Imagine a super minimal/compact Wind Waker taking place in a floating world in the likes of Skyward Sword. AER: Memories of Old is a mesmerizing, Adventure/Puzzle experience that will have you soaring through endless skies, discovering ancient ruins in vividly colored islands and uncovering mysteries inside legendary temples and caves. All you have is a magic lantern, the A button and your hunger for discovery.
The polygonal graphics look pretty unique in their simplicity while the ambient music is accurately completing the atmosphere at all times. It’s breezy when you’re freely flying over the Land of The Gods and mystical when you’re in the depths of temples and caves exploring.
The dialogue is limited to old scrolls and inscriptions for the ‘human’ characters are no more than 4-5 and they are there to only give you some basic guidelines. Sometimes it feels as if the inscriptions are unnecessarily many and maybe over-explanatory for a pilgrimage as simple and linear as that but it doesn’t take away any of the game’s magic if you don’t overthink or over-analyze it. Also, if I had to talk about flaws, I would only speak about the camera being problematic at times, mostly when flying but still, it did not steal any of the fun I had while playing.
If you’re looking for a long, deep adventure, AER is not for you but I can assure you that the game feels a lot greater than the 3-6 hours you’ll need to finish it and that’s something I rarely come across. Congratulations to the team of Forgotten Key for giving birth to this gem. Truly looking forward to what is coming next!
SCORE: 8.5/10
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