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Man has paws that cannot run, but chases longingly the sun. Man has wings that cannot fly, but he will always seek the sky.
AER Memories of Old is pretty, vibrant and calming. Reeled in by the beautiful art direction, and kept in by the amazing writing, it's well worth a shot. Like a chocolate cookie, AER will look plain to some people, as it doesn't have much to offer in the terms of excess playtime or adrenaline thrills. But the real chocolate isn't in the action here.
We've seen em, and we've felt them. If you clicked on the store page, knowing anything about the indie scene, you probably already have a good idea what AER will offer you. Peaceful exploration among the clouds, pretty animations and even prettier landscapes, trailer revealing the game's own gimmick... in this case, being able to morph seamlessly into a bird and soar the skies to scratch that good old child fantasy. I am glad to say, that it does hit every single box with flying colors. Pun intended.
What immediately sticks out to me is the writing. Starting the game with a wall of text can work as an immediate buffer into the kind of theme and feeling you're trying to create, but more often than not a player will just simply skip it to get to the gameplay, and usually also lose interest in the story altogether. This by itself doesn't really matter, if the point is to awe at the scenery and solve some puzzles, but since AER doesn't follow the Ubisoft style of waypoints and minimaps, losing your way can be detrimental to the flow of the game. Finding out where to go next isn't logged in a notebook, or marked on your map. You have to figure out your next destination in between the NPCs exposition dumps, and I'd argue most people are going to miss them. While I didn't have problems with this, it is something to keep in mind. Other than talking to NPCs, you can also find scrolls and stone tablets scattered around, detailing the world and what happened to make it the way it is today. With your lantern, you can quite literally cast light to past events through spectral projections of people. I found the writing to be compelling and believable, even when dipping into the fantastical nature of gods and spirituality.
Second thing that hits is the morphing mechanic. Traveling from one floating island to the next would be a bit of a chore with a flying boat, especially when the world has been shattered to this many pieces. Thankfully, for purposes later revealed and explained, your character can seamlessly morph between the forms of human and bird. The developers clearly gave the mechanic much care and love, as it never felt awkward or weird to control. Flying around is super fun, and with some cleverly placed tunnels and wind currents, I often found myself just aimlessly flying around, trying to do tricks by morphing in midair, doing massive leaps over islands etc... They nailed it, and that really made exploring the shattered world so damn fun.
Without going too deep into the story, you have to gather pieces scatter about the world. These pieces, of course being hidden behind puzzles in remote dungeons and caverns. It makes sense enough, and even if you can't morph to a bird inside these dungeons, they were gorgeous enough for me to want to take my time and really feel the scenery. Every dungeon felt unique, and they posed different enough challenges to not get repetitive. There were only a couple times I let out a sigh at a puzzle design, but honestly, they are not bad at all. Especially the last dungeon had some amazing designs and patterns to find secrets, pathways and whatnot.
Overall, AER nails the atmosphere and the wonder of exploration with some amazing writing and worldbuilding. Playing it always felt good, and if you're already into this genre of indie exploration games, you will enjoy AER.