One great thing about the end of the year is that there’s not much news to deal with. Yeah there’s still the ongoing RAM shortage stuff and all, but not a lot of new game or business announcements. We are all, for the most part, collectively chilling, which is something that I really enjoy about this final week of the year. And, right now, it creates a great opportunity to talk a bit about Skate Story before 2025 reaches its end.
It was kind of crazy to see Skate Story finally release after so long. Well, not that long, I suppose. It just felt like a long time since there was about a year without any news after the game was delayed past its initial 2023 release window. From the very first trailer, I just couldn’t wait to dive in and experience the musical trip it seemed to be promising.
And now here I am at last. Skate Story is out and I had the chance to play it all the way through. In some ways, it absolutely lived up to all my expectations. In others, it just didn’t quite hit. I’ll start with those since there are only a couple, namely its story and the hub sections in each chapter. Both feel like they have potential early on, but quickly transform into barriers between you and the “good” part of the game.
Regarding the story, it’s there but I couldn’t really say what’s going on. As the Glass Skater, you’re on a mission to eat all the moons in the underworld in hopes of recovering your soul. Except, well I suppose I don’t want to spoil anything, so suffice it to say that that may or may not actually be what’s going on. Everything experienced over the course of that mission felt, to me, like nonsense. Just things that happened over the course of the journey. They were interesting, certainly, but I could tell you what the point was, if there even was one.
Skate Story seems to have something to say about forging on in the face of inevitability and transcendance by way breaking through your limits, but that’s 100% just my interpretation of the experience. It’s also an interpretation mostly focused on the very beginning of the game and its final two chapters. I’m not sure how everything else fits in other than it all comprises the skater’s journey.
Perhaps there’s some allegory for real life in there too, but I couldn’t really say. It all kind of gets lost within itself. It’s not really a failure of Skate Story per se, as I’m pretty sure that it’s all intentional, but it just didn’t strike me with the same kind of profundity as, say, GRIS did. For me, it was just kind of there. The same can be said of the hub areas found in each chapter.
They set the scenes for the story and serve as the space within which you perform your tasks, but they all feel like slow busy work inserted in order to have something between the actual skating sections. These hub had their interesting qualities for sure, but I honestly could have done without them.
Also, I think they’re there to give players more chances to play around with Skate Story’s very developed trick system. It’s a great system too, one that’s begging to be unleashed in a full skating sim, but, unfortunately, it’s confined within Skate Story, and the game doesn’t really need it.
Aside from a handful of trick sequences, there’s little to no need to engage with much of what the trick system has to offer. You can spam the same two tricks over and over and get roughly the same results as pulling off a truly impressive combo. Really, simpler with more actual skating sections might have been better in the end.
Okay, so yeah that’s a lot of complaints, but they are ultimately outweighed by what Skate Story gets right. Skate Story absolutely nails three things: the skating, the music and the vibe! Yes, the skating is overdeveloped for this game, but it still feels really good! It feels good to land grinds, spins and nollies. It feels good to blast along the game’s corridors and boss sections, and it feels really good to land the final stomp in those boss encounters. It’s why I say the system is almost wasted here: it’s that good!
The vibe and the music entirely intertwine in Skate Story, and where they meet and mix with the skating is where Skate Story truly delivers on the experience promised in the trailers. Whenn you’re skating, grinding and ollie-ing your way through the corridor and boss segments at breakneck speed and vibing along to the Blood Cultures soundtrack, Skate Story becomes an almost transcendant experience.
It’s as if it you’ve been pulled in and now exist in this realm of sound and music. There’s a couple segments in particular, one near the beginning and one at the very end, that take this feeling to its absolute pinnacle! It’s just…man is it something special!
The only problem: each of these segments only lasts for a handful of minutes, kicking you back out to a hub space just as you’re really getting into it! If this was all Skate Story was, man, then it’d be absolutely crazy! Heck, I’m still hoping that it’ll get an update that adds like a “vibe” mode or something that just lets you skate your way through the soundtrack!
Skate Story has its flaws, but man was it ever worth the wait! It’s not my game of the year, but I think it’ll get an honorable mention on my list at the very least. Definitely check it out if you’re looking for a vibe game. I don’t think you’ll come away disappointed.
What’s a game you’ve played that’s just pure vibes? Let’s discuss below, and make sure to check back in for our GOTY and Most Anticipated lists!
Image from the Skate Story Steam page
VIRTUAL BASTION 