Sable

I picked it up after playing the demo because I really like the art style and I've really enjoyed completing it, chill vibes, puzzles and pretty views.

Despite being part of SBI portfolio it has absolutely no DIE bs at the time of my review. I really liked it despite the technical setbacks and the annoying chum collection shit that i didn't complete past 136 chums.

The music is good but the song is goddamn annoying.

Would break into my top 25 games of all time if the hoverbike and riding around in general was developed more.

All the way through the game I had no idea what the point of the "strafe" feature was since it kills all of your speed when using it, even in mid-air??
Along with maybe adding somersaults and other bike tricks you can do throughout the desert, more exciting terrain to take the bike on, and racing NPCs would be cool to see!

I feel that the quests could also use more polishing, the who-dunnit style quest in Eccria was great but nothing really comes of it, unfortunately. The rest of the quests just serve as motivation or a pointer to expore more regions of the absolutely beautiful overworld.

The overworld and customisation are the absolute highlights of this game. I cannot emphasize how much I adore all of the regions (especially the salt flats).

Overall 8/10, I truly enjoyed this game for what it is :)

Cozy game with enough exploration and world building. The puzzles are also quite manageable. Overall, can recommend when there are days you just feel like playing chill games - a welcome break from ARPGs.

A charming coming of age story set in a strange world where technology is ritual, the dunes go on forever, and friends can be found across the world. I highly recommend getting lost with Sable

Sable is a really beautiful that puts you out into the world, poses the question "What do you want to do?" and gives you all the tools and time to find your own answer. I think I played this game at the perfect time in my life - the parallels to choosing a career are uncanny.
Technically though I had a few issues with the game, which soured the experience. Most of the time will be spent riding your bike or climbing surfaces and I had issues with both. They just felt clunky at times.

Despite its numerous "quirks" its such a beautiful game both in art and story.

Calm exploration game. Very cozy; no combat. Haven't finished it yet, but I'm certain that this is a thumbs up from me.

Explore a beautiful open world, traverse, glide, fish, collect, and simply just exist and enjoy it. 10/10 game

Beautiful, feels a little bit like a Moebius style Planet Opera comic, with North African influences that hit close to home. I loved the story and characters, and the music. It's a chill experience gameplay wise, not difficult at all, very much a calm ride for completionists. The clothes you can collect and bikes are very nice. Few complaints but the game is kind of unnecessary slow sometimes, a quest in particular I didn't care finishing, too tedious for me. And performances issues, maybe not the greatest optimization, or it's my i7-6700k struggling. Otherwise awesome game would recommend.

Breath of the Wild style exploration through a gorgeous, cell-shaded desert landscape set to an understated but exceptional soundtrack. And to tie it all together, a simple but effective story about coming of age, told mostly through gameplay. I love this game.

To be clear, it's not perfect. You can tell this game was made by two people because it just doesn't have the polish that a larger team can bring. The hoverbike is really fun to tool around on, but it will often bounce off the ground or flip around from gradual slopes. Usually the game runs great (i have a decent 2 year old gaming PC) but while riding the hoverbike there will be frame drops as parts of the map load. The literal lines in the sand between areas are funny, but also look kind of cheap. The platforming is fun, but not very deep. The quests usually have soul and purpose, but they're not all winners. The game feels very indie, for better and for worse.

While it's not perfect, the jank is superficial, and the core of the game is something unique, something special. It's lonely, it's kind, there's no obvious message, but it asks a lot of questions, and gives you a wide expanse of sand and stone to cross while you think. I love this game.

Sadly I cannot recommend the game.

I did have fun, even though there was some stuttering (don't even try to run this on the steam deck) and the UI is extremely glitchy.

I had to stop playing because a battery that is supposed to be in a puzzle location just ... isn't there.

Sadly after 4 years the game is still buggy.

TL;DR - This game is something special. I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone in need of an escape or breath of fresh air - it is truly food for the soul.

I have a tendency to procrastinate playing games that I know I'll like, waiting for the "right moment"; the right weather, the right mood, the right vibe. Sable was a game I put off for almost 5 years, and to say that it was worth the wait is, in every way, an understatement.

What we have here is an incredibly emotional experience, where the player guides their character, Sable, through their coming-of-age trial, their "gliding"; exploring the world they inhabit, meeting its inhabitants, and learning the ins-and-outs of the the society they will join once their gliding has concluded - once they have chosen the role they wish to play in it.

