An excellent block-pushing puzzler on an open ocean
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 พ.ค. 2024
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Isles of Sea and Sky is a brilliant box-pushing puzzle game, with a potent open-world design. It's the next entry in a series of indie game recommendations called "Weekender".
=== Get the Game ===
store.steampowered.com/app/12...
=== Games Shown ===
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes | 2024
Animal Well | 2024
Crow Country | 2024
Paper Trail | 2024
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami | 2024
Braid: Anniversary Edition | 2024
Master Key | 2024
Mosa Lina | 2023
Super Mario 64 | 1996
Snakebird | 2015
Stephen’s Sausage Roll | 2016
The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Seasons | 2001
A Monster's Expedition | 2020
Pipe Push Paradise | 2018
Banjo Tooie | 2000
Chants Of Sennaar | 2023
Minishoot’ Adventures | 2024
Balatro | 2024
Venba | 2023
=== Credits ===
Music provided by Epidemic Sound - www.epidemicsound.com/referra... (Referral Link)
Music from Isles of Sea and Sky OST, by Cicada Games - เกม
Hey man, I know you almost certainly won’t see this comment but I’d just love to say a massive thanks for creating and keeping up this channel, it’s been a massive help with my game dev journey! Thanks again
I appreciate that!
@@GMTK I love that you engage. Man of integrity and follows through on what your video msgs are often about.
PS. the first weekender vid on the Chants of Sennaar got me playing it, and kicked off a whole game recommendation network among my friends for our own similar idea
Agree with all! I am engaged!
>Revives Weekender
>Posts on Thursday
I love you Mark
Classic "commented before watching the video."
@@acoupleofschoes How would I have known this was an episode of Weekender if I hadn't watched it? owo
Honestly is better this way. You recommend me a game on the weekend and it's already too late XD
@@JETAlone12 Weekender title card 0:44
Explains why video is releasing before the weekend 6:28
> Revives Weekender
> Kills the core concept of Weekender 😢
mark just causally giving the makers of isles of sea and sky an incredible influx of money with making a 7 minute video. the power is well used!
Oh my, such a privilege. And praise
"Weekender" is still a great name, even if you don't want it to be taken literally. It perfectly encapsulates the idea of "here is a game that is worth your time, even if you only have a few hours to spare". That might be because (as well as it being a good game) you can either:
a) finish it in one or two sittings;
b) in that short time, learn with some confidence whether or not you'll have more fun continuing with it later; or
c) experience a full, vertical slice of what it offers, before moving on (useful, I expect, if you're a games developer merely doing research).
These kinds of recommendations are essential if your free time is limited and you want to avoid gambling it on something new that might be mediocre-at-best. The alternative is often to fall back on a safe, comfortable favourite (hence my hundreds of hours in FTL and Slay the Spire) but then you never broaden your horizons and will miss some gems.
Great comment; the idea of being able to experience a "full, vertical slice" of what the game largely is within the first hour (or so) playing it is such a great way to think about game design! Making sure that most of your game's modes and styles are evident right up front feels like a great way to refine what a potential project should be about. Thanks for the insight!
Hey Mark, the idea of a "weekender" can also be framed as a game where you can give it a "strong start" over the weekend and then finished in the following days with lighter sessions. In this frame a game around 8-12 hours makes absolutely sense.
Thanks for the great work and for sharing as always!
I love the original gameboy zeldas, this looks like a puzzle only version of it. Oracle of Seasons and oracle of time were so fun!
Oracle of Ages. There was no Oracle of Time ;)
I just 100%-ed this game last night. It kept me engaged the whole way through, and I'm surprised how much the "do I have the ability to solve this puzzle yet?" question was hardly an issue. A warning though: apparently there's unfinished content in the game-inaccessible map squares, inaccessible islands, unused puzzle elements. So don't waste time chasing mysteries or hunting for deep secrets. There's nothing there.
Can confirm as someone who has also 100%ed it - trying to figure out puzzles that aren't available at all (looking at you, Frozen Spire A1) was much more annoying than trying to solve a puzzle with an ability I didn't have yet. The 4 main islands have a very similar structure (like with the gems and the diety, and also how the corners are always relevant to a new ability), so I was able to sort of guess what the locked ability may be at times based on what repeating elements I noticed as I explored. But, overall, a fantastic game I enjoyed front to back!
