YMMV / Sky: Children of the Light

• Alternative Character Interpretation: As the developers explicitly stated Sky is open to interpretation with little to no lore, the Elders and Descendants are very ambiguous or to some questionable. That being said, their gestures and mannerisms are very rich in personality, and there are common characterizations of them in fandom circles.
  • The Descendants are an enigma. Where do they come from? Are they unwitting agents to send stars back to the sky without knowing what that entails? Are they genuinely helpful and kind children who breathe life into a desolate world? Or for some, are they The Atoner, reincarnated from someone instrumental in the downfall of the kingdom, doomed to repent for their sins for eternity?
  • All Elders, basically. All are locked inside their space without attempting to get out, only influencing the situations via their response to the light. How much involved are they in causing the kingdom's present state? Are their actions a show of repentance, denial, or something else?
    • Is Elder of the Forest too greedy for the light you offer to accept it courteously, or is she concerned about its potential danger to you? Or are they impatient to restore themselves and the temple for you to pass the level? Is their grouchiness from shouldering the burden of the pollution in their forest, or the giveaway sign of a ruthless ambition that serves as the pollution's driving force?
  • The dark dragons in-game are a hazard to Descendants' life source, but the cryptic history leaves their morality ambiguous. What led them to be the way they are today is unknown. As a joke, some people say they are actually good and their attacks are failed attempts to hug the Descendants.
  • The phoenix-like being in the Orbit, as the camera pans out to show in the credits. Depending how the lore is perceived based on in-game landscape, Sky could be either a Crapsaccharine World with a cruel god or a celestial and ethereal one just as it is on the surface.
• Awesome Art: As usual for thatgamecompany, Sky NAILS the visuals, from a grassy prairie to a dark vault.
• Awesome Music: Waltzing in the Rain, heard early on in Hidden Forest. The mysterious strings and the peaceful flute make for a great first impression.
  • An Upwards Dance, during the final part of the Vault of Knowledge.
  • Season of Dreams - Reward (titled "In the Middle of a Dream" on the official soundtrack), played in the final season quest of Season of Dreams, deserves a mention.
• Breather Level: Vault of Knowledge, sandwiched between Golden Wasteland and the Eye of Eden. While those two levels are Dark Dragons-infested nightmares with environmental hazards, the Vault is a completely peaceful tower populated by spirit mantas that help you ascend it. The only remotely dangerous portions of it are the Archives (a seasonal side area containing a few Dark Crabs), and the Office, a secret area normally accessible only with a special paid cape, housing one easily avoidable Dark Dragon.
• Fan Nickname:
  • For the Dark Dragons, Krills, and the result of being in their eyesight is getting krilled.
  • For the Descendants, Moths (or sparrows in other national communities), due to having brown capes by default, being related to fire, and the ability to fly. They are also known as Sky Children and Sky Kids. The term 'moth' is also often used for newer players, given that they are the ones most likely to be wearing the aforementioned brown capes.
  • The Elders are often referred either with a simplified name of their realms or their concept names.
  • “Ikemen” to players that are perceived to be attractive, most of whom are wearing the Black cape or seasonal capes, seasonal pants, faceless mask, and a hairstyle from either of the two Elders ruling the Valley, Elder of the Wasteland, or Rhythm Director. That being said, exceptions apply and attractiveness is ultimately based on individual perceptions.
  • The Bearhug Hermit spirit from the Season of Dreams is almost exclusively referred to as Yeti.
  • The giant Aurora at the end of the Musical Voyage is generally referred to as some variant of Mama Aurora.
• Gainax Ending: Orbit from the Eye of Eden could count, although it is implied to have a critical plot element and symbolization in a secret part of the game and by thinking hard enough about in-game surroundings lore-wise.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The game is massively popular in Eastern Asian countries, in particular Japan, China and South Korea, due to its highly communal nature and cute characters. Take a look at any message boat cluster, memory candle or message ring, and there’s a pretty solid chance that at least one of them will have a message written in one of those languages.
• It Was His Sled: Too many to count. Some examples include the Descendants dying and being reborn and summoning Oreo in the 8-player area in the Daylight Prairie.
• Moe: The Descendants are irresistibly adorable in terms of design, and have endeared themselves to many players.
