As a result, Solar Ash’s short draw distance was a smart choice, as the game looks at its best when things are too far away to notice the chopped up level design. These destroyed lands are bolstered by an excellent use of color, but they only provide snapshots of a world rather than one that feels wholly constructed. Much of the game is structured this way, having the player parkour along flying islands littered across shattered environments. Solar Ash uses a motif of floating debris to decorate many of its zones. I would’ve preferred if it escalated to this point sooner, as regular battles against enemies lack intensity for most of the game.
Even then, most of these battles aren’t particularly exciting until the final area puts a bunch of them in one place and expects the player to survive. After a while, the game escalates and introduces enemies that snipe you from a distance, charge at you and create shockwaves that rupture the ground beneath you. However, their presence doesn’t add much until later, as players can slash at these creatures while sprinting around without much thought. While running around Solar Ash, the player will come into contact with troublesome monsters. Shout-Out: CYD looks remarkably like the protagonist of Journey.Rei skating on a rail.On the other hand it appears that there is more to the Starseed than meets the eye, as it locked Rei into a perpetual cycle of spiritual and physical torment and seemingly corrupted the Voidrunners into the Remnants. The origin of Voidtech is an artifact that was found in the depths of the Voidrunners home planet and enabled them to do things such as slow down time, generate energy weapons and travel near black holes in, rather flimsy looking, suits. Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The Starseed and Voidtech in general are this.Future Spandex: The suit Rei wears and the ones she gathers over the course of the game certainly give this impression but seem to make up for it with Deflector Shields of some kind.Fragile Speedster: Rei can only take up to five hits before it's game over.If Rei chooses to destroy the Starseed, Echo is able to restore her to her old self. If the Starseed is activated, this will be the conclusion of the loop before the events of the game repeat anew. FaceMonster Turn: Regardless of if she chooses to activate the Starseed, Rei transforms into a towering monster after succumbing to despair upon learning that the Starseed will only cause her to relive the destruction of her planet.Bright Is Not Good: Don't be fooled by the bright, vibrant green of the water in the Mirrorsea.She wakes from the experience heartbroken and ashamed, but willing to move on. Bittersweet Ending: Rei ultimately destroys the Starseed after realizing she can never use it to save her world, and following an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight, she's restored to her whole self.
Beautiful Void: The inside of the Ultravoid is a colorful landscape of islands floating in blue-green clouds or otherwise suspended mid-air by the Ultravoid's weird sense of gravity.Badass Cape: Rei sports a long, translucent purple cloak.Rather than destroying the Ultravoid, all it does is reverse time to just before the destruction of Rei's planet, forcing Rei to relive the death of her homeworld every time she reactivates it. Artifact of Doom: The Starseed, in a sense.