@alli-gator-forest I felt like A Beautiful Mind when I got to 100+ stars, writing down every potential map element that could be a hidden puzzle. Did you notice there's one spiral on the ground on each elemental island? I did. And write down the coords and drew each spiral.
- Yup, this is what Steam has done to games, allowed devs to push out incomplete and buggy games. There's no incentive to buy or play a game on release since it's probably unplayable and you're better off waiting for them to (eventually, maybe) finish it. 😒
- It was okay for most of the game but later puzzles were far too tedious.
For point of comparison, you should try Void Stranger. Another sokoban with Zelda-isms, unique takes on progression, and secrets aplenty, but one that tempers that progression not with items, but with knowledge, a la TUNIC or Outer Wilds. As a result, it's impossible to wander into an impossible puzzle, and backtracking is only as difficult as the limits of the player's know-how on how to get what they want. It's also an interesting take on the "new game+" idea, in a way.
Seconded, it's my favorite game I have ever played. When he was talking about how exhausting sokobans are I was nodding my head and thinking about how much Void Stranger made it work.
maybe this is showing my age but I love GBC-style graphics - and the recent renaissance its having where games are designed with that style but without the arcane technical restrictions (as smart as the ways some devs got around them on the original hardware were) has lead to some really beautiful games
Same here, the gbc graphics instantly caught my attention. At 12 hours long, it's not too long of a game, which is great for me.
I played a demo of this when it was known as Akurra, and it was pretty fun! Glad to know the rest of the game is good too
I discovered Chants Of Senaar by watching the first episode of the Weekender series.
It's one of the best games I ever played (I'm still playing it!)
In fact, I'm enjoying this game with my mother since we both like puzzles (and she doesn't need to be very good with the controller...).
Thank you very much for introducing me to this wonderful game :)
Since you're mentioning great puzzle games from May, I'd also like to shoutout Leaf's Odyssey. The dev, Alex Diener, is a fantastic puzzle game youtuber and it's his first commercial game.
So glad to see you bringing some attention to this game.
I feel it is best described as "What if you had to play through a Gameboy-era Zelda game but you had no sword." The vibes are so reminiscent of the Oracle games or Link's Awakening.
Once I started playing I couldn't stop until I had finished it.
Fun fact: Today is a holiday in a good chunk of europe (at least germany and austria) and many people will have taken friday off, so a game of this length is quite possible for such an extended weekend.
In the UK, that was last weekend as many people were off work on Monday for the Spring Bank Holiday.
So glad to see you put new videos on this list not because the list must grow, but because they belong here. Thank you
Please do talk about Master Key. I don't see it being talked about anywhere and it's going even more unnoticed than this pretty game. Master Key channels some of that TUNIC sense of discovery and hidden secrets, and was a lot of fun to figure out all throughout. I'll give this one a try, soon.
Call me a weirdo, but I actually LIKE it when games present puzzles to you that you can't solve yet, either through a needed ability or through knowledge. It essentially adds a second layer puzzle to each. Most of the time it is much easier to determine if a puzzle is solvable or not than actually solving it, but it requires you to understand the rules and limitations of the puzzle present. When you ALWAYS know it is possible, it changes how you approach and leads to a lot more 'brute forcing', whereas you are far more likely to experiment with the rules and logic when you encounter puzzles that may or may not be solvable yet. It serves a type of knowledge check for if you in general understand the type of puzzle well enough to know when it is impossible vs. possible. It also adds a layer of mystique to the game world, as you HAVE to move on and let the puzzle stew. It's a similar joy to backtracking in metroidvania's IMO, and I actually hope it is not a design trend that goes away since it is the backbone of several of my favorite puzzlers (Outer Wilds, The Witness, etc.).
That's true! But it can be frustrating for people who don't have a lot of time on their hands. Having an in-game item that lets you check if a puzzle is possible would be useful
we've been calling those "Metroidbranias", given that they often use knowledge as locks and keys, rather than actual locked doors or ability gating. obviously, this one has a bit of both, but there are a lot of games that simply teach things later on that could be done all along, much like the examples you cited!
@@Knyckoh I love the style for sure! Just clarifying that my sentiments extend beyond metroidbrainias and include traditional progress gates where you just don't have the in-game tools yet either.
Metroidbrainias are interesting in that you can technically solve puzzles early. They have an additional layer where you might accidentally solve a puzzle and then feel the need to go back and experiment to figure out why the solution worked. You also get to feel extra clever as you solved something you weren't "supposed to" yet. As long as you expect to use the concept more than once, this really gets the 'experiment' juices going.
