Toronto-made Ambrosia Sky is sci-fi storytelling at its most heartfelt

I’ve thought lots about Ambrosia Sky ever since I first played it at Summer Game Fest 2025.

Whereas so many sci-fi video games are targeted on combating aliens or machines (or each), Toronto-based Soft Rains, with the assistance of Vancouver-based co-dev accomplice Blackbird Interactive, has been pursuing one thing way more intriguing with its debut title. Mixing the first-person water spraying mechanics of Energy Wash Simulator and the wealthy ambiance of Metroid, Ambrosia Sky follows a lady named Dalia who should return to her asteroid colony after leaving 15 years prior to research a lethal fungus that’s destroyed it and salvage what she will from the useless. Regardless of that heavy material, although, Tender Rains has been clear in its desire to explore the positive aspects of mortality by having Dalia carry out rituals that honour the lives of the fallen colonists.

We acquired a style of all of this final 12 months in Act One of many sport, however now, the second and closing episode has launched to provide us an entire image of the expertise that Tender Rains has been going for. Having replayed Act One earlier than instantly leaping into and finishing Act Two, I’ve come away remarkably impressed with what the nascent Canadian studio has constructed. From stem to stern, Ambrosia Sky is a fantastically humanist sci-fi story with a considerate “clear ’em up” gameplay loop.

In the beginning, Act Two actually pays off the seeds that have been planted in Act One, which understandably devoted numerous time to establishing the bigger colony and the world they inhabit. This was essential context to have, but it surely additionally meant that the payoff to the central narrative thread, Dalia’s seek for her ex-girlfriend Maeve, was being saved for Act Two. Because of this, this second act feels way more intimate and emotionally advanced, with Dalia having to reckon with how Maeve has modified amid the passage of time and lingering emotions of abandonment. The ladies additionally pursue radically completely different strategies of tackling the fungal outbreak, which solely enriches their already gripping battle.

However the actual spotlight for me was, surprisingly, Act Two’s better give attention to Hale, Dalia’s overbearing step-mother who finally drove her to depart the colony within the first place. As someone with an estranged father, I noticed myself in Dalia’s battle to course of the sophisticated swell of feelings — the entire harm and resentment and reluctance to confess any optimistic qualities — that one feels in the direction of a parental determine with whom you maintain a deeply strained relationship.

And by the point Dalia has to go to Hale’s once-opulent property, I discovered myself on the sting of my seat, sharing her trepidation over what she’d uncover there. It’s a testomony to artwork director Adam Volker’s hauntingly stunning fungal aesthetic, co-founder and narrative director Kait Tremblay’s measured, introspective prose, Dalia actress Bailey Wolfe’s believably uncooked efficiency and composer Greg Harrison’s melancholic rating that this surrogate mother-daughter dynamic — which is primarily solely depicted via monologues and environmental storytelling — ended up resonating with me as a lot because it did.

In actual fact, the sport design normally feels prefer it acquired an improve in Act Two. With ranges being much more expansive this time round, Dalia’s ever-satisfying grappling hook-esque tether is integrated into extra intricate puzzles that play with the layered verticality of a given space. That is most distinguished in a handful of outer area missions that have you ever flying round a whole station, clearing fungus, activating switches and navigating completely different fields of gravity as you go. Whereas the digicam typically has bother maintaining throughout these dizzying sequences, they’re nonetheless a welcome change of tempo from the predominantly inside environments.

That’s to not say that these are dangerous, although; removed from it. In actual fact, they’re higher than ever because of a brand new fungus kind that meaningfully shakes up the core gameplay loop. This kind of plant causes Corruption, which concurrently slows Dalia whereas inflicting harm. What’s extra, its malignant inexperienced vines are resistant to your sprays, so that you’ll need to rigorously research environments and use particular Wyrdlight turbines to disclose their few weak factors and correctly destroy them.

Regardless of all of those narrative and stage design enhancements in Act Two, there are a couple of different points, together with one which persists from the final episode. Particularly, the ability tree that makes use of particular alien fruit nonetheless feels perfunctory. Whereas there are a couple of useful upgrades, like enhancements to Dalia’s well being and resistance to corruption, most of them contain completely different elemental spray sorts like hearth or electrical energy which can be unneeded as a result of they don’t provide any significant practical distinction in comparison with the fungus-clearing capabilities of your base water spray. Working a few of the Wyrdlight turbines will also be finnicky, leading to a couple of situations of Dalia getting injured and even caught between regenerating vines as a result of the beams didn’t do what I had meant.

These are minor gripes, although, they usually didn’t detract from how a lot I cherished the expertise as a complete. I got here for the satisfying rest of hosing down fungus and stayed for the unexpectedly cathartic exploration of estrangement. Throw within the somber but finally uplifting “loss of life optimistic” tributes to Dalia’s misplaced colony and you’ve got some of the refreshingly unique indie video games in current reminiscence.

Ambrosia Sky is now out there on Steam. Those that already personal Act One will get Act Two as a free replace at no further value. The total sport is accessible for $19.49 at a 20 per cent launch low cost earlier than a value enhance on August 14.

Picture credit score: Tender Rains