Solar Ash Review – A Rollercoaster Of Style And Substance

Rei is dazed, lost and confused in the Ultravoid. She’s a voidrunner, meaning she explores black holes with the help of advanced technology. Unfortunately, the Ultravoid is an exceptionally massive black hole with Rei’s home planet ensnared in its vacuum. Rei, who was part of a team that activated the Starseed to save her planet from the Black Hole, is running out of time. Her allies vanished and Ultravoid’s native defenses are ink-like creatures. With dire stakes and Hail Mary solutions, Rei’s solo mission is worth seeing through to its surprising conclusion in this impressive high-speed action platformer.

Activating the Starseed requires slaying six Remnants, humongous beasts that hold dominion over the Ultravoid’s handful of biomes. These titans must be awakened by destroying the giant eyeballs they have scattered over the landscape. Rei, a quick explorer and explorer, is fortunate. Solar Ash is about movement. It’s a great feeling to be able to move around in the Ultravoid. Rei’s skating feels swift but controlled; I never lost control when it wasn’t my fault, even in the most precarious areas. She can even recover her speed quickly when she slows down. I leapt with joy across bubbling lava pools and floating ruins. Thanks to the skilled placement of platforms, grind rails and other features, it was a reckless act of calculated recklessness. No matter how far or short I leapt, there was always a target landing.

Platforming puzzles are made easier by lock-on grapple point and slow-motion aim mechanic. It would be easier to switch between grind rails. Given the speed of Rei’s grinding and how far she can launch, it’s easy to overshoot rails, given their close proximity.

I regularly said, “wow,” whenever I stepped into a new biome. Solar Ash is gorgeous. Solar Ash’s stunning color scheme and dreamlike world design give it a magical quality. The cosmic playground allows you to glide up and down from impossible angles. Also, the view across inverted landscapes can be a joy. You can find fun ways to make the most of your movements, including carrying mushroom spores in rapid succession to match colored nodes and sowing vines for grinding.

Everything in the game is in service of keeping you moving, and that extends to the simple but satisfying hack n’ slash combat. You can kill most enemies in a matter of seconds, as they usually drop within a few hits. Coolness is found in gracefully eradicating enemies and skillfully deflecting their attacks. I love encountering the Remnants. They come in many sizes and shapes, such as a bipedal warrior or an insect-like creature. You can use them as moving platforms and final tests of your skill. The race to move across the writhing bodies of these creatures and shatter their nodes is a reflex-focused white-knuckle adventure that left me gasping for air, winningce-pumping with joy. It can be frustrating to take too long to get back down to the earth. This is often caused by an error in my platforming, which was sometimes fixed quickly with a course correction. 

I also appreciate Solar Ash’s elegantly clean overall design. I wasn’t burdened by complicated mechanics or even new abilities for Rei. The experience allows her to keep the small skills she has, and collectible suits give useful passive boosts like speed boosters or health-restoring effects. You will also collect plasma currency, which you can use to improve your health. It’s odd that defeating every Remnant will activate a sequence that takes one notch off your health. I’m not sure what the point is in constantly spending thousands of plasma to regain the same disappearing hit point, but I’m not a fan of it.

Solar Ash’s gripping tale of desperation and hope against all odds serves as another highlight. Rei is an inadvertently overweight rookie who I sympathized with. The story evolves her almost stubborn optimism and sense of duty in an effective – and surprising – way I won’t spoil. I came into Solar Ash expecting to feel indifferent towards Rei, and I’m pleasantly surprised to emerge feeling the opposite. 

Sprinting around the world is fun, but I was more than willing to slow down to absorb the intriguing lore along the edges, which fleshes out the Ultravoid’s history. Amazing tales from Void prisoners tell of their survival. While these story beats are positioned as sidequests, uncovering the tragic arcs of Rei’s allies and the few surviving NPCs feels necessary as they feed into Rei’s character development and the story’s primary themes of loss, regret, and isolation. One standout tale involves a native of the Void grappling with his race’s tradition of sacrificing themselves to maintain the cycle of life and death. Even better, the writing makes you feel connected to CYD (your AI friend and faithful companion) as the Ultravoid’s loneliness eventually takes hold.

Solar Ash made me sprint across the cloud-covered terrains of its playgrounds, in search for the next exciting platforming segment. The story was so compelling that I kept running until the end. Solar Ash has a lot of style and substance, so it’s a very entertaining place to romp.