Hmm... interesting take. I commented above that I was not a fan of the "can I solve this" dilemma. I did get used to after a while so maybe I partly agree with you after all. I still do think (especially as a sokoban -style game dev also myself) there should a "golden middle road", but how to do it is a good question. Maybe some sort of visual cue on somewhere on the map with an icon (like a firecape) that instantly hints you need this in order to get everything out of this map.
It's going to depend on how well the game handles showing you puzzles you can't solve yet. Mark compared parts of the game to The Legend of Zelda, so I'm thinking of the types of blocks in Link's Awakening where, if you didn't have the item to deal with them yet, it would give you a text prompt along the lines of "this is very heavy" or "there must be some way to shatter this" to at least hint that you can't do anything with this yet. It also helps that Link's Awakening came with a manual and you could read it to see that there's going to be an item that lets you lift heavy things and an item that lets you ram into things with great force. It gives you all the information to say "I can't solve this yet, I should stop wasting my time and come back later." I have no complaints in Link's Awakening about puzzles or challenges I can't solve yet.
But if a game doesn't have a manual (I get that paper manuals are long dead, but what ever happened to in-game digital manuals like Xbox Live Arcade titles on the 360 used to have?!), and it doesn't give you any indication that a puzzle isn't solvable yet, and I spend a bunch of time trying, get frustrated, look up the solution and realize it was never solvable and all my time has been wasted... That sucks, and now the game has pissed me off. Now I like the game less and am sure to mention this bad taste it left in my mouth whenever I talk about it. And no, I disagree that it serves as a type of knowledge check. If they haven't given you the knowledge you need before giving you an unsolvable puzzle, then it is literally not a knowledge check. It's just a "hahaha we tricked you, we didn't tell you all of the rules" dick move.
It's all about communication. Encountering unsolvable puzzles can be done well, or it can be done poorly. And it's really easy to do poorly and make it a huge negative mark against a game.
It reminds me of " Void Stranger " . An amazing & underrated puzzle-game, The Witness-like
Void Stranger is one of the few gems I couldn't stop thinking about even when not playing it. Really great game
I wouldn't mind if "Witness-like" caught on as a term for this kind of games
Highly recommend another game made by the same devs, ZeroRanger. Very well done and accessible shmup with lots of depth.
I cannot get over how much i hate void stranger, it seems like it should be right up my alley with being a sokoban game with knowledge progression and I tried to enjoy any aspect of it for like 20 hours but i hated literally every single thing about it
@@elarielo may I advocate for descriptive terms rather than describing all mechanics in terms of other games? “Knowledge-based.” “Run-based.” “Search-action.”
Ohhhh, so glad you're highlighting Isles of Sea and Sky! It has indeed been a wild month for puzzle fans. A couple of other recommendations of smaller games that people might miss: Leaf's Odyssey, a DROD-inspired turn-based game with reaaaaally well designed puzzles, and Ouros, a super zen game about reshaping spline curves (like if Adobe Illustrator was a game).
I'd say the "Weekender" name still works for relatively short games that might go beyond a single weekend session in the way of "Even if you only get to play on weekends, you can safely start this game without devoting the next year solely to it". Two or maybe three weekends of playing is still short enough.
I don't have the time to play games that I used to, so I tend to prefer games that are around this sort of length as it fits around my life. I'm very much into this series.
I feel like the ability to determine whether or not a puzzle can be solved is itself a very imprtant skill - not just for gaming, but for life in general. It’s a crucial skill for nurturing curiosity, for setting limits, and for learning from failure.
I don’t think it’s a waste to explore solutions to problems that might not currently be solvable. More than once I discovered new functionality for my existing toolkit while tackling a puzzle unsuccessfully, leading to breakthroughs in other areas.
I have been waiting for this game for 3+ years. Just finished it yesterday. It's been amazing. I'll be working towards the 100% goal. It's currently my game of the year. Try it!
I LOVE THIS FORMAT. PLEASE MORE MORE MORE INDIE RECOMEDATIONS
Thank you so much for spotlighting games like these. I am always happy to play something different.
Fully support you talking about any game you feel fits the 'weekender' vibe!
I actually think 12 hours is dead-on for a good upper range of Weekender games: That's 4 hours each split across Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. A bit long for some folks' schedules, but not an unreasonable amount to dig into a game. I know back in the rental era we used to do a lot worse to try and get something done before it had to be back at Blockbuster. :V
As someone who has been watching this game since its first demo I am so glad to see it getting the recognition it deserves. It is a great game and I can't wait to sit down and play through the full release.
