Inner Ashes Review: A Moving Narrative Game That Won’t Be Forgotten (Switch)

I don’t often play games like Inner Ashes, but when I read what the game was about, I decided I had to give it a go – and I’m glad I did. Inner Ashes is a beautifully put together narrative-driven game with puzzles thrown in. More specifically, this game is meant to represent what it’s like to live with Alzheimer’s, by playing such a character through their eyes. This makes an already-emotional story even more powerful. Inner Ashes is one of those games you should definitely consider checking out, just to say that you’ve experienced it. This review will explore what makes Inner Ashes such a good game.

Inner Ashes is now available on PC, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One & Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch for $14.99.

Story – What Happened With Enid?

Inner Ashes is a narrative-driven game, so naturally, there’s a lot to the story, but not so much that it’s overwhelming. The basic premise is that you are playing as Henry, a man who has early-onset Alzheimer’s, which is demonstrated well throughout the game. The driving force in Inner Ashes is that Henry, with his mind sadly failing, wants to remember what happened with his daughter, Enid. Only by playing through the game can you find out the mystery of Enid and her relationship with her father. 

I don’t want to give away many spoilers here, as it’s much better playing the game yourself to find out, but I loved the story of Henry and Enid. Henry had to raise Enid as a single parent, with his wife and Enid’s mother having died when she was very young. You learn about his struggles as a single parent as he juggles his work as a forest guard and raising Enid. As you play the game, you watch Enid grow up, and at each stage, learn exactly what happened with Henry and Enid’s relationship. It’s not a long game, taking about 2 hours to complete (more if you spend a lot of time exploring or getting stuck on puzzles), but it’s an incredibly emotional journey, and one that is beautifully done. The story is what makes the game.

The story of Inner Ashes involves a mystery surrounding Henry and Enid’s relationship.

Inner Ashes also serves as almost an educational tool on Alzheimer’s and what it’s like to live with it, and that mixed in with the mystery of Enid was what I loved about the game. You’ll probably finish Inner Ashes knowing a little more about Alzheimer’s, especially if you didn’t know much about it before.

Gameplay – Through the Eyes of Someone With Alzheimer’s

As mentioned, in Inner Ashes you play as Henry, someone who has Alzheimer’s, specifically early-onset Alzheimer’s. As you play the game, you’ll get to experience first-hand (and in first-person) just what it’s like to live with the condition. This is taken in the form of point-and-click elements and exploration, but mainly puzzles.

Exploring Henry’s Memories

Inner Ashes has you delving into Henry’s memories of his relationship with Enid via a sketchbook he keeps on his desk. The sketchbook transports you from Henry’s house to different locations, such as the forest where Henry works or an enormous tower. These memories, as you might expect, have a dreamlike quality to them. In contrast to when you’re walking around Henry’s house, there’s something unnatural yet real about these locations you’re taken to. Then you do have to remember that not only are these memories, but you’re also remembering them through the mind of someone with Alzheimer’s.

Each of the locations are pretty large, but not too difficult to get hopelessly lost in, plus they’re interesting to explore. Each section contains some form of puzzle and point-and-click gameplay. You may have to locate an item, or figure out how to unlock a gate. The good thing is that each memory is unique, so no puzzle is the same. Inner Ashes isn’t a game you could call repetitive. The gameplay elements remain the same, but every scenario presents a new challenge.

You can find items such as drawings made by Enid to get more information about the characters.

There’s an extra element to Inner Ashes, and that’s in the form of collectibles. Throughout the memories, as well as Henry’s home, you can find and collect cubes, which turn out to be either information on Alzheimer’s or a drawing that Enid made. I liked these little touches, and it was fun finding them. It gave that little extra to the story. Plus, with the information pages on Alzheimer’s, they don’t feel forced or preachy, like the game is trying to ram everything on Alzheimer’s down your throat. I found them interesting to read, and not only do they give you more insight to the disease, but also to Henry and the gameplay.

Plenty of Puzzles

Inner Ashes is a narrative game, but it is also a puzzle game. There’s not just one type of puzzle, but different ones.

At the end of each section you successfully finish, you have to complete a puzzle where you have to fit different shaped blocks into a shape in a bowl. Some of these can actually be quite challenging, and you’ll find that you have to remove all the pieces you’ve already placed because the remaining pieces won’t fit. There’s a lot of trying different pieces in different places until you get it right. It’s especially exasperating (but in a funny way) when you think you’ve got all the pieces but the last one won’t fit, and you effectively have to start again! These puzzles were worth doing though because they unlocked the next reveal in Henry and Enid’s story. If you get stuck, there’s no hints to help you, or any way to skip it – but I actually didn’t mind this. It just made me more determined to get it right so I could continue with the game and learn more about what happened to Enid.

