Paying homage to the dark side-scrollers who had paved (or, rather side scrolled) the way before it – Limbo, Inside, and Little Nightmares to name just a few – Ayasa: Shadows of Silence adds another spooky adventure narrative to the list, but it comes complete with its spin and, yes, its nightmares.

The opening cinematic plays out like a paranormal fever dream: Immediately, you witness the world you know seemingly implode from a nuclear blast, leaving demonic, evil, tree mutants to roam the earth, capturing all living human survivors and using them for slavery. Moments later, a young human gets dropped into the world, surviving the terrifying explosion. Before you can say “atomic”, the tree/demon spawn from hell reveals its ghastly arms of doom, reaching out to grab you and suck you back down into the void. You have but only one choice here: RUN!

Most horror/dark-themed side-scrollers have the protagonist inside a dark room/factory/house/hell. Ayasa flips what works, sending the protagonist outside into a ravaged dark woodland forest. Through trials and platforming-based puzzle solving, the effective visuals and scenery evolve from the outskirts of a shell-shocked, immolated forest to a bomb-ravaged town.

While the overall art style in Ayasa is somewhat simple, the devil in the detail gives Ayasa its edge.  Another strong factor with Ayasa is its impressive SFX and soundtrack. One could argue that the team Aya Games may have gone out and recorded all hits, creaks, snaps, and cracks – they’re that clear and crisp, and they’re thoroughly impressive.

Beneath its ghoulish overtone, Ayasa’s underlining storyline deals with the effects of society and war, with its implications and long-term damage reflected in its in-game world known as The Inverted World. The Inverted World is divided into 6 parts: Faith, Hope, Love, Greed, Indifference, and Betrayal, with its own story, showcasing how each entity would suffer and heal from the damage inflicted upon it.

The puzzles and platforming are uniquely presented and executed, but Ayasa once again creates its place in the side-scrolling world by offering alternative methods to complete them. Again, simplistic sounding in nature, it does leave you pleasantly happy to overcome a puzzling hurdle, but it also questions if how you solved said puzzle was “the right way”, or had you just gotten lucky.

That said, the game is not without its complications and bugs, if you will. During the beginning of the game, there is a ton of hand-holding/tutorials to introduce you to the world and its controls. Shortly thereafter, you encounter your first enemy. There is no guidance, control map or options for overcoming or dealing with your first aggressor.

Whether this was a creative choice by the team or a bug, it’s undecided. But compared to mere in-game moments beforehand, it Is a sharp swerve from the handling that took place earlier. Climbing Obstacles has a painful two-button keyboard combination that no mortal should endure, especially on a visually stimulating and engaging narrative-heavy game such as Ayasa.

If you’re a fan of dark/gloomy/horror/ atmospheric side-scrollers/ platformers and have the patience of a saint, Ayasa: Shadows of Silence is shaping up to be another strong addition to the genre. Here’s hoping that technical changes will allow this game to reach its well-deserved heights.

Written by: Brutaleo