"Weekender" can mean picking up the game would end your productivity for the week.
I'm SO glad you're highlighting this game because I discovered it randomly but it has been one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences this year and I was also worried it wouldn't get enough recognition.
See I think the interesting part here is that games that focus on puzzles typically fall into two main categories - logic puzzle games, and adventure games.
Adventure games (be it Myst, Monkey Island, or horror games like Crow Country) focus on exploration, and solving puzzles will require exploration - be it hidden object challenge, looking for key item in a point and click , finding an ability in a metroidvania, or finding a clue in a detective game. So usually you explore, and find clues to guess the answer. Typically, each puzzle will feel a bit different from the last, so you're constantly finding new and fresh puzzles that require you to find new ways to interact with the world.
But classic puzzle games have all the puzzles be about clearly defined rules. There's usually nothing hidden, and all new elements simply expand the existing rules - not change it. This is seen in typical Sokoban puzzlers, Tetris, or problem solving games (which have strict rulesets, but no set solution).
The exciting part here is that this game sort of does both of those. Classic logic puzzle gameplay is interspersed with exploration and adventure-style puzzles (like secrets and ability backtracking). So really, you're always solving puzzles - but entirely different kind of puzzles. And that's what provides the variety.
Legend of Zelda meets Chips Challenge... I'm in, that sound awesome.
Indie games for the week end is EXACTLY the niche that I was looking for. God bless
Maybe this is a Long Weekender kinda game!
Totally getting this! I need a classic Zelda fix while I wait for the next 2D Zelda or whatever Yacht Club games is working on
This is like a metroidvania approach to "open"-world puzzle games. I absolutely love the concept! Thanks for sharing this amazing game, man.
I definately agree with you about the problem of puzzles being unsolvable. That's why metroidvania and puzzle generally just don't work together. While I loved animal well, its very frustrating not knowing if you are just stumped by a puzzle or you are missing a required item.
Sokoban? May I suggest Void Stranger then? That game is insanely difficult but ppl who like mystery and secret hunting will love it. That game really needs more attention. Story telling at its finest. Please cover this sometime Mark.
Speaking of recent "puzzle" games, been having a blast with Reus 2. They really managed to reinvent the game while keep what made it fun.
I'll def be keeping an eye on Isles as well, looks quite great.
so glad to see this, I've been waiting for Isles of Sea and Sky for years ever since I first played the demo! It has only exceeded my expectations
It's a strong sign of a good game recommendation, for me, if I stop it mid video because I want to explore it myself. sale made!
I discovered Isles about a week before it's release via a very old video on it's demo, back when it went by a different name. It immediately captured my attention and I picked it up day 1.
I do think there's an argument to be made that having puzzles you can't solve mixed in with the ones you can adds to that feeling of agency and openness. Coming back to a puzzle that stumped you with a new ability and finally conquering it is pretty satisfying. And there's this sense that it was your own stubbornness that got you stuck on that impossible puzzle. On the other hand, the game could stand to teach and encourage the player to know what puzzles they need to complete and what they can just as well leave for later. However that presents a bigger structural issue, because at a certain point, the blueprint for the islands kind of became clear to me and that led me to engage with later islands in a much more streamlined and directed way so I could get to the things I needed to ensure all puzzles were possible. And even then later into the game I hit this wall where I was searching for new tools that I wasn't even sure existed (they did not) as that's the only way I could see doing certain things in game. And then I saw that there were places and things people just couldn't get to, with speculation of them existing for future content, which made me afraid of banging my head against an unbreakable wall with nothing on the other side.
I really do adore the game, and the slight structural flaws it has are kind just symptomatic of the impressive world and concept it's pulled off. I'm just a bit hesitant to jump in and try to be a completionist when the world is as of yet not fully implemented.
Out of curiosity, was the video from Aliensrock? That's how I found out about this game at least
I first played this back when it was called "Akurra". So excited it's finally released. Will definitely pick it up sometime soon.
Animal well easily the most innovative game this year ngl. Can't wait for you to make a video about it
Honestly picked up Isle of Sea and Sky yesterday and it is a really wonderful puzzle game. I am nowhere finished with it but it is very nice when my brain needs that puzzle fix while also evoking a different game with its art style, the Capcom LoZ games.
