"Aer: Memories of Old" Review: Like "Journey," but not good

To say that I found Aer: Memories of Old disappointing would be a colossal understatement. It isn't like I've been waiting for it, considering I didn't know it existed until the day before it released, but it doesn't take following the game's progress to understand what potential Aer had. It has all the trappings of a successful Journey-esque game: A unique art style, a potential endearing protagonist, an emphasis on music, the whole nine yards. However, Aer fails to compellingly do...well...anything. Beyond the art style and the stable framerate, Aer simply does nothing well, and I couldn't be more upset to have to write this review. Well, let's get this over with.

In Aer, you play as Auk. Auk has the power to transform into a bird, and she is on a pilgrimage to visit three shrines dedicated to a hero from the ancient world who ensured humanity's survival after the world suddenly split into a series of floating islands. Ok, so hopefully you can see what I mean when I say this game showed some potential. That right there is an interesting, unique premise and world concept. The mythology of the world appears to be (if my Religion major doesn't fail me now) based off of Native American folklore, and that in itself is an interesting idea. However, the mythology and the world itself feel entirely divorced from each other. Nothing in the entire game map (save for writings that talk about the mythology) supports the idea that these events occurred. There's no sense of history to this world, even in the section of the map dedicated to a massive, ruined city. Everything that should feel old just doesn't. These ruined cities look like the rest of the buildings in the game, just with a few more holes. All in all, it just feels like the world came first and the story came later, but no effect was made to bridge the two.
What's more, the story isn't delivered in an intriguing way. In Journey, for instance, story was drip fed through atmospheric cutscenes rich with music and interesting animations. In Aer: Memories of Old, you're told the story (poorly translated to English and sometimes in colors that make the text invisible in front of the background, I might add) through uninspired text boxes. This only adds to the feeling of separation between story and world. If I'd been shown something like a painting of the events of the backstory, that would do wonders for the believability, but as it stands, all we get are bland text boxes and no physical context. Look, the trophies say that there are shrines to the various spirit animals and ancient battlegrounds and things like that. But if these things exist, they exist outside of the areas you need to reach in order to beat the game. If your world's connection to the lore exists exclusively in optional areas, it's in the wrong place. Take Breath of the Wild as an example of how to handle lore bridging correctly. You can constantly see the stakes in the main world, but some of the juicier tidbits are in optional places, making these optional places tantalizing to seek out. In Aer, if you want any bridge between the lore and the world, you'll have to go out of your way to look for it. It isn't our job as players to find these things, it's the job of the developer to make sure that their world's sense of place is ever-present. The long and short of it is that Aer had such a unique concept, but it went and squandered it.

Unfortunately, the gameplay isn't much better. As I mentioned, Auk can transform into a bird. This is how you'll navigate through the floating islands. However, that is literally the only purpose of the shapeshifting. To me, it felt like the shapeshifting was only there to justify the series of floating islands idea, and that's all well and good, but flying as a bird is essentially no different from walking as a human save for a tad bit more speed. It just felt like an unnecessary addition when it should have been an aspect to set this game apart from the others. But I digress. Most of the gameplay involves traveling through the series of boring island after boring island in search for the correct boring island to get to shrines. We're off to a...flying...start. You're only given the direction the island is in, so you'll end up spending most of the approximately two hour runtime landing on boring island after boring island hoping you've found the right one. Once you arrive at the correct boring island, you'll need to flip a boring switch in order to get into the admittedly not-boring shrines. Once in the shrine, you'll have to complete an incredibly simple puzzle in order to get a key to a temple. Then you'll have to repeat step 1 looking for the temple, and once you get to the temple, you'll need to complete a series of equally simple puzzles in order to receive a piece of the deus ex machina item. Oh yeah, that's another part of the story. Humanity is about to be wiped out by a dark force called "The void." It should come as no surprise, given what I've already said, but you wouldn't know humanity was going to be wiped out just by looking at the world.
Anyway, as I've mentioned, the puzzles are pretty simple, but that descriptor only applies to the puzzles that deal with logic. Sometimes this game will decide it's been boring you for too long and will instead decide to piss you off with a poorly implemented platforming section. In shrines and temples, you can't transform into a bird (which once again makes me question its necessity if it isn't going to be used in puzzle solving), so you'll have to rely on the game's floaty, barely controllable jumping. Needless to say, it doesn't work well. So, look forward to falling, and falling, and falling, and falling, and falling over and over and over again until you manage to point Auk in exactly the right direction and jump at exactly the right time. There aren't a lot of these platforming puzzles, which is a blessing, but the little that exists is far too much.

Last thing to touch on is the game's technical prowess. As I mentioned, the art style is pretty to look at and the framerate stays consistent, so credit where credit is due. However, the load times are pretty drastic for such a small game. The soundtrack is ok. That's it. Not good, not bad, it just kind of exists. I can appreciate the wide variety of instruments (including mandolin, synthesizer of some kind, and banjo), but this wide variety wasn't used for anything too compelling.

I'm writing this review the same day that I finished this game. When I got off of work today, I was ready to delve back into Middle Earth: Shadow of War (which I have my qualms with, but that's a story for another day). Then I suddenly remembered that I had to finish Aer and I thought, "Aw, man. I have to finish Aer. Gah, I hope it's almost over." Ignoring for a second the fact that I hoped it was almost over, I'd forgotten about it the day after I started. That's the kind of game this is. To top it all off, the game ends with just about the least epic non-interactive boss fight cutscene I've ever seen. Folks, don't buy this game. Its asking price of $15.00 is way too high for the lack of quality within. Your money is better spent on Journey or even Abzu, a game I didn't like. Before I go into the breakdown, I want to reiterate that this isn't an angry tone review. This is a disappointed tone review. This is a review wherein I saw a game with potential, then watched as it squandered every last bit of it, ensuring that it will end up forgotten before the year is up. That, to me, is sad.

Let us review:

Poor sense of location - 1.0
Pointless bird gameplay - 2.0
Terrible platforming -6.0
90% of gameplay is boring island hopping - 1.0
I actively wanted not to play it after one day - 1.0

The final score for Aer: Memories of Old is..

6.2/10 - Slightly Above Average
Better luck next time, Forgotten Key, better luck next time.