Story-wise? Chef's-kiss. Perfection. The art style, too, while minimal, is incredibly striking, and the abstractions presented by its Moebius aesthetic do a great job at emphasising the strange-but-beautiful bleakness of the world as you explore it.

The world itself is relatively small, but feels vast and unique enough that the process of discovering it all is an intrinsically rewarding experience in-and-of itself; your motorbike-esque "glider" providing an ever-more enjoyable mode of travel as you upgrade and personalise it to your taste; your ever-improving grip allowing you to clamber up more-and-more difficult terrain until you achieve a mastery of both vehicle and body - leaping from your glider at a jump's apoapsis to throw yourself halfway-up a tower and scamper, gecko-like, to its peak - being rewarded both with some collectable or another and a breathtaking view.

As long as you're not looking for an adrenaline-fuelled gameplay experience, I find it hard to imagine anyone who I wouldn't recommend this game to - treat yourself, and pick this up as soon as you have the time to play it.

If you're the sort of player who's favorite part of a game is asking "What's that over there in the distance?", then you'll probably find this one satisfying. It's a bit like if you took out the combat and antagonists in Breath of the Wild, almost an "Oops, all Sidequests!" version of a Zelda game.

Sable is a pretty low-stakes adventure. It's not hard to complete. The world doesn't need to be saved. That being said, as you explore you'll come to learn the planet's sad history and the actions that led to the present day. However, you're just a person living in the world; all you gotta do is figure out your place in it, not fix it. It's a change of pace from stale chosen-one stories.

Obviously, the Moebius-inspired art style is a huge draw, and the game is beautiful throughout. Cel-shaded games can be deceptive though; while the game looks simple, it's still a fully 3D open world game and performs like one. I ran this on a 3070ti at 5140x1440, high settings, and had occasional dips into the low 20's but was typically was in the 30-60 range. To be fair, that's probably pushing that card a little hard, but I felt that this game performed similarly to games like Death Stranding or Elden Ring on my machine. Nice to see native 32:9 ultra-widescreen support. There is a little indie-jank present but overall it did not affect my enjoyment of the game.

I ended up 100%'ing this game in about 17hrs without needing to look anything up (except one fish location...) and had a great time floating around and vibing. Hearty rec if you're looking for a post-workday palate-cleanser.

top 5 favorite games honestly
the graphics are so beautiful
japanese breakfast mentioned

An absolutely magical experience. The game sets you up for exactly what it has to offer -- your job is to go out, see the world, and consider your place in it. You can take as much or as little time as you like. I had a long, slow journey and poked my nose into practically every last corner of the world, and that was perfect for me.

I did experience a few bugs, mostly graphical glitches and what I'd call some "indie jank" like the "don't lose your bike" message randomly displaying... while I was on my bike. Nothing game-breaking or even more than a small hitch in my experience.

Recommended especially for anyone who loved travelling around in Shadow of the Colossus or Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, and fans of collecting things. Took me a bit over twenty hours to 100%, but a casual playthrough could easily be half of that and still very enjoyable!

It's a really beautiful experience and it's got a lot of heart. Give it a try. :)

I didn't finish it yet, but it's amazing and whenever I close it I want to play it again.
It's the perfect mix of Wind Waker and Outer Wilds I would say, and an experience as close to the latter as I was looking for. Amazing !
Also a gold mine of wallpapers !

I've heard nothing but good things about this game but I personally had to get rid of it because it made me incredibly motion sick. Wish I could leave a neutral or unrated review but alas. I'm sure it's great but there was no feature to help me with the motion sickness so what're ya gonna do

This game is basically a cozy, Moebuis-themed, non-linear adventure game that plays a lot like if open world Zelda had no fighting. 5/5 game for me personally

I wish there were more visible ways of warning people about important things to know, rather than a Steam review that will surely get overlooked by thousands of buyers.

In any event: This is NOT an optimized game. It's important to ensure your device is well-tuned before playing. I simply forgor that I had my 3060 laptop on Windows' power-saver battery option settings, and it hobbled my performance in Sable to an immersion-killing 30fps, even on bottomed-out, 720 res settings.

Beyond that: Its reputation as peak chill game precedes it. I doubt it's ever been described as "BIONICLE villager simulator" before, but that's how I'd sum it up. A really great game to multitask with, I.E. play while listening to a podcast or watching TV.

Came for the Japanese Breakfast and stayed for the art direction - and the Japanese Breakfast.

Le nom Sable rend moins bien en français je trouve.

Fantastic, chill game. Great gameplay, great soundtrack. I love the artstyle. This is an easy recommend from me.

