Skystrider

It pains me a bit to give this game a negative review, but I unfortunately can't recommend it in good conscience. The game is very pretty and when it works right, it's very fun. However more often than not the game's super glitchy. In the 45 minutes I played the game, I fell or dashed through the floor 14 times, had the dash fail to trigger for whatever reason 8 times, had the wallrun not function (leading to me falling to death) 18 times, had enemies get stuck in terrain (softlocking the game) 2 times, and had one flying enemy glitch out and rapidly spin into the sunset (softlocking the game). It's possible a handful of these things might be user error in some cases (i.e. wallrun and dash) but most of the instances definitely aren't. Furthermore, the grappling hook rarely targets what I'm trying to and it's not uncommon for it to attach to something and do nothing at all. Overall, it feels like more of the gameplay is glitchy than functional, which makes me quite sad cause when this game does work it feels delightful. For prospective players, I'd recommend staying away until the dev fixes the issues. This looks to likely be a project of passion, but I'm hopeful the game can be cleaned up to reveal the gem beneath. For the dev, here are my following recommendations: * Really focus on cleaning up the glitches. Prioritize (in this order) a button to reset an encounter (to quickly reset when softlocks happen), falling/dashing through terrain, protections against enemies softlocking progression by ending up out of bounds, grappling being unreliable, then the player being locked out of dash for periods of time sometimes, then wallruns not working sometimes, then projectiles spawning and moving erratically and out of alignment from where they should, then finally try and deal with the root issues of enemies getting to inaccessible locations leading to the player being softlocked. * Speed up all grapple interactions, most notably: Grapple deploy speed should be nearly instant, walls and floors spawned by grappling nodes should spawn nearly instantly (as an initial estimate, I'd say no longer than 0.3 seconds after pressing the button given the game's pace), draggable puzzle pieces should move at the speed of the player's mouse movement rather than lagging behind at a set speed. * Give the player i-frames while dashing to negate the issues where you'll often get shot while trying to approach rapid firing ranged enemies. * Give the player i-frames while moving via grappling to negate the issue where the player will often get shot while grappling to a turret or other ranged enemy (which as far as I can tell is the intended way to destroy them). * Reduce the health and quantity of enemies overall, but intersperse them through the level. Nearly all of them should be one-shots outside of bosses and mini-boss encounters. The game is at it's best when you're running and moving fast, but the game nearly always asks you to stand still and hack at enemies for combat encounters. Do your best to allow the player to never stop moving. This is the same sin that many sonic games have. Learn from their mistakes, but also from the sonic games which people like. * Ensure the player maintains their full momentum and control while performing all attacks (same reasoning as above bullet point, the game feels the best when you're always moving). * Consider reworking the enemy hit sounds. Some of the sounds make me think I'm not doing damage which is very confusing. * Try and make interactions more consistent across the game between melee and grapple. I felt it was highly inconsistent what I could grapple vs melee, and what exactly would happen when I pressed the grapple or melee button (as an example, I was very confused when I couldn't grapple the flying dragonfly enemies and assumed they were invulnerable. I eventually discovered that if I just looked at them and melee'd from far away I'd teleport to them and attack them, which was super weird cause that's not how the melee button works anywhere else). These are of course just recommendations, but if I was going to try and improve the game that's how I'd go about doing it. There's definitely good gameplay buried under these issues, but as of right now the good parts of the game are buried under a frustrating amount of bugs and an unfortunately high focus on combat rather than movement.

Fantastic visuals. Fast moving and satisfying gameplay. Short and sweet. Skystrider is a really fun experience. The platforming is extremely fun an the combat is well integrated, encouraging you to keep closing an opening distance between you and your foes. There are some really cool touches here, especially when it comes to the acrobatics on display at times. There are few polish issues that need to be ironed out. I got soft locked when I couldn't find an enemy i needed to kill a few times. Nothing a reload of the last checkpoint couldn't solve. Sometimes the enemies (especially the drones) act strangely, and i did have the occasional framerate dip. Overall, a visual treat. Recommend!

Skystrider is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The art direction is so well thought out down to the smallest of details like the stylization of the shooting stars for the heavy attacks. Everything in the level design and world building feels cohesive and believable, plus the character designs are GREAT! I don't usually play platformers, but the mechanics are a lot of fun. It's so satisfying to hit a combo while traversing the map: wall running, dashing towards an enemy and hitting them with a heavy attack. I also appreciate that the game gives enough direction to push you in the right direction, but still allows the player to think and learn how the game work. That just makes it all the more rewarding. What else can I say. You can tell the dev team poured a lot of love into this one.

