Isles of Sea and Sky is an open-world Sokoban game

Sometimes it just makes sense to turn a linear game into an open world. Whether it is Fire ring or Breath of the Wildmany franchises have found that their core gameplay loops translate well to an open-world iteration. With Fire ringyou can spread the intense FromSoft difficulty level across a map that invites players to “get good” at their own pace. With Breath of the Wildthe entire world is now a dungeon, every hill and valley a puzzle. Playing both, it almost feels like each franchise and its mechanics are just waiting to be spread across a sprawling map. They just feel right.

In contrast, Islands of the sea and skyan open world Sokoban game, is not quite so obvious. But just because something is not immediately obvious doesn’t mean it won’t work.

Published at the end of May, Islands of the sea and sky uses the Game Boy Color era Zelda and strives for a genre mashup that creates harmony and dissonance in equal parts. The game makes a great first impression. It evokes the feeling of playing Link’s Awakening DX (before the remake), to the point where you would be forgiven for not seeing one of the Islands‘ Beaches for awakening‘s. Switching from screen to screen is a nostalgic pleasure, with a Vocaloid-enriched soundtrack this gives the game even more personality, which is good because at its core, with or without an open world, this is a Sokoban game in the Sokoban style.

They will push blocks into Islands of the sea and sky. You will push many, many standard blocks into standard holes, allowing you to cross those holes to push more blocks. You will also push things that are not blocks, like small boulders (definitely not Gorons) that roll as far as they can in the direction you push them, crushing any crates they come across. Or little watermen that can extend river courses if you push them downstream. The puzzles start off simple and introduce you to the game’s increasing difficulty, screen by screen, until you’re finally stumped. And when you’re stumped, you’ll have to grapple with the contradictions inherent in the game. Islands‘ Mixture of freedom and linearity.

Image: Cicada Games

One of the appeals of Sokoban games is the basic idea that even if you feel frustrated with a single puzzle, you still have the skills to complete the level. Then, at each level, you just need to think and go through what you have already tried and what you haven’t tried yet. You’re stuck, but you don’t lack anything you need to find the solution.

Not so in Islands of the sea and sky. Early on, you’ll be faced with puzzles that you can’t solve until you unlock a new ability. While many games feature this kind of lock-and-key design where you have to unlock an ability first before you can access certain areas, this goes against genre expectations for Sokoban titles. In Islandsthe player could reasonably expect that if he gets stuck, he will just have to keep trying different solutions. With such a mentality, you can get through games like Baba are you or A monster expedition. The solution is there. You just have to stick with it. In contrast IslandsYou’re often told to move on, to travel elsewhere on the map and in the game’s overworld. In short, you’re told to give up when you get frustrated.

At first, I was completely overwhelmed by this dynamic. How am I supposed to know when I don’t understand a puzzle and when I lack the ability to solve it? When is my frustration an intentional part of the solution and when is it pointless? To his great credit, I must say, Islands goes out of its way to reduce this frustration by allowing the player to rewind their actions step by step or reset the entire puzzle at any time, each with the press of a button. But you can’t rewind the real time you invest in the game. You can’t undo the minutes you spend banging your head against the wall, stubbornly trying to solve something you just can’t. When I came across this, I wondered why someone would design a game this way when they must know that players will get stuck this way.

That’s when it dawned on me. You know that’s how players get stuck.

To be blunt, 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. That can be a good trait (perseverance and all), but it can also be a problem (see my description of banging my head against the wall above). Traditional Sokoban titles are designed for that kind of player – someone like me who spends hours trying different things until they finally figure something out. The folks at Cicada Games clearly love this genre, as evidenced by the sheer number and variety of puzzles they’ve packed into it. Islandsbut what they clearly don’t like is the feeling of being stuck with no way out and not being able to move on.

Not to quote a meme, but to quote a meme: Islands of the sea and sky is here to say “Just get out. You can go!!!” What started out as frustration with the game for me turned into a kind of self-reflection as I paused to consider why exactly I felt the need to remain frustrated when I could just quit at any time, or, to quote the preeminent philosopher of our generation: dasharez0ne“Hit da Bricks!!!” Sure, there are some areas you can’t access until you’ve solved at least a certain number of puzzles, but in general, you can leave behind almost anything that’s too frustrating in Islands and find something you’d rather be doing. The challenge, at least in my case, was allowing myself to do that.

As I have argued before, Sokoban games are not necessarily suited to an open-world version. Their inherent linearity is at odds with a style of play known for its variety and, well, openness. The concentration required of the player feels categorically different from the desirable distraction of asking, “What’s over that hill?” With Islands of the sea and skyin particular, there is an immediate dissonance between the way you want to play a block-sliding puzzle game and the way you are supposed to play The Block sliding puzzle game. But dissonance can dissolve into consonance, into harmony and stability, and into IslandsIn this case, you will not only be pushed to accept the limitation, but also to feel the desire to free yourself from it.

For me, it was difficult at first to consider continuing as a valid strategy because I had become so used to overcoming mental blocks, both in Sokoban titles and in life. But once I did, I realized that this mentality goes beyond the game. Does stubbornness help or hurt here? Do I have to endure this feeling? Why do I consider continuing as giving up?

Ultimately, I was happy to play a game that encouraged this kind of self-reflection. Islands of the sea and sky made me take a step back, reassess the situation, and move on. Maybe you can do the same.

Islands of the sea and sky was released on May 22nd for Windows PCs. The game was tested with code from Cicada Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These have no influence on editorial content, but Vox Media may receive commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. You can find Further information on Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.