Set the game to windows 8 compatibility mode to fix the fps

sable is a great game for anyone looking for a good adventure/puzzle game that has a fantastic playlist and really cool art. almost any screenshot you take of this game can be used as a wallpaper and thats what several of my wallpapers are. the only downside for me is that the camera angle is a little weird in some places and sometimes when youre riding your bike it tells you "dont lose your bike! open your compass to find it!" or something like that. but overall, its definitely one of my favorite games and i think it should get more attention, i highly recommend!

This game healed me in a way I can't fully describe. It's so magical in its presentation, so gentle with its story, and so inspiring in so many ways.

If you need a break from life and want something calm to fall into for a while, look no further than Sable.

Really pretty to look at and kind chill and relaxing

Very nice chill game. The exploration and climbing reminds me of Zelda BOTW. A little buggy but nothing gamebreaking.

Takes a lot of the open world exploration I loved from BOTW and set it in an artistically brilliant setting. Missing out on getting a head start on some missions (primarily the collectathon) until later in the game did put a damper on the last leg of the game, but that can be negligible. Even through some bugs and a couple gripes the game keep me entertained for hours.

Japanese Breakfast scoring the entire game is just icing on the cake.

Loved this game absolutely and totally, have played it twice so far. Love everything about it. The exploration, the characters and the quests. :)

My entire interest in Sable was dependent on the fact that the art and style of the world reminded me of Moebius's comics (Arzach, etc). On this front, it more than delivers. It's beautiful and visually well-designed.

The story is very Kiki's Delivery Service-esque. A coming-of-age exploration of the self. Go out into the world, and find out who you are. Really this just kind of means, what career does your character want to pursue? And you can choose this for Sable, based on your own interests in the game's various gameplay mechanics. Did you enjoy the climbing, the fishing, etc? This is the goal. It's a cool idea!

Your journey is meandering and directionless, which is kind of nice. Drive wherever catches your eye, interact with the environment and NPCs however you like. There's no combat, no threats. You're just vibing with the land. This game is entirely chill. Maybe TOO chill.

You have your goal, but there's no real story. No MAIN story. This would be fine, but side stories are short, and NPCs are shallow. The environmental storytelling is cool, but again is rather surface-level. I wish there was more. Is it me? Is it the writing? The game is just very BORING, to me. I felt like I had nothing to sink my teeth into. I would have loved to have seen more deeply established and compelling relationships with NPCs -- I really feel this is all that was missing.

Also, the technical issues could be frustrating at times. Rarely does calling your bike actually work. Climbing had hiccups, at times, with occasionally not being able to grab onto climbeable surfaces. When you've just spent several minutes climbing an insanely tall structure only to plummet all the way back to the bottom... well.

I also expected better bike customization options, considering your bike is a character, with a name, even. Customization Mad Max or Days Gone style. You don't even get a boost. Or anything that offers additional functions, new ways to interact with the world, whatever. Just a bunch of aesthetic customizations that only slightly alter stats.

I'm not sure I recommend this game. I don't NOT recommend it, it's not bad, it just wasn't for me. Games don't need to have depth, but I prefer them to.

Some technical issues and non game breaking bugs aside, this is a wonderful "little" open world experience with a strong thematic core that managed to lighten up my day anytime I booted it up. It is clearly inspired by games like breath of the wild and it's artstyle is heavily influenced by some artist I saw on the internet but it all still manages to come together to create something unique and worth experiencing. Highly recommend. It also teached me to play these kinds of games with a different focus which felt very refreshing.

I enjoyed my time with "Sable" greatly. It's more of an art piece than anything else. If you want a full-tilt ~*video game*~, there's plenty to collect and find and a great many boxes to tick -- but, in my opinion, you shouldn't feel obligated to do any of that unless you want to, unless you feel like it, unless it brings you joy.

Lots of things in life bear the mantra of "you get out of it what you put it" and "Sable" represents that greatly. One part game, one party coming-of-age meditation, one part personality test. It's pretty, it's thoughtful, the Japanese Breakfast soundtrack rules, and when your Gliding is done you can safely return to the real world, knowing this other one will continue on without you.

It's a good feeling.

This game lived on my wishlist for years. I really wish i had just bought it as soon as I could have. It is worth the price. Its worth three times the price honestly.

Had high hopes but ended up feeling largely forgettable. We have Breath of the Wild at home.

A beautiful game about choosing a path and becoming adult

nice relaxing game

Awesome soundtrack, fun characters, interesting lore, an all around super fun game. Honestly one of my favorites at time of writing!

