an open-world exploration game that has both more "breath" and more "wild" than Breath of the Wild
Sable wears its BotW inspiration on its sleeve, but the game is much more than that. BotW's combat is servicable at best (the bows are okay), but Sable imagines an open-world experience without that. what if you focused less on conquering and looting a space and more on luxuriating in it and learning more about it. the world feels alive, skittering like the wind across the dunes. the people don't feel placed in random locations, they feel nestled into their own communities where it's you're job to figure out where you fit in with them.
for a coming-of-age narrative, Sable goes a lot more beyond that. it has its Lore Dumps, sure, but the story does a lot by piecing out the flavor of the world through incredible dialogue. i have a folder full of screenshots of my favorite lines, and i STILL missed a lot that i wish i would have captured at the time. the writing centers the player not as a Grand Important Hero that the land needs to survive, but instead as a friend to many. the different groups of "jobs" that you get badges for both asks you what Sable wants to do and what You like doing. for a game about deciding what you want to do with your life, it encourages you to taste all of its flavors.
i love the score by Japanese Breakfast. i got tears when the title theme first appeared in the story. so often i would warp to a specific area when night would fall just so i could hear the area's night theme while driving aimlessly across the desert or climbing to sit atop the dunes or a perch somewhere
it is with this that Sable's love is felt. not when you are running from place to place trying to burn through a game as fast as you can just so you can say you beat it, but when you sit and become part of the world around you. it's this ludonarrative synergy that kept me coming back. the game embodies the feeling of being on a road trip, stopping somewhere cool to get food and the locals there are really nice to you, continuing to drive in the dark, looking at the houses that pass by and wondering who lives there.
in this, Sable reminds us that the joy of games is not in the checking of boxes off of a list of activities, it is in the running and jumping, the exploring, the learning.
(the game has bugs but whatever lol. i'm always willing to look past jank/unintended things when the core experience is good enough)
Sable wears its BotW inspiration on its sleeve, but the game is much more than that. BotW's combat is servicable at best (the bows are okay), but Sable imagines an open-world experience without that. what if you focused less on conquering and looting a space and more on luxuriating in it and learning more about it. the world feels alive, skittering like the wind across the dunes. the people don't feel placed in random locations, they feel nestled into their own communities where it's you're job to figure out where you fit in with them.
for a coming-of-age narrative, Sable goes a lot more beyond that. it has its Lore Dumps, sure, but the story does a lot by piecing out the flavor of the world through incredible dialogue. i have a folder full of screenshots of my favorite lines, and i STILL missed a lot that i wish i would have captured at the time. the writing centers the player not as a Grand Important Hero that the land needs to survive, but instead as a friend to many. the different groups of "jobs" that you get badges for both asks you what Sable wants to do and what You like doing. for a game about deciding what you want to do with your life, it encourages you to taste all of its flavors.
i love the score by Japanese Breakfast. i got tears when the title theme first appeared in the story. so often i would warp to a specific area when night would fall just so i could hear the area's night theme while driving aimlessly across the desert or climbing to sit atop the dunes or a perch somewhere
it is with this that Sable's love is felt. not when you are running from place to place trying to burn through a game as fast as you can just so you can say you beat it, but when you sit and become part of the world around you. it's this ludonarrative synergy that kept me coming back. the game embodies the feeling of being on a road trip, stopping somewhere cool to get food and the locals there are really nice to you, continuing to drive in the dark, looking at the houses that pass by and wondering who lives there.
in this, Sable reminds us that the joy of games is not in the checking of boxes off of a list of activities, it is in the running and jumping, the exploring, the learning.
(the game has bugs but whatever lol. i'm always willing to look past jank/unintended things when the core experience is good enough)