Nice Fast fun platforming, great movement and combat, and gorgeous art to boot, would recommend giving it a try.

🔶 [b] Skystrider is a 3d platform game will some battle system, embark in a new abandoned world …[/b] 🔶 [h2] Graphics (7 / 10) : [/h2] Great graphics, multiples atmospheres (Old Ruin, Islands …) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3331243731 [h2] Gameplay (6 / 10) : [/h2] Base gameplay is good, character is pretty easily to handle with a dash ability. Combat system is also overall good again base enemy, with a grappling hook for reaching flying enemy, and open some mechanics in exploration. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3331242981 Boss battle can be annoying, because of some lack of explanation, and can be easily surrounded by too many attacks, and hard to attack boss weak point (take me 5 tries for defeat the first main boss) Also get softlock sometimes, falling into the void or blocked in a block, need to reload into last save … [h2] Price (4 / 10) : [/h2] Game cost 8€, and take around 2h for main complexion, pretty short game, and too high price with big lack of replayability (can’t replay previous chapters without a new save) [h2] Story/Music/Optimization (5 / 10) : [/h2] Some story., with some detail about the history of the old ruin https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3331243850 The music is good, with some sound design, but not many different types of music in the game (exploration and battle music are the same) Weak optimization (played on a i5; RAM = 8Go; VRAM = 2Go), have some drop of fps in some part of the game, and many bugs / glitches (falling into the void, blocked on the floor, need to reload to last checkpoint) [h2] Final Note (5,5 / 10) : [/h2] 🔶 [b] Skystrider is a fun 3d platform, with a solid gameplay, but really too short and with too much bugs, glitch and lack of replayability for full recommended on the current state[b] 🔶 💚💚💚 : - Nice graphics - Simple solid base gameplay ❌❌❌ : - Really too short (will be good to have optional mission, like time trial into some section in the game after game completed) - Lack of finition (bugs & glitches, only one save without the possibility of replaying the previous chapters) - Bossfight can be annoying because of lack of some explanation [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] [/url] for more reviews like this one. [/quote]

Beautiful game, wonderful and dynamic art direction!

Things I loved: The art was beautiful, it all worked together - nothing looked out of place. Top Shelf. The soundtrack - solid, especially the cello. The platforming/wall running/ parkour was my favorite part of the game play - felt very fluid and once you get a sense of the map you can really haul ass through it. Very satisfying. I also love that there's no HUD/UI so you can fully enjoy the scenery. Things I liked: The combat was good, but it left a bit to be desired for me - I did like the grapple feature used in combat to take shields off/ grapple to enemies, etc. Things I didn't like: The floaty crystal turrets/enemies that shoot at you can eat my ass ( not a design criticism, I just didn't like those enemies xD ) Final thoughts: Overall I enjoyed the game - excellent project. If you like trying new indie games in general - I would recommend giving this one a shot!

I bought this game and loved the premise, game play, visuals and soundtrack. But it was so buggy that it literally deleted my first save. When I made a 2nd one and got to about 1/3rd the way through, it literally bricked my game. I would respawn and just be free falling through the floor. When I would exit out and go back in, same issue. Its not a hardware issue because my PC runs everything at Ultra. I posted on the discord for help and was ignored. I sent a bug report in and was ignored. I'll give grace for games that are buggy because its hard making games, but to straight up ignore your player base when they're TRYING to play your game feels really bad. I refunded this game but if the devs actually fix the bugs and make it playable, I'll buy it again. When it worked, it was fun as hell! But it barely works as is.

Such a lovely experience. It ended up feeling very reminiscent of gameplay from favorites such as Journey and the Nier series through agile movements and satisfying free-flowing platforming. The environment is beautiful and vibrant, and your progression through the game is highlighted decently through save points and stimulating puzzles to unlock your next path forward. My only complaint is that it isn't longer. & that there aren't breakables .. <3

Skystrider's base price where i live is 7.79€ so I set out to play it for 8 hours to see if the game is your monies worth I finished the game in under 2 hours. I made a video about the game on my youtube channel: https://youtu.be/3Y4xFoWQo_4 I rated the game on these three simple categories: Gameplay (2/5) Content (2/5) Monies Worth (2/5) Skystrider doesn't feel finished. The game is very short and there are a lot of bugs that make it hard to play through. Movement needs to be on point in a action platformer, but sadly it is not. Needs a lot of tweaking and more content to be worth the pricetag.