I was here hoping the term Sokovania or Sokobania would finally be coined.
Game Maker's toolkit reviews a game made in Gamemaker! This is actually how I found your channel when I was looking for Gamemaker tutorials long ago😅
Lolo's Awakening!
I played the demo for this while it was still under a different title and I loved it, I was so excited to see you play this
This looks delightful, straight to the wishlist.
Ooo I've never heard of this game, thanks for cluing me in on it. It looks like it'd be a perfect game to drop on the steam deck and just chip away at when I have time!
Funny this video opens with Lorelie and the Laser Eyes. Last night I played Year Walk, and ended up getting stuck on a few parts. I fired up a help guide, and when I got to the end of it, I noticed that it was written by a young Mark Brown!
Haha, that's cool! I used to enjoy writing those iOS guides...
Great art too, love the color palettes
Guess who definitely played it in a weekend is now a maniac *before* watching the video
Thanks for making this video! I had this on my wishlist after playing the demo a long time ago and I didn't get the Steam noti!
Замечательно видео, благодарю. Прошу Вас снимайте видео почаще. Они невероятно полезные, я посмотрел все. Некоторые ролики я пересматриваю по несколько раз когда обдумываю те или иные механики. А некоторые мы смотрим вместе с командой и обсуждаем и думаем как можем внедрить это у себя в проекте. Мне близко Ваше видение, Ваши видеоролики сильно повлияли на меня как на геймдизайнера.
Im just that master key (the black and white fox game) got even mentioned here
It's a really good game
I wonder if the developer could patch in a text hint system that checks your world state and lets you know that the current puzzle is not possible yet, or change the puzzle slightly to make it more obvious very quickly. Letting the player find out it is impossible has the benefit of hopefully committing the puzzle to memory so that you think to come back when you learn a new skill. But getting really stuck on a puzzle you cannot finish I feel would have a similar effect to playing a buggy puzzle game where you stop trusting puzzles that don't work how you expect.
Braid remake?
Oh no, look what time is it! It's time to replay Braid!
A “weekender” is a game that will end your week as soon as you start playing it.
I recommend talking about Nine Sols next. It is an amazing Metroidvania, at least the part i played so far. The game doesn't tell you where to go next properly though, so i was mostly running around in random directions or towards parts of the game i didn't complete yet only to get blocked off by a "lock". The game still is pretty fun though. The Shekiro (hope i spelled it good) inspired deflection combat never gets old, the platforming sections are hard but Fair, the bosses offer quite a challenge and the story... OH MY GOD! I LOVE THE STORY!!!
I had a similar issue with animal well. I felt like there were puzzles I couldn't finish yet, and out of desire to not waste time I skipped some I could finish
This series is genius!!!
Please take a look at Void Stranger. Similar genre and easily the most underrated game of 2023.
If you haven't already, you should try Void Stranger. Its absolutely BONKERS how much content it has. And yes, Its Sokoban, but so much more.
there are in fact 12 of each elemental stone, allowing you to skip almost half of them (some are locked behind the 6 unlock)
I'm fully sukoban'd out after Void Stranger (though it's technically just sukoban-adjacent), but this going on the wishlist for when I've recuperated.
Paused at 1:36, immediate buy. I can't resist after playing the amazing Void Stranger
I'd never heard about this until it popped up on new release schedule. Reviews said it was an open world sokoban that looks like links awakening. Instantly bought it. I'm playing it as this video got recommended to me lol.
A game shorter than 20 hours is finishable in two days I think. You can keep the concept going. Someone may not even be able to spend 2 hours a weekend so it's ultimately subjective. Sometimes you binge-play sometimes you not even put your hands on anything.
with animal well and crow country we have some all timers. and rogue pop seems to be on a very good way
That point you bring up about getting burned out on puzzles is a great one. It is why I love Portal 2 so much, as for me the story/dialogue between puzzles did a great job giving me breaks and keeping me engaged in other ways.
Keep it in mind for Mind over Magnet too :)
Puzzlegames so far. Hoping for those great 4-6h narrative games 😍😍😍
Wow this looks like a game I was trying to figure out if I could create by myself. I have been thinking if I made top-down pixel art puzzle game what could it be. I thought that basic box-pushing would be kind of boring and needs something more to it. This game looks exactly what I was thinking.
Every game you mention is an auto buy for me. Thanks for helping me discover the hidden gems ❤
I liked Maze Of Bears. That was awesome.
