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Sonic Meets Shadow Of The Colossus

From the developers of Hyper Light Drifter comes a new game that tells a story about regret and moving on. Solar Ash is a third person roller-skating game. As Voidrunner Rei, players need to skate through ruins on the Ultravoid to prevent your planet from being destroyed by said void. Activate the Starseed and everything can be saved, only things might not be this straightforward as you continue down the path. I like this game. Not only because it's made by Heart Machine, but also it's great to see the dev team improve and evolve outside of their comfort zone. The game does have various issues regarding gameplay, but I still recommend Solar Ash for those who likes smooth skating and some time-racing.

Things I Like About Solar Ash:

1. Good Artstyle Transition
Basically the Risk Of Rain 2 treatment. I am glad the dev steps out their comfort zone and make their second game a 3D game. It is a wonderful transition. They manage to recreate the style of Hyper Light Drifter into a smooth 3D world, with its own aesthetic and without losing the same personality.
2. Skating Feels Good
Skating is the main feature of the game. It is also the best thing about Solar Ash. Skating through the cloud ocean all the while weaving in and out of ruins never feels this good. The animation is smooth and fluent. The control feels responsive, making boosted-jumping through gaps, across buildings, and between rails easy to achieve. I especially adore moments which the camera will zoom out during long skating session and let you take in the beautiful yet crumbled world ahead of you.
3. Other Compliments
→Boss Fights is speed-up Shadow Of Colossus with timed-racing.
→Bold usage of colors.

Thing I Like Ad Dislike About Solar Ash:

Story
→Like: Story itself is quite simple and effective.
→Dislike: What I don't like about the story is that the turns and twists should happen sooner. The opposite voice should appear at the middle point of the game and become clearer at late game. Currently the opposite voice only appears at the last area. Thus, in my opinion, it is quite hard to set up a dilemma at the end of the game without forcing a confrontation.

Things I Dislike About Solar Ash:

1. Shield System And Boss Fight Mechanics
I am quite confused at these design choices. Every time you meet Echo, she will always destroy one shield of Rei permanently until you fix it, which the latter is really easy to do considering plasma is quite abundant in each area. Other than metaphorical meanings, I fail to see logic behind such design. Another issue I have about it is how irrelevant the shield system against boss fight. If you fail the speed test, you will take damage and will be sent back to the checkpoint. Why it couldn't just let me fall down the Remnant so I can get back up and try again immediately is beyond me.
2. Needs More Abilities
The fun of skating can only last so long considering you can only press two buttons for it - one to skate forever and one to boost yourself for a short distance. I wish the game can offer more abilities to make skating more than just changing direction. Things like creating jump pads and rails at will, charged boost, integrating attacks with mobility, etc could easily help elevate the game to higher levels.
3. Remnants Should Be More Aggressive
Spoilers.
In the end we learn Remnants are past Rei who fails a reality check I mean fails to break the cycle. All the negative feelings accumulated throughout the game should drive her mad, and thus makes the Remnants more aggressive towards other things, especially the "current" Rei. Yet out of 7 Remnants, 5 of them are quite neutral to her presence. Storywise it doesn't make sense, and gameplaywise it just feels less challenging. Don't get me wrong, the speed tests on each Remnants are hard even on normal difficulty. I just wish getting close to them could also be another challenge.
4. Other Complaints
→Camera angle during certain skating session feels really janky and even won't allow you yo move.
→I wish all the area are inter-connected so our parkour/skating skill can shine even brighter while exploring.
中文小簡評
→光明行者製作團隊跳出舒適圈做出來的新作。
→能夠將光明行者的畫風完美詮釋於3D建模。
→競速型汪達與巨象。
→角色動畫操作流暢，無論在雲海中溜冰、在失落文明間跳躍穿梭、或者在極長的軌道眺望整個世界都是那麼令人興奮。
→故事起承轉合簡單分明，但是「轉」的部分太晚出現且不足，以至於無法體現結尾的兩難。
→護盾及其修補機制覺得雞肋。
→如果有更多技能跑酷溜冰技能就好了。
→王的攻擊方式及慾望要再多點。
→鏡頭在某些地方溜冰時容易亂跑。