This is a very good exploration game, super soothing and with a gorgeous art design. You can climb most things.

The art, the music, the story. This game could be a very quick play through but I could not imagine doing anything but taking my time with this game. I explored everywhere I was able and ended up breaking some things here and there with my curiosity but even that was exploration as well. I was interested the whole time playing and I loved every bit of it. The calming nature and wisdom of this game will stick with me as I go through life.

The art, the music, the atmosphere—everything is simply beautiful.

My favorite game to date and i'm only 5 hours in. Incredibly beautiful, deeply moving. The writing, worldbuilding, art, characters, everything. The platforming can be clunky at times but it makes the views from the top even more rewarding. Highly recommend.

Good game. Exploration, platforming, atmosphere, music are great, striking art style. Ran well on Steam Deck and Linux, though it's way better on a huge ultra wide than on Deck. I think the game is mechanically too shallow and requires its visuals on a big screen to function. Which it then does pretty well. They should have done way, way more with the lore / background setting.

Sable is a very chill exploration game with a unique art style, great music, and a enjoyable story. I ended up 100%-ing the game after about 18 hours of wandering (my playtime on Steam is longer because I started the game and stopped a while ago and decided to restart recently). The game has no combat, instead offering an interesting world to explore, puzzles to solve, light platforming, and loads of customization options for your character and bike,. Highly recommended if you're looking for a very casual, cozy exploration game. Enjoyed every minute of it.

A simple, exploration-focused game with immaculate vibes. Hoverbiking your way across the deserts, meeting neat folks and finding all kinds of cool things is just a great time.

This was a review long-time coming, honestly.

I loved this experience, to explore the open world and simply take love in the act of low-stress adventure.
The music, the game's aesthetics, the homeliness...

What's more about this game is how personal it was to me. For context, I got this game when a friend of mine committed suicide and I felt lost, directionless. This is someone I knew well over a decade - a childhood friend. This game gave me something to focus on during a depressing time of my life; that holds considerable significance for me and, ironically, what I felt the message of the game was helped me think about and process that trauma.

What Would I Do in Life?

Honestly, I had no idea. I was like Sable, unsure of what I would be or become. Rather, I found myself stuck in the dichotomy of fearing both success and failure. Success, for my aspiration to be a game developer, in all likelihood, making it difficult to connect with and that sacrifice that such a path oft demands. And on the other side, failure for I feel like I would not be able to contribute meaningfully and show what I would like to see in things - I'd like to use my platform to inspire with hopeful messages, to show what might be 'ugly' or 'difficult' and to illustrate the complexity of humanity from its law to right and wrongs and moralities, etc...

Sable had that familiar anxiety, to go out and find out. In doing so, all these choices opened up to her, to be a Machinist, or become a Merchant, to be the protector as the Shade; countless options. It mimicked real life - the difficulty of choosing and that overwhelming capacity we have to be whatever we choose yet worry if we chose right for us.

Truth is, there's no right or wrong answer - there are only degrees of it and one thing might've suited us better or worse. That's the beauty of it, since we can take pride in the choice we made because of that subjectivity. We chose what we thought best for us at the time and, if it isn't now, we got to learn and we can always try something else, like how Sable got to try different things.

I'm able to do pixel-based sprite edits, I can animate using spine animation, video edit, program, create game design docs... Sable encouraged me because I realised what I chose first didn't matter; as long as I chose something, I could take pride that I made the first step in my journey and every little bit of experience towards my desired goal allowed me to work with others and connect with them.

Meanings of A Dream

As you get older, your fantasies wane - the world is difficult; reality seldom just and kind; we get shovelled with what feels like an insurmountable wall towards your initial, lofty goals and dreams. We cast our dream aside, call it childish, vacuous and assert that to be fully rational and practical is what is left. This cannot be further from the truth.

Sable, from what I felt, challenges what it means to be the best version of yourself and what the world has to offer. While Sable doesn't have dark themes or harsh realities, there's still nuance and sadness here and there, such as realising that the ship's inhabitants are the ancestors of the characters you see yet they continued to supply for another generation than their own. I hear of heroic, 'selfless' acts in real life and never thought much of it compared to the amount of darkness that plagues us still. With my best friend's suicide, things really did feel insurmountable - he fought for his ideas of right, his aspirations, things he wanted to do and he won't be able to anymore. Whatever darkness he had, it won once and he was gone. Plenty of people are in a constant battle where they fight continuously against such.

