Aether (video Game) - Gameplay

Gameplay

Aether is a space adventure game with washed-out pastel colors and a varying soundtrack consisting of a piano, synthesizer, guitar, and percussion piece. There are four monochrome planets to explore, which have subdued hues. Players control a lonely boy from Earth and an octopus-like monster he befriends. The monster's tongue is used to propel itself and the boy through space and onto other planets. Each planet has a unique soundtrack that gets louder as you approach it. Each moon or planet exerts gravity over the player character, requiring momentum to escape from the planet's orbit. To escape a planet, the tongue must first be latched onto a cloud floating above the planet's surface, which can then be used to swing the player around. By propelling themselves from the initial cloud using swinging momentum, players can latch onto the next and repeat the process to leave the planet's orbit. After reaching space the process is repeated with stars and asteroids. In space the lack of gravity causes the player to drift until the direction is changed by swinging on another object.

When travelling through space, players are drawn to a planet's orbit once they get close. Each planet's location is labeled with a colored marker which disappears once that planet's puzzle is solved. The player encounters characters who can be helped if a puzzle is solved. Each planet besides Earth has its own puzzle. The monster's ability to swing around objects is used in some of the game's puzzles. One puzzle involves swinging on the crystals which surround the core of a hollow planet called Gravida, without swinging on the same crystal twice or breaking the chain. Solving each planet's puzzle produces a flash of light, after which monochrome planets change to color, subdued pastel colors brighten, and the planet's unique soundtrack becomes permanent.

The game's plot describes a journey through a child's emotions and anxieties. After befriending the monster, the boy leaves Earth on the creature's back to look for life elsewhere in the galaxy. He hopes to find someone to relate to. The hollow planet Gravida's surface is patrolled by a creature that complains of stomach pains. This larger creature is followed by several tiny creatures, some of which ride on its back. One of these smaller inhabitants has fallen into the core of Gravida. Though it is isolated and lonely, the creature consoles itself that nobody can harm it. The planet Malaisus is composed of water, with a monster identical to the player's swimming around with a shoal of fish. The monster tells the player to leave. Planet Bibulon has two faces on opposite sides, one angry and one happy. A two-faced creature travels across the surface; one is happy and the other morose. Bibulon is orbited by four moons, each of which has differing opinions on an unnamed man or boy. When players find the planet Debasa, they discover that it is surrounded by a green fog. Gravity is very intense within the fog. Four orbiting satellites produce the fog, which has trapped two boys. Earth shrinks slightly after each planet has been completed. After restoring color to all the surrounding planets, the game is completed by returning to Earth. The Earth has shrunk until it is only slightly larger than the monster; it is destroyed when the boy and his monster land. Both fly upwards and land on the moon, where the boy is free to craft a future of his choosing.