From new game studio Plot Twist Australia comes Ashes, a mixture of graphic novel and interactive story. Released into early access, around half the story is already available, with the rest coming at the end of the year or early 2027. What drew me in was its interesting mix of graphic novel panels and promise of puzzles and minigames. Ashes doesn’t quite deliver an even spread of the two.
Ashes is told from multiple perspectives, but the main character is Azar, a 16-year-old who witnesses a gang-related murder. Her mother stows her away in a forest house with her estranged grandfather, but it turns out her grandfather is quite unhinged himself. Scenes flip from Azar’s perspective to brief scenes with her mum or the gang itself, who know Azar, and intend on tracking her down and shutting her up. The setup and thrust of the main story work well, and there is an introduction of some supernatural elements right at the cliffhanger end. The game leaves the story in a tense place whilst we wait for the second half to come.
However, I do have some critiques of both the narrative and the interactive elements. The game’s narrative is designed to be told in a short story format. That means it’s rare to see ten words at any one time, and most scenes are done in under ten frames and sentences. What the story gains in pace, it loses in characterisation, empathy, and nuance. The best scene is when Azar and her mother are in the car on the way to her grandfather’s place. There are elements of family history, familial strains, and a bit of foreshadowing. Beyond that, Ashes becomes very transactional, and I struggled to connect with the characters beyond this initial scene. I’d like to see more of the car ride level of depth in the second half of the game.
When it comes to puzzles and the interactive elements, Ashes keeps things incredibly basic. We have one hidden object screen, one 4-piece jigsaw, a shooting gallery minigame, and a couple of puzzle boxes that solve themselves. They are very rudimentary, and a chase sequence when you are about to be shot involved collecting animals?! It doesn’t fit the theme at all and feels very strange and jarring.
Jarring is a good descriptor of Ashes. I feel like with more meat to the story, there is potential to be gained. As it is, this is a very rough sketch of the first half of a story that felt too brief by design. Ashes takes all the emo energy from Life is Strange, but doesn’t convert it into something powerful. Let’s hope the second half smooths out the rough edges.
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