Once you hit the first needle, a time limit kicks in and you need to hit the next before this ends, otherwise the needle will vanish and any black goop attached will turn red, damaging Rei and forcing her to respawn.įor Remnants, they’re giant beasts walking around and you need to find the first needle.
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Anomalies are stuck in place, so it’s often a bit of a simple puzzle to find out how to best hit all the needles. You still need to hit a lot of things, but that’s because the anomalies and Remnants all require Rei to hit needles in order to fight them. While I get that Voidrunners aren’t fighters, this left me a bit underwhelmed, as combat was the lynchpin of Hyper Light Drifter. There’s a variety of enemies, but they’re typically not all that threatening and they fall quickly. Rei also has a three-hit sword slash, but this isn’t a combat game. The movement and controls in Solar Ash are satisfying and fluid, with platforming that feels tightly integrated and organic. Rei moves about the world by skating forward and boosting. And The Pathless let you look around the world to easily spot points of interest in the distance, while Solar Ash mostly requires you to wander until you find things, at least until you get the Voidrunner suit that lets Rei scan for stashes. There’s often not a whole lot to see, even if the world design is quite good. But while The Pathless had tons of different puzzles and goodies to seek out while exploring the areas, Solar Ash just has the Voidrunner stashes and side stories. You enter, find the conduit, scan for the anomalies, knock ’em out, and then take on the boss. This allows the conduit to power the Starseed.ĭue to the above, each area can be repetitious. Then you return to the area’s conduit (which Rei can freely warp too once she locates it) and reactivate the AI assisting her now that its signal isn’t being blocked. Once they’re all disposed of, a Remnant - a giant monster - must be fought. Each of Solar Ash‘s six areas (one tutorial, and five that are full-length) allows you to scan for these anomalies, so you just need to approach and destroy them. Specifically, Rei has to destroy anomalies.
You then need to complete several repeating objectives to fight a big boss and move on. Just like The Pathless, Solar Ash is divided into multiple areas that are all interconnected.
The game looks like it, Rei moves similarly to that game’s protagonist, and the games have remarkably similar structures resembling a bite-sized Breath of the Wild. Speaking of other atmospheric exploration indies, Solar Ash is almost astoundingly reminiscent of The Pathless in a lot of ways, which was released last year by the same publisher, Annapurna Interactive. Visually, though, I’d say the game has less of an identity than its predecessor, as it looks similar to other atmospheric exploration indies. The world feels lived-in, and the story elements are all organic. Each of the game’s areas has stashes left behind by the other Voidrunners with five or six voice logs, telling a bit of their stories, and giving you a feel for their character. There are side characters with their own story arcs that you can see through by exploring the world. Unlike Hyper Light Drifter, which mostly told its story through its visuals alone, Solar Ash has multiple characters and plenty of voice acting. It’s up to Rei to find out what’s going on and do her best to save her people from oblivion. But the other Voidrunners have gone silent, and the Starseed hasn’t been activated. When her home world is threatened with destruction by the Ultravoid, she and her fellow Voidrunners go to place conduits on a nearby planet to activate a device known as the Starseed to keep the Ultravoid from leading their people to ruin. Rei is a Voidrunner a member of a group that dives into and explores voids. Solar Ash is the story of the unfortunately named Rei, which will no doubt generate some Star Wars jokes. But it’s still a compelling experience with an intriguing narrative and some worthwhile sights to see. Some HLD fans will no doubt be disappointed by this, and the game could certainly have used a bit more depth and variety. Instead of focusing on action, the game is all about platforming, exploration, and dashing forward at high speeds. But that’s mostly where the similarities end. It’s got the same developer, it’s set in the same universe, and the main character also has an energy sword. It’s easy to assume that Solar Ash is a sequel to Hyper Light Drifter.