Aery: Broken Memories

In Aery: Broken Memories, players assume the role of a little bird soaring through the fragmented thoughts, fears, and memories of an unknown person, set in a surreal fantasy world. This simulation adventure blends atmospheric flight mechanics with immersive exploration, allowing players to navigate beautiful landscapes while uncovering a narrative-driven story that emphasizes emotional connection and peaceful discovery.

Aery: Broken Memories: A Flight of Fancy Grounded by Fractured Execution

Introduction

In the vast, ever-expanding cosmos of indie gaming, few experiences capture the imagination quite like soaring through the ethereal landscapes of the human subconscious. Aery: Broken Memories (2020), the sophomore effort by German developer EpiXR Games UG, promises exactly this: a meditative journey as a small bird, tasked with piecing together the shattered memories of a comatose child to bring them back to consciousness. It arrives amidst a lineage of atmospheric explorers like Journey and Abzu, carrying the weight of high expectations for emotional resonance and tranquil beauty. Yet, while its core concept is undeniably enchanting, the game’s journey from vision to reality is one of profound compromise. This review will dissect Aery: Broken Memories not merely as a product, but as a case study in ambition colliding with execution, revealing a title where breathtaking vistas and a soothing soundscape are perpetually undermined by frustrating design and technical instability. Its legacy, therefore, is one of unrealized potential— a beautiful dream scarred by the jagged edges of its own making.

Development History & Context

EpiXR Games UG, a small independent studio founded by Marcus R. G. Söderqvist, crafted Aery: Broken Memories as part of a sprawling series (Aery) centered on flight and introspection. Following the modest VR release of Aery VR in 2019, the studio aimed to translate the sensation of unburdened flight and emotional exploration to broader platforms. Their stated vision, echoing across the Steam store and official site, was to “put a smile on your face and brighten up your day”—a laudable goal rooted in creating accessible, stress-free experiences. Technologically, the game was ambitious for its scope, boasting 15 distinct, open-ended landscapes across Windows, macOS, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and even the niche Atari VCS. This multi-platform push reflected a desire for widespread accessibility but also hinted at the resource constraints inherent in a small development team. Released in August 2020, it arrived in a market saturated with narrative-driven walking simulators and atmospheric indies. While titles like Spiritfarer and Outer Wilds were redefining the genre’s depth, Aery: Broken Memories positioned itself not as a complex epic, but as a brief, emotionally resonant vignette—a “flying traveler” whose journey, as the Japanese subtitle The Flying Traveler: Broken Memories suggests, was meant to be light and uplifting. However, the technical limitations of the era, particularly on less powerful consoles like the Switch, would prove critical to its reception.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

The narrative premise of Aery: Broken Memories is its strongest asset, operating on a fascinating metaphorical level. You are thrust into the mind of an unnamed individual (strongly implied to be a child) in a coma, taking the form of a small, anonymous bird. Your quest is to locate “memory shards”—glittering, crystalline collectibles scattered across surreal mental landscapes. Each shard recovered unlocks a fragment of narration, ostensibly designed to reveal the comatose person’s personality, fears, and formative moments. The underlying themes of memory, identity, and the fragility of the human psyche are inherently potent. The game posits that consciousness is a construct of interconnected recollections, and healing requires piecing them together, even when broken. This exploration of unfulfilled dreams (“imagine being on a boat”) and the nature of self-motivation offers a foundation for genuine pathos. However, the execution of this narrative is fundamentally flawed. The narration, delivered in a soft, whispery tone, frequently veers into inanity (“I love dogs”) or pseudo-profundity that lacks emotional weight. The child’s identity remains frustratingly vague; we learn little beyond generic snippets, making it impossible for the player to form a meaningful attachment. The progression from shard to shard feels mechanical rather than revelatory, reducing the potentially profound journey of memory reconstruction into a checklist. The story’s potential depth is buried under a thin veneer of abstract exploration, leaving the central mystery—the why of the coma, the nature of the child—unexplored and unresolved. This thematic shallowness prevents the game from achieving the emotional catharsis it so clearly strives for.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

At its core, Aery: Broken Memories offers a simple, elegant loop: fly, explore, collect. The bird controls are designed to be intuitive and fluid, described by the developer as “responsive” and “smooth.” Pitch, roll, and acceleration feel natural, evoking a sense of weightless freedom. The absence of enemies, combat, or failure states (beyond falling off the world, which respawns you) aligns perfectly with the stated goal of creating a relaxing, meditative experience. Progression is linear and driven by two key collectibles: Memory Shards and Feathers. Shards are the primary objective for each of the 15 levels; collecting all shards in an area unlocks the next. Feathers, collected from other birds, serve as the meta-progression key to unlocking entirely new mental landscapes. This dual system provides clear goals and a sense of incremental achievement. However, the implementation of these mechanics is where the game falters spectacularly. The most egregious flaw is the instant environmental reset mechanic. Any contact between the bird and any object in the world—a tree trunk, a rock face, a temple pillar—immediately teleports the bird back to the level’s starting point. This “rubber banding” effect shatters any immersion and transforms exploration into a tense, frustrating exercise in precision flying. It directly contradicts the intended relaxing vibe, turning a gentle glide into a high-stakes avoidance challenge. Coupled with this, the shard placement is often thoughtless or cruel. Many shards are positioned in narrow crevices, behind tiny gaps, or require navigating blind alleys. Combined with the unforgiving collision detection, this leads to countless moments of near-misses followed by jarring resets. The camera, particularly on Switch, exacerbates these issues, reported to cause motion sickness during sharp turns due to frame rate instability and judder. While the core flight is enjoyable, the moment-to-moment gameplay is a constant battle against the game’s own systems, undermining the very relaxation it promises.

