I hate flying games. In fact, I absolutely despise them. Ever since I played Pilotwings way back on the Super Nintendo, I never understood the appeal. From the constant view adjustments to the shifting windspeeds, the whole experience reeked of hassle and nitpicky attention to detail. But Aer: Memories of Old from Forgotten Key and Daedalic Entertainment is different. It’s soaring and expansive, relaxing where other games leave me tense as hell. You soar through clouds and past floating islands to drift to caves, ruins, and more. It’s unlike any flying game I’ve ever played before. In a word, it’s quite literally majestic.
In Aer, you play Auk, a young girl who can shapeshift to an eagle and back. She’s on a pilgrimage to visit the temples of gods and follow in the footsteps of the first bird shifter, Karah. The story is beautiful, well-crafted, and just as minimalist as the game itself. You can delve into the lore of the game if you choose to find and read tablets and scrolls strewn across the land or you can simply follow the flow of the story and find yourself racing from temple to temple to complete your pilgrimage.
Along the way you’ll find quite a few spirit animals, a handful of other humans, and a lot of mysterious ruins. But as you explore, the main thing that you’ll notice is how beautiful everything is. With a game like Aer, it’s easy to forget that this is an indie title. Sure, the graphics are ultra-minimalist with blocky polygons, but in this case, it’s charming. There’s no need for high detail environments as you’re flapping quickly by, and the stylized artwork lends itself well to the low poly count. On top of that, animals, clouds, and brush all interact as you pass by, both in human form and in bird form. Simply double tap the A button and you’re soaring away. Tap it again and you’ve shifted to a girl again. Even at high speed when you shift back to human and rocket towards a small bit of floating land, you’ll gently land on the ground, no matter the angle. This defeats any feat you might have of falling.
The controls are as smooth as butter too. Flying is an absolute joy and it’s so intuitive that it’s hard to imagine any other configuration. You soar, flap, and bank at will, zipping through everything around. Hit something and you’ll instantly shift back to human, but it’s no big deal because even if you fall, you can simply switch back to bird form instantly. On land, you run and jump about with ease, making it simple to navigate the Zelda-like dungeons. While they are somewhat reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda series, the puzzles in Aer are always fairly straightforward. Not once was I particularly stuck in the game which is good and bad. Good because it lends itself well to the sense of flow of the game and bad because there’s never really a sense of actual challenge. The one thing that Aer: Memories of Old is not is difficult.
From start to finish, Aer is likely only going to take you around 4-5 hours. It’s not a long game. Sure, you can maybe draw that out a little by flying to every single miniature island or looking for achievements, but not by a whole lot. There are also no enemies in the game, so you don’t have to worry about combat at all. Aer is just an open world flight game with some light puzzling elements. If you’re looking for any sort of challenge, look elsewhere because this game is very straightforward. However, it does have a particularly calming effect, much like the feeling I got from games like Journey and Flower. There’s something soothing about soaring through the clouds alighting on various islands and then taking off to explore again. The music reinforces that feeling and the peaceful soundtrack perfectly complements the leisurely gameplay.
The only real negative I experienced with Aer was playing in undocked mode on the Switch. It has nothing to do with any technical aspects though, so never fear. Instead, it’s simply that the game feels too small and contained on the smaller screen of the Switch than it does while docked. It’s just not expansive enough and the feeling of flying is somehow diminished by not being on a 55” TV. This is a game that simply screams for a big screen. The bigger, the better in fact.
Aside from the creation myths and other story elements, there’s not much else to tell about Aer. It tells its story well, sports impressively clean and well-designed gameplay, and has virtually no bugs except for the occasional camera glitch at an odd angle. It’s a fun game to play, but it’s a bit more too. Aer is as much an experience as it is a game and it’s definitely a fantastic way to spend an afternoon. At $20, you’re not losing out, especially if you enjoy the game as much as I did. I can’t actually remember the last time I had as much fun with a simple game as I have with Aer, and that’s high praise. The fun factor seems to be missing from a lot of titles these days and it does seem like the sadly defunct studio Forgotten Key had their finger on the pulse of what makes a game surpass its trappings and become memorable. Do yourself a favor and spend some time with Aer: Memories of Old. It’s time well-spent.
This review is based on a digital copy of Aer: Memories of Old supplied by the publisher. The game was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes. All photos are from actual gameplay. I’m going to go be an eagle now. *flies away*