I thought about it. He had so much potential. He talked to me a couple days before he went. I question whether he contacted me because he wanted to say goodbye and provide what last joys he had left in him? I won't know that answer. Rather, I'm humbled he chose to spend his time with me, as much as I was available on a busy schedule. All that potentiality, I realised, reflected potentiality I had within myself. I really began to understand that, as much as I thought I knew him, I didn't really. His life was intricate and complex in a way I didn't understand or know. I wondered about people I've encountered, in brief and those I consider friends.

We all have loved ones whose lives are complex in ways we may not, by ourselves, hope to fathom. Every single one of our lives here, and in the world, greater than the sum of all books mankind has ever produced.

And thus, my eyes were opened; we write the world around us as we continue to exist, life an endless sea of scripture, to find out what the future may bring because of what we do. And inevitably each of us will perish and, in time, be forgotten one day. Yet what we ourselves have written in our now will echo through the rest of the upcoming pages, providing everything after it with meaning long after we have perished, even if it isn't inherently understood to anyone else and the author is lost to time.

What he left behind was a spark of potentiality. Perhaps that was his final gift? Regardless, I decided to take it and rise, knowing that nothing is ever truly lost. Thus, I am compelled with the dream that we, as people, can make things better as long as we keep at it.

The meaning of a dream is as such, even if it feels impossible, hollow, or childish. Perhaps we land ourselves in another cycle, yet what mattered is that we broke the cycle once and thus we can do it again.

I miss him dearly still. No one will be like him. They don't need to be. People are interesting enough in their own right and deserve an honest chance for life and I will persist with the hope of inspiring and bringing people along with me.

Ultimately, my dream is to make a kinder and more thoughtful world, in a place that feels cold and calculated - people have assured me that human nature and people as whole are less than savoury and will perhaps die not ignorant and unknowing but stupid and hateful. People may besmirch me, shoot me down, spur allegation and shun me...

To me, it feels slothful to not try all the same.

Conclusion

I understand it may seem strange or unusual that a game would have such an impact. Still, I give some credit to Sable's developers for making a game that ended up in my hands and, during a period where I had a tumultuous mind and turbulent heart, assisted in mediating myself and helping my self-reflection.

This game was made with heart and love, with nuance in its story and a rich sense of what it means to journey forth.
It'll always hold something special in my heart in this regard.

i really, really wanted to like this game. its exactly my type of shit, cool graphics, open ended exploration in a well crafted environment. but theres just so much jank, and so many small annoying details, that it all adds up to a mostly irritating experience.
my biggest problem is the movement - its the main thing you interact with for 99% of the game, and its just... poorly made. its randomly stuttery, the game seems confused on what slopes are for walking, running, and sliding, it randomly places you in to mantle animations, and overall just feels bad. even worse, the hoverbike, which the game hypes up for the entirety of the first hour, is incredibly disappointing. its somehow both incredibly stiff and too slidy, it tries to be physics based but doesnt really commit enough for it to actually be physics based, and like the rest of the movement, just ends up feeling bad. not only that, but the game wants so badly to give it a "personality", that when you call it, the game very often refuses to teleport it to you. this would be really cool if the hoverbike consistently managed to find its way to you on its own - but it really, really doesnt. almost every time i got off of it to explore something, and left out of the other side, the hoverbike got stuck somewhere and couldnt manage to get to me. even when it does manage to follow you, it somehow always manages to do it in the most annoying way possible. the fuckin assassins creed horse had more personality and better ai. thats just sad.
the other main method of movement, the climbing, also has a whole host of annoying issues. most vertical surfaces in the world are climbable, but NOT all. and there is no way to tell if a surface is climbable or not other than trying to climb it. what surfaces are or are not climbable is seemingly entirely arbitrary. the game frequently shits itself whenever you climb a moving object, despite the fact that there are many, many places where the game expects you to do that. theres a whole climbing tower that the game has you climb the first 90% of, and if you want to climb the last 10% for shits / giggles / a cool view, surprise! 1 trillion unclimable walls. just why.

overall, profoundly disappointing experience. cannot recommend.

A fantastic open-world exploration game.

"The Gliding: Just Sand In Your Bits."

Sable is an absolutely gorgeous game with a touching story about self-discovery and wonderfully dry sense of humour (pun intended). Performance can be a bit rough in certain areas of the game, though.

This is a great game to begin with, but especially for us boomers that remember the Heavy Metal magazines of the 70s. Esoteric and ethereal visuals, good environmental sounds and music, laid-back (like I was high again :P ) pace, all in all, a fantastic game!