World-Building, Art & Sound

Aery: Broken Memories excels in its visual and auditory design, creating worlds that are often genuinely breathtaking. The art style is a vibrant blend of minimalism and surrealism. Landscapes shift dramatically: a pirates’ cove with shipwrecks and palm trees gives way to a bustling, miniature futuristic cityscape; a snow-capped mountain is dotted with giant, whimsical dog statues; floating tropical islands reminiscent of Laputa: Castle in the Sky drift in an azure sky. Each area boasts a distinct, carefully considered color palette – from the warm oranges and teals of a desert oasis to the cool blues and purples of a twilight forest. The atmosphere is thick with a dreamlike quality, enhanced by bloom lighting and soft textures. While the art direction is consistently charming, the variety doesn’t always translate to unique mood. The consistent bright, saturated aesthetic, combined with the looping soundtrack (discussed below), causes many areas to blend into a generalized “pretty” rather than evoking a specific emotional resonance. The sound design, however, is unequivocally the game’s masterpiece. The original soundtrack, lauded in reviews like those from Mental Health Gaming, is a standout achievement. It merges hazy FM synths, propulsive rhythms, and sparkling guitar lines into a cohesive, uplifting whole. It evokes the “all-nighter sunrise of a distant island,” blending soft rock warmth with a skittish dancefloor sensibility. It’s a genuinely moving and evocative score. Regrettably, a critical flaw mars this brilliance: the music loops per level rather than having unique themes for each landscape. This robs individual areas of sonic identity and, when combined with the visual consistency, diminishes the sense of place. Furthermore, user feedback highlights practical issues like inaudible narration on some systems. Despite these flaws, the overall audiovisual package remains remarkably cohesive and capable of inducing moments of genuine euphoria, especially when flying under a temple bridge or through a sun-drenched valley.

Reception & Legacy

Upon its release in late 2020, Aery: Broken Memories found a mixed-to-positive reception, reflected in an 80% positive user rating on Steam based on 36 reviews (as of early 2026), aggregating to a “Mostly Positive” badge. Players frequently praised the “relaxing” flight, “beautiful” visuals, and “great music,” often tagging it as #Atmospheric, #Relaxing, and #Surreal. However, critical reviews, such as the detailed analysis from Mental Health Gaming, were far less charitable, highlighting the persistent performance issues (especially on Nintendo Switch), the infuriating reset mechanic, and the looping soundtrack as significant detractors. The Nintendo Switch version, in particular, drew criticism for poor frame rate stability that could induce motion sickness during extended play, as noted in the NSG Reviews placeholder and community discussions. Commercial success details are scarce, but the game’s availability across multiple platforms and inclusion in the Aery Series Bundle suggests moderate sales. Its true legacy, however, lies within its own franchise. EpiXR Games continued to release numerous Aery titles in the following years (Aery: Sky Castle in 2020, Aery: Calm Mind in 2021, Aery: A New Frontier in 2022, Aery: The Lost Hero in 2023, etc.), demonstrating a commitment to iterating on the core concept. While Broken Memories didn’t revolutionize the atmospheric exploration genre, it served as a foundational, albeit flawed, experiment. Its influence is subtle, primarily seen in its continued existence as part of a larger body of work focused on flight and minimalist storytelling. The community discussions on Steam, ranging from requests for a VR version to offers of Russian translation, indicate a dedicated, if niche, fanbase. Yet, it remains a title more studied for its mistakes than emulated for its successes—a cautionary tale about how even the most charming vision can be derailed by technical and design oversights.

Conclusion

Aery: Broken Memories is a study in tantalizing potential squandered by persistent execution flaws. It arrives with a noble vision: to offer players a serene, metaphorical journey through the landscape of memory, wrapped in the simple, beautiful act of flight. In moments, it succeeds utterly. The joy of soaring through its vibrant, surreal worlds, buoyed by a truly sublime soundtrack, provides glimpses of the euphoric experience the developers envisioned. The core concept of exploring a comatose mind is inherently intriguing, and the art direction frequently shines. However, these moments of brilliance are inextricably linked to profound frustration. The environmental reset mechanic transforms exploration into a chore, the unforgiving shard placement creates artificial difficulty, and the technical instability (especially on Switch) undermines the very relaxation the game promises. The narrative, while conceptually rich, remains frustratingly superficial, and the looping soundtrack dilutes the unique identity of its diverse landscapes. In the pantheon of atmospheric indie games, Aery: Broken Memories occupies a peculiar space. It’s less a finished work of art and more a compelling, flawed prototype—a testament to the challenges of translating abstract emotional concepts into playable systems. Its place in video game history is secured not as a landmark title, but as a fascinating example of ambition colliding with reality. It’s a flight worth taking for its fleeting moments of beauty, but one that inevitably leaves you longing for smoother skies and less turbulent design. For those seeking a truly polished, emotionally resonant experience, it falls short. For patient players willing to overlook its significant warts, it offers a brief, if bumpy, journey through a lovely, if fractured, world.