Some of these shape puzzles are quite tricky.

There’s more puzzles than just fitting shapes. Many of the puzzles in Inner Ashes incorporates looking around the environment, picking up stuff, and interacting with things. Inner Ashes does instruct you on what you need to do, but the game doesn’t spoon feed you. For example, in one section, you have to fix a mill. This involves finding some gears and placing them in the right parts of the mill. The game tells you to find the mill, then fix the mill and find the gears – but it doesn’t tell you where. That’s up to you to figure out. This is where the puzzle element kicks in. You have to explore the world and locate the gears.

One puzzle I really liked in Inner Ashes took place at Henry’s house, where you have to make a cup of coffee. Should be straightforward, right? Since you’re playing as someone with Alzheimer’s, the game does an excellent job demonstrating what it can be like to do something as simple as making a cup of coffee. In other words, it’s more difficult. There are nearby instructions on a corkboard, but not only do you need to locate the things you need, such as a cup or the milk, but you’ll find that the cup you’ve just placed down has suddenly vanished and has somehow returned to the cupboard, causing you to repeat the task. This was an intriguing segment that was well done.

There’s other parts to world exploration as well, such as using wooden planks found in the world to fix a bridge to access a new area. If you do get stuck, like I sometimes did, it can take a while to figure it out, and the game won’t hold your hand and tell you. You’re encouraged to look around and work it out.

The coffee making exercise was a simple task made more difficult with Henry’s Alzheimer’s.

One Major Hiccup That Could Have Been Avoided

As this is a review for Inner Ashes, I feel that while I want to praise the game, I also think I should raise something unfortunate that I encountered when playing the game. I’m probably the only person it happened to, and it was my fault for doing it incorrectly, but it was so bad that it caused me to have no choice but to restart the whole game.

Without giving away spoilers, I was doing a memory puzzle segment that was quite lengthy. This included collecting planks of wood to fix bridges and using torches to burn plant walls to access new areas. What happened was this section was divided up into three sub-areas, each with a different puzzle to solve. My big mistake was that I thought this was a puzzle where you had to take something from one place and then use it in another, instead of having everything you needed to solve the puzzle in each respective section.

This led to me accessing an area too early, meaning I was doing the puzzle in the wrong order. The major consequence of this was that I ended up being transported to the beginning section of this particular world and was unable to access the rest of the level. No matter what I did, I was stuck. Since there was no way to restart the puzzle, my only option was to begin the game all over again, which was very frustrating.

In the first playthrough, a major error on my part caused me to have to start the game from scratch.

Fortunately, this only happened to me once, and I was able to whizz through the game until I reached this section again (it took me about 45 minutes overall). Realising what I had done wrong before, I managed to complete this puzzle without any issues a second time. In fact, I had no more problems like this with other puzzles or sections in the game, either before or after.

This was my fault for doing the puzzle wrong, but I can’t help thinking it could have been avoided. The puzzle should have been designed so that you couldn’t access all the areas at the same time, having to finish one before you started another. Also, it could have been made obvious that everything you needed to complete a section was all there, instead of having to look elsewhere. Then again, this could have just been user error!

I felt I had to mention this hiccup, but do not let it put you off this game. Although I found it annoying, I badly wanted to complete the game, and I’m glad I restarted and was able to enjoy the game in its entirety.

Graphics and Audio – Pleasant and Dreamlike 

Inner Ashes contains the setting of Henry’s home and his memories. There’s a clear distinction between the more grounded reality of Henry being at home, and then him exploring his memories, which look and play out like a dream. The graphics in general are pretty decent. They could be better, but they weren’t terrible. They did the job they were meant to do, evoking the right emotions and dreamlike feels. I also liked how the individual memory worlds were portrayed. Some were bright and colorful, while others were more muted. Each one was different, almost themed. I also liked the comic book style cutscenes at the end of each memory segment. I thought they fitted the game well and were a good way of presenting the story.

I liked the music in Inner Ashes. There’s an interesting mix of happiness tinged with sadness, exactly what you might imagine if you’re feeling nostalgic. The music invokes a sense of fondness for recalling better times, but also a sense of loss, regret and loneliness, which perfectly fits the game.

I did want to touch on the voice acting in Inner Ashes. I liked the actor who played Henry. He played the role well. I wasn’t too keen on Enid’s voice actress though. There was something off about the way she spoke, a bit unnatural and too much like she was reading from a script. Saying that, I liked her dialogue with Henry. I could feel a connection there.

Inner Ashes was reviewed on Nintendo Switch with a game key provided by ICO.