Isles of Sea and Sky Steam Charts & Stats

The best sokoban I've played so far. Isles is a beautiful and charming puzzler steeped in retro style but suffused with style, personality, and clever challenging game design. The first thing that stands out is the vivid atmosphere. While it may look like a typical retro art style at first glance, the detailed animation brings the world to life. The main character is given so much personality too! From the subtle expressions, the way he falls asleep while you're thinking, and his many reactions to gameplay, he's very relatable and lovable. It's surprising how much charisma is added to the pixel art style by doing so little. On top of that, there's the incredible score by Craig Collver bringing a down-tempo world-music soundtrack that perfectly sets the ambience. Even the sound design adds so much with every rattle, clack, and drum beat uniquely complimenting the gameplay. The story is succinct and largely told through beautifully animated visuals. You begin washed up on the shores of an island and as you begin to explore and interact with objects you quickly get an understanding of how things work. The initial rush of exploration is Zelda-like, there's so much to discover and it's a joy to do so. The puzzle design is properly iterative, building on familiarity, and makes for a smooth difficulty curve. What's unique here though is the sheer mechanical variety. Soon you're travelling between elemental islands each with unique puzzle elements, then revealing new ways to interact with those elements, and then granting you advantages. The way puzzles evolve, combine, and evolve again feels natural and challenging as gameplay is rewarded with more gameplay. Between islands you're transported to a beautifully crafted world map to explore and it soon becomes apparent that this is a game that is burgeoning with secrets within secrets. I would say it's fair 90% of the time but it unfortunately does justify the paranoia of checking just about every single tile to see if there's a mystery behind it. And for those seeking a challenge there are optional sections that will definitely grant your wish, introducing entirely new fiendish ways to bend your brain. In all Isles is a highly charismatic entry in the sokoban series. It's rare you see a puzzle game this polished with as much style as it has substance. I wouldn't suggest it for novices to the genre as it can get very challenging even by the mid-way point, but for those who enjoy puzzles or the sokoban block-moving genre of them you'll be pleasantly rewarded from start to finish.

Puzzle games like these scratch a very particular itch, and I wish there were more of them. You are dropped into the game world pretty quick without long cutscenes or exposition. Just start and play. Mixing box-push puzzles with metroidvania-style exploration works super well. Great visuals and music, too. Really fw this one.

Brilliant game. Very inventive with the puzzles and abilities to help you solve the puzzles. Gentle difficulty curve initially but gets very tricky. Wholly recommended.

The puzzles are challenging but most of the mechanics are introduced in a simple way to help you learn what to do to solve them. There is a range of puzzles and ways to play.

Click add to cart, you wont regret it. This game is a true masterpiece. The game is somewhat difficult but very fair. The pacing is perfect, delivering a constant stream of fun mechanics, interactions and little secrets to keep you entertained while you solve increasingly complex puzzles.

very fun so far! the art reminds me of the original Link's Awakening. The puzzles are good and challenging but you can leave and come back later if you get stuck, which is nice.

I've always liked Sokoban games [i]conceptually[/i]. I love how they take one of the simplest game mechanics and give it such creative spins. However, I rarely finish Sokoban games because the difficulty curve tends to be mostly vertical past the half of the game. And then there is Isles of Sea and Sky. A Sokoban with progression full of secrets, neat interactions and tricky puzzles that I've just fully completed without looking at a guide once. I understand that Sokoban players might look for that vertical difficulty curve but, for me, this game just hit the spot. There is a short assortment of games that I consider perfect, meaning that, for every design choice, I can't think of a better way to do it. With these games, I go a full playthrough without thinking once 'man, this game is lacking [...]' or 'this would be better if they did it like [...]'. With how many systems conform even the simplest of games, I find that an incredible achievement, and it's one that Isles of Sea and Sky holds.

This game is incredible! More people should play it. The puzzles can be difficult, but it's so deeply satisfying to solve them - like beating a Dark Souls boss, except it's relaxing instead of thrilling. And the open world lets you explore and try other puzzles if you get stuck on one. The variety of mechanics was a really nice surprise. The discovery of them is part of the fun, so don't spoil yourself on them if you can avoid it.

A very, very good puzzle game that's really scratching that Oracle of Ages itch that I've had since playing the game the first time. The entire world's a nice complicated little puzzle box and there's metroidvania elements wherein you sometimes need to leave to find new tools to solve the problem. Which makes exploration feel exciting because I never know what cool new toy I'm going to get next that helps open up the possibility space. And said toys have been very cool. I've been left gasping with giddy excitement with each new one I find. I've heard that there was work done on the conveyance in the recent patches in this regard. I can't speak on the game's launch state, but where I'm at now I can say that whatever issues there were do seem to be fixed. I haven't really had an issue with figuring out that I'm not supposed to be somewhere yet. This mixed with the open nature of the game makes dealing with the frustrations of a puzzle game a fair bit easier. I will say that there have been two puzzles that I got stuck on and needed to look up. I don't mind this really, but the lack of dialogue based hints like in Zelda games can leave a few of the non-block pushing puzzle puzzles feeling a wee bit opaque. The music and the art is also beautiful. I'm definitely going to have things like the Frozen Spire's theme stuck in my head for a while. The sound effects are pleasant too. They have that GBC-esque charm that really pulls the game together. It makes the whole game a delight to play. Overall Isles of Sea and Sky is a very good game and I'm eager to keep figuring out its secrets. If you like sokoban games and if you liked the GBC Zeldas and especially Oracle of Ages it's definitely a game to try out.

While I am a puzzle neophyte and lover of block puzzle games, I was intrigued by Isles of Sea and Sky. The metroidvania and open world elements particularly piqued my interest. However, actually playing it, I quickly realized that this was not at all the game for me. The visuals are solid and the music is atmospheric and fantastic. I do like how easy and difficult puzzles can be right next to each other, giving you a sense of openness of how to approach tasks. However, my decision to abandon the game hinges on two things that are core to this gaming experience. The first thing that really frustrated me is that there is little (no?) dialogue or ingame explanation for how mechanics work. This is not too bad at the immediate start, but the Tidal Reef (second/third main area) throws both changing water levels with unclear explanations of how the water blocks work as new mechanics simultaneously and it was too much for me. Instead of feeling victorious "aha!" moments at stumbling into an explanation, I felt like throwing my hands up in the air in exhaustion. The other aspect that really frustrated me is that it is not clear looking at a puzzle in a room if you can complete it with the tools you have on hand or if you would need an upgrade that you would get significantly later in the game. This paired with me not really understanding the mechanics made me seek out discussions online to see if this changes as the game progresses. The verdict was that it does not. These are deliberate design choices that may make this game hit for some people, but it did not for me. I did enjoy aspects of Isles of Sea and Sky and would be tempted to check out any additional games by the developers. This was clearly made with love, it just isn't for me.