Sometimes it just makes sense to convert a linear game into an open world. Whether it’s Old Ring or Breath of the WildernessMany franchises have found that their core gameplay loops are well-suited to an open-world iteration. With Old Ringallows you to spread the intense FromSoft difficulty across a map that invites players to “git gud” at their own pace. With Breath of the Wildernessthe whole world is a dungeon now, every hill and valley a puzzle. Playing both, it almost feels like each franchise and its mechanics are just waiting to be spread out across a vast map. They just feel right.
On the other hand, Islands of sea and skyan open world Sokoban game, isn’t such an obvious fit. But just because something isn’t immediately obvious doesn’t mean it won’t work.
Cicada Games’s game, which was released in late May, Islands of sea and sky uses Game Boy Color era Zelda aesthetics in a quest to create a genre mashup that produces harmony and dissonance in equal parts. The game makes a great first impression. It evokes that feeling of playing Link’s Awakening DX (pre-remake), to the point where you’d be forgiven for confusing either one Islands‘ beaches for Awakening‘s. Going from screen to screen is a nostalgic joy, with a Vocaloid-esque soundtrack That gives the game even more personality, and that’s a good thing, because at its core, open world or not, this is a Sokoban-esque Sokoban game.
You push blocks in Islands of sea and sky. You push lots of standard blocks into standard holes, which allows you to go over those holes to push more blocks. You also push things that aren’t blocks, like small boulders (absolutely not Gorons) that roll as far as they can in the direction you push them, crushing any boxes they come across. Or little water boys, who can extend rivers if you push them downstream. The puzzles start out easy, and slowly ease you into the game’s increasing difficulty, one screen at a time, until you eventually get stuck. And when you do get stuck, you’ll find yourself running into the contradictions inherent in Islands‘ mix of freedom and linearity.
Image: Cicada Games
One of the joys of Sokoban games is the underlying idea that, while you may feel frustrated by an individual puzzle, you always have the skills to get through the level. Each stage is then simply a matter of thinking and working through what you have tried and haven’t tried yet. You are stuck, sure, but you are not missing anything you need to reach the solution.
Not so in Islands of sea and sky. Early in the game, you’re presented with puzzles that you can’t complete until you unlock a new ability. While many games feature this kind of lock-and-key design, where you have to unlock an ability before you can access certain areas, it goes against the genre’s expectations for Sokoban titles. IslandsThe player can reasonably expect that if they are stuck, they should just keep trying different solutions. Such a mindset will get you through similar games as Baba are you or The expedition of a monster. The solution is there. You just have to keep going with it. Unlike Islandsyou are often meant to move on, to travel somewhere else in the game’s map and overworld. In short, you are meant to give up when you get frustrated.
At first I felt frustrated by this dynamic. How am I supposed to know when I don’t understand a puzzle and when I’m unable to solve it? When is my frustration an intended part of the solution and when is it pointless? To his immense credit, Islands does its best to alleviate some of this frustration by allowing the player to undo their actions step by step or reset the entire puzzle at any time, each with the press of a button. But you can’t undo the actual time you put into the game. You can’t undo the minutes you’ve spent beating your head against the wall, stubbornly trying to solve something you just can’t. When I encountered this, I wondered why anyone would design a game this way, if they knew players would get stuck this way.
Then it hit me. They know players get stuck here.
Full disclosure: I can be a bit stubborn. I like to think of myself as a creative problem solver, but my general approach is to stick with something until it’s done. This can be a good trait (tenacity and all), but it can also be a problem (see: my description of banging my head against a wall above). Traditional Sokoban titles are designed with this type of player in mind – someone like me, who spends hours trying different things until they finally figure it out. The folks at Cicada Games clearly love this genre, which is evident from the sheer number and variety of puzzles they’ve crammed into it Islandsbut what they clearly don’t like is the feeling of being stuck and having no way out, of not being able to move on.
Not to quote a meme, but to quote a meme: Islands of sea and sky is here to say “Just walk away. You can go!!!” What started out as a frustration with the game for me turned into a bit of self-reflection as I thought about why exactly I felt the need to remain frustrated when I could have just left at any time, or, to quote the most eminent philosopher of our generation: dashaarez0ne“hit da bricks!!!” Sure, there are some areas you can’t reach until you’ve completed at least a certain number of puzzles, but generally speaking, you can leave anything too frustrating behind. Islands and find something you’d rather be doing. The challenge, at least in my case, was to allow myself to do that.
As I’ve argued, Sokoban games aren’t exactly suited to an open-world iteration. Their inherent linearity clashes with a style of play best known for its variety and, well, openness. The focus expected of the player feels categorically different from the desirable distraction of asking, “What’s over that hill?” With Islands of sea and skyIn particular, there is an immediate dissonance between the way you expect to play a block puzzle game and the way you are supposed to play it this block-pushing puzzle game. But dissonance can transform into consonance, into harmony and stability, and into IslandsIn that case, you are not only forced to accept limitations, but also to free yourself.
For me, it was hard to see moving on as a valid strategy at first, because I had become so used to the habit of pushing through mental blocks, both in Sokoban titles and in life. But once I did, I discovered that this mentality extended beyond the game. Does stubbornness help or hurt here? Should I stay in this feeling? Why do I think that moving on is the same as giving up?
Ultimately, I enjoyed playing a game that inspired this kind of self-reflection. Islands of sea and sky challenged me to take a step back, reassess and move forward. Maybe it will do the same for you.
Islands of sea and sky was released on May 22 on Windows PC. The game was reviewed with code provided by Cicada Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.