  • The Moe effect intensifies once a Descendant wears the Chibi mask, which causes them to shorten in height, gain chubbier cheeks, run like Naruto, and look up at any spirit or other Descendants nearby.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Dark Dragons/Krill are utterly terrifying to new and old players alike. They're towering, pitch black shrimp creatures with a single, spotlight-like eye that make gross crackling noises while moving, and if they spot you, their eye turns a deep red and you're hit with a musical chord that sounds like the musical equivalent of the life draining from someone's eyes. And if you aren't good at running away, then you can say goodbye to your Winged Light...
• Scrappy Mechanic: If the mantas are already released, burning the plant on top of a tower in the Prairie will attract your kid to them like a magnet due to the proximity, and up you go to the temple with the majestic music. It becomes irritating for those hurrying to accumulate candles (the in-game currency), and for this reason, some jokingly call the mantas kidnappers or abductors.
  • A lot of the cutscenes where the camera is fixed but your character can still move, most notably for one of the spirits in the Golden Wasteland and the second part of Eden. In both cases, you are being threatened by dangerous enemies (rocks, krill, and glowing red rocks) but still able to be hurt by them. At least taking away the player's ability to move and get damaged when the cutscene plays gives some breathing room to pull away from the controls. But as is, it's very annoying.
  • Light recharge speed differences. Some small candles recharge so slowly that they might as well not recharge any light at all, some lanterns have slow but tangible recharging, and there are fires and clouds that recharge energy instantly. Waiting around is not something gamers want to do.
  • Particularly large dark plants require the branches being burned from top to bottom, and the branches will regrow unless they are constantly being burned. This requires two players at minimum to completely burn the plant, but waiting for server merges or players to join is often a waste of time. Some of these large plants also require a particular order to burn the larger branches in, and it's hard to remember what that order is. Unfortunately, getting on the plants themselves is hard, as you can easily run out of light trying to get onto the irregular surfaces. You can honk to recharge other players' light, but many players don't know that. And to top it all off, one of these large plants in the Golden Wasteland is in the vicinity of two krill, meaning you have to constantly remain vigilant. The only saving grace is that the large plants will give a large amount of candle wax, but still, many players get annoyed by having to deal with such an ordeal every day.
  • Mechanisms that require two or more players to activate, since this usually forces you to stand around waiting for other people to help you out. If a lost spirit goes through one of these mechanisms, then don't be surprised if you run out of time because no other players joined you.
• That One Side Quest: Spirit Memories that need you to carry the light towards the static images of the spirit you’re trying to relive. Falling off a cliff, especially if you have less than 5 wedges of energy, will inevitably cause the fire you’re holding to slip away. Failure to return to it before the timer ends will cause it to reset, which is frustrating if you spent a long time guiding it, coupled with the threat of Dark Dragons and Dark Creature Crabs knocking the Winged Light and energy out of you. Best examples are the Pleading Parent spirit in Golden Wasteland’s graveyard and the Hiking Grouch at Daylight Prairie’s Sanctuary Island.
  • Darkness Plants. You'd better hope you have good internet, a steady hand, and the patience of a saint, because they take a long time to burn. Bad internet will cause them to just stop burning, as if the candle in your hands doesn't affect them. Accidentally flinging your hand or not walking alongside the burning part to land on the next one will cause your character to fall off, and if you don't have enough energy to fly back up, the plants will regrow faster than before as you run off to regain your energy. You will end up either repeatedly doing a Deep Call to cause a server merge (so the plant will burn immediately), or repeatedly honking in hopes that at least one person will appear to help you, that is if they don't completely ignore your pleading honks.
  • The multiplayer quests from Season of Assembly. It requires you to have up to four players (including you) to have unlocked the quest, coordinating each one to sit down and pick up objects simultaneously and get that all without losing patience. Hours can go by waiting for four players to actually come and finish the job. Some players can start going AFK, you might disconnect from the server due to inactivity, and you could waste a lot of candles on being able to communicate. Especially a pain for people without friends that also play Sky regularly.
  • The Trial of Fire from Season of Prophecy is widely considered to be one of the most difficult challenges in the game. It requires you to navigate a maze shrouded in darkness, lighting candles as you go; the darkness drains your light, and the second and third levels have Dark Worms that will kill you if you touch them. Navigating the trial requires familiarity with the map and precise timing to avoid getting hit by the Dark Worms; it's not uncommon for players to skip this trial altogether when gathering Winged Light.