Forward to the Sky

My first instinct with Forward to the Sky was to root for it. A small Taiwanese studio, a princess with a crystal broadsword, a crumbling sky tower told through scattered lore fragments. That setup has real quiet poetry to it, and for a game released in early 2015 on what was clearly a tight budget, there are genuine moments where the vision lands cleanly. The structure is a third-person action-platformer spread across six levels, each built around its own environmental gimmick. The first level keeps things grounded with spears and pushable crates. By the third you are contending with wind currents trying to push you off narrow ledges into the dark. The fourth has you spinning pillars to redirect energy into crystals that regenerate walkable ground beneath your feet. The fifth lets you ride boulders. Each floor of the tower earns its place conceptually, and the idea of parceling the story out through hidden crystals is genuinely clever. The fuller picture of what happened to this place is only stitched together if you explore carefully, and completing the game replays the collected narrative in sequence. That is a tidy little design choice that respects patient players. The soundtrack deserves a quiet mention. It sits in that particular register of peaceful, slightly melancholic adventuring music that you rarely notice while playing but miss when it stops. It suits the tower's atmosphere well, and the separately available original soundtrack has strong reviews of its own. Where the goodwill starts to fray is in the combat. The princess wields her broadsword via left and right mouse clicks, with a dash on spacebar and a backward roll on shift. In practice, the distinction between the two attack buttons is nearly invisible, the dodge mechanic is counterintuitive under pressure, and most encounters devolve into clicking until skeletons stop moving. Collision detection on traps is unreliable enough that you will take hits from hazards that visually missed you. The voice acting, available in both English and Japanese, skews toward stilted delivery that undercuts the charm the art direction builds up. The main menu is confusingly sparse and a small but telling sign that polish was unevenly distributed across the project. At its core, Forward to the Sky is a palate cleanser. It runs under two hours at a brisk pace, maybe three to four if you hunt every crystal for the full story. There are three difficulty settings for those who want a modest extra layer of stakes. A bonus monster wave mode and a crystal-collection tower run exist as side content. Nothing here is going to challenge a seasoned platformer player, but the game seems to understand that about itself. Steam users have rated it Very Positive over a substantial number of reviews, which speaks to how well it serves the audience actually looking for something low-pressure, anime-flavored, and done before bedtime. Critics and hardcore players are harsher, pointing to unpolished combat and short runtime as dealbreakers. Both camps are right. They are just measuring different things. If you want a gentle, lore-flavored climb through a crumbling sky tower with a princess who probably should not be swinging a sword that large, this delivers. If you want responsive action or a puzzle game that actually challenges you, the six levels will frustrate before they satisfy. Kai, Scout Team

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