Twelve hours doesn't seem too long for a Weekender game! Granted not everyone has lots of free time, but between Friday night and roughly 16 hours of free time each on Saturday and Sunday, that's around three times the time it would take to play this game. I think that's absolutely fair play!
Really great script, as always!
This looks like if Chip's Challenge was made today.
If there is anything that I love more than your analysis are your recommendations so I'm happy you are willing to leave behind your self-imposed restrictions.
On this topic - I think Raging Volcano C2 might be one of the best-designed rooms in the entire game. The fvie metal blocks at bottom right get made to serve three totally different purposes!
[spoilers below]
The first time around, you start on the left and you need to use two of the blow up the two-layer Thwomp to get at the prize and the Fire God chamber at top. The other two are kinda useless.
The second time around right after, you start at top and you need to use three of them bridge across the lava to get at the bottom. One of them serves double-purpose - it's a bridge you need to get back to the left anyway - and a different one from last time is the blocker that needs to be shoved aside. You even get to keep going right, it turns out, and blow up the permanent olive arrow blocks.
The third time around, you actually only need to use four of them to destroy the single olive arrow block at near left, and you spend some spare keys to open up a new path and get another star.
It's so good.
Also, awesome recommendation GMT! I was looking forward to this game and was completely blown away by it. I also was worried that it would slip under the radar. This game could honestly end up being my GOTY this year (y'know, depending on a few releases yet to come) or at least will be in my top 5. I certainly did not expect to play another open ended puzzler so soon after Animal Well, and certainly not one that I enjoyed even MORE.
Yes this game is awesome! Get it more exposure!
That Sokoban pronunciation caught me off guard
Well, actually, the gem puzzles are always possible without the elementals because you need the gems to unlock the elementals. So you know that they are possible.
Thanks for the recommendation, Mark! It looks like the game is getting a Switch release, so I look forward to playing it whe it does!
The Witness: i sleep
Isles of Sea and Sky: realshit
When the Strength HM becomes the whole game
I would still suggest you focus short games in this series.
This looks quite cool. Also, I'm down for the revamped idea behind the Weekender videos.
Alternative meanings for "Weekender":
- a game to play on the weekends, designed for comfy environments (rather than post-work games which get squished into the gap between dinner and sleep)
- a game to play to end the week off, to celebrate another work-week completed
- a game you can play every weekend and not feel list for not having played it for five days (evergreen)
- a game you can look forward to playing this weekend
Is it at least easier than Void Stranger? Because that kinda burned me out on Sokoban style games. Not a bad game by any means, but there's just so much going on in it.
It was an instant buy when I saw it had released. I have yet to play it, because there are so many good games right now, but this video definetly bumps it up the queue.
So glad the Sokoban style of game is alive and well. Especially with this and Void Stranger, hope you played that one?
5:05 : I wish they just marked the puzzle as "come back later" or something so you can know when to solve it.
love the capcom zelda style graphics
I've come to this as a fan of hbomberguy and I've just played the braid remastered. Great video but crazy seeing 2016 HBG learning his craft and, you know, having hair!
I'm not sure what this has to do with hbomberguy?!
@@GMTK This is where the comment landed haha. I was watching hbomberguy and commented at the end of the video and it started a new one!! Haha. I love your work too mark and you were the one who put me on to braid in the first place!
Weekender aka a good way to end your upcoming weeks
By Weekender I assume it's games to play on weekends. That's the only time I have these days (if that).
Play Void Stranger too when you can!!
For another non-linear sokoban style game, I very highly recommend A Monster’s Expedition! The game has you pushing around logs to create rafts that you can then use to travel to and discover new islands. The progression isn’t gated by collectibles; rather the islands themselves get re-contextualized as you continue to explore them and find new ways to travel. One of my favorite puzzle games!
It was fun, but I definitely tapped out on that one when it came to some of the more advanced stuff. Normally I don't struggle with puzzle genre games but Sokoban as a genre really twists my brain into useless knots. Definitely fun to find some of those alternate pathways by learning the later tricks, though. And as stated in this video, I got quite fatigued by its gameplay.
I tried playing this, but right after the first island I got stuck. The big issue I have is that I can't tell which puzzles I'm supposed to be able to solve with the abilities that I already have, and which I'm supposed to come back to later. IMO this is the biggest problem with making a metroidvania-style puzzle game. Guess I'll have to stick with "easy" puzzle games like Can of Wormholes and Stephen's Sausage Roll.