the voids of dangerous, colour-drenched environments to awaken giant beasts. Each new region brings with it new mechanics, be it giant crumbling buildings that act as epic rails, acid-tainted seas or darkened eery cave structures, each one leads to a similar epic confrontation with the local home owner, as the story and Rei’s desperation grows with our hero tasked with averting untold disaster. Do that over a few times and eventually the beast will be felled, unlocking Cyd and the next area that needs to be explored.
Leading to a final confrontation that has you climbing and sliding across their epic forms and similarly destroying points along them. Clear those out and slowly the beast becomes aware of your presence. A trusty hook shot mixed with a slowing down of time mechanic allows you to both target enemies, reach higher places and pinpoint said weak points which, when combined, feels so damn good once you get the hang of it. A quick scan reveals where these issues reside, leading you to discover the general mechanics of gliding effortlessly across the ground and targeting various weak points of the black ooze like structures that block your way forward. The opening area sets the scene, with the Starseed’s conduits and your faithful AI Cyd having been blocked from communication by various abnormalities born from the monsters that call that area home. Solar Ash The opening area sets the scene Solar Ash opens as a planet and its civilisation are pulled into The Ultravoid, a devastating black hole.
Do you build upon a popular base with a sequel, remaining comfortable within familiarity, or do you go all out with a new concept and a point to prove? For Heart Machine, following up their 2016 success story Hyper Light Drifter was always going to be a test, but through dynamic controls, clever world building and beautiful visuals, Solar Ash passes with flying neon colours. Will she learn the truth about these massive beasts that roam this strange land and uncover the mysteries of the Starseed and Echo? The answer to these questions, and more, awaits you in the Ultravoid.