Sunken Sky

[後半に日本語レビューあり] [h1]An Indie Metroidvania-RPG with Hand-Painted Worlds and Unlikely Heroes[/h1] Set in a kingdom still scarred from a war of bygone years, this exploration action RPG follows three unlikely protagonists: a wandering girl with no clear purpose, a survivor weighed down by guilt, and a noble with something to prove. Their paths cross in ways neither of them expected. At its core, the game fuses metroidvania structure with JRPG sensibilities. Two distinct playstyles — a melee sword-and-dash fighter and a ranged bow-and-climb archer — are joined by a character-switching mechanic that is central to progression. The world spans visually distinct hand-drawn biomes: mountain peaks, enchanted forests, underground caverns, and more. Adjustable difficulty and optional minigames round out an accessible design. The most immediately striking element is the visual style — anime character art layered over hand-painted backgrounds, creating a storybook aesthetic that sets the game apart from its peers. Reportedly hundreds of detailed illustrations are woven throughout the narrative, and the contrast between chibi sprites in the overworld and richly drawn character portraits in dialo…

I recommend this game, but with one warning: it really needs a better quest log. The good part is that the platforming, even if simple, works well enough to create enjoyable puzzles. The map is not really about killing everything; it is more about finding the right path, avoiding danger, and using combat only when necessary, usually to open a treasure or clear a specific obstacle. For a short and cheap game, that core works. My main problem is the lack of proper quest tracking. If you stop playing for a week, it can be hard to remember what you were doing. The game can be very obscure about side content: an NPC may mention needing people for an inn, another character may be trapped somewhere, and unless you remember the exact place or write it down yourself, you may end up wandering around without knowing what is still possible. I understand games that want the player to explore and figure things out. That can be fun. But this sometimes goes too far. A simple journal would have helped a lot. It would not need to give the solution, only basic notes like “this NPC asked for help” or “someone is trapped in this area.” Originally, I also had a bigger complaint about the point of no…

Sunken Sky is a story driven metroidvania 2D platformer game developed and published by Codenightly. The game offers two difficulty modes which are easy and normal. It includes Steam achievements and supports gameplay with both keyboard and controller. Gameplay focuses on exploration and platforming as you jump across areas, evade hazards and defeat enemies. At the start you play as Sol, a white haired drake who fights with a sword. Sol can perform a jump dash to reach higher places and move in any direction. Later you unlock the second playable character Mona, a blonde salamander. She is an archer who attacks with arrows and can climb vertical surfaces. She is also able to create temporary walls. Eventually the two characters meet, and you can freely switch between them during exploration. Map exploration relies on open roaming with no guiding direction hints, allowing you to discover areas at your own pace. As I write this review, I still haven’t come across the 3rd character. Large healing trees act as save points and restore health. Smaller healing trees are also scattered throughout the world. You can interact with every NPC in the game. Some characters provide quests, thoug…

At the moment of writing this analysis, I haven't finished the game yet, but so far it has been a good experience. Gameplay is rather simple and has some jank (I'd love if there was a sound effect for dealing damage and receiving damage), although I must say that the part where the playable characters become animals felt bad. In any case, characters have more than one weapon and each one has their own unique skill for map traversal, Sol is the meele character, can dash in any direction, Mona is the archer, can climb and create an earth wall and Frieda is the summoner and can create a teleport waypoint. Overall, I like it, but could use some polish. Story has been great so far, the interactions between the three main characters and the NPCs is nice. Map is serviceable, tracks NPCs and some points of interest. Not all of them though. The soundtrack is pretty good in my opinion, it fits the biomes and story moments nicely so far. I love the game's artwork, the anime inspiration is clear as day and is well made, the scenarios also look nice. EDIT: - One of my points of criticism, the lack of a questlog, has been addressed and was added into the game, so it's only fair to remove i…

Cute little game with a pretty good story. A bit of jank as expected, but the art and vibes carry it.

I really wanted to enjoy this game but I think I actually kind of hate it. I've quit it twice. The controls are just awful. When they're not overly picky they're just not intuitive and generally suck. I'm used to metroidvanias with smooth graceful movement and precise fluid attacks. This does not have either. You can only attack from a stand still in most cases and the attacks you unlock for up and down both seem relatively worthless. Even in "easy" mode the enemies are just plain unfair. There's just nothing fun about this game. Even basic jumping from platform to platform takes such perfect and precise timing as to be ludicrous and multiple 'flee or dies' through jump challenges just make this unimaginative drek. Maybe after some quality of life improvements this will be more playable and I will try again, but not today, Satan.