Experience aside, this level is genuinely like no other, and I mean that in the best way. The gameplay is as it looks, very rough. It has a very first third heavy balancing, in which your thrust into an extremely difficult high cps section that serves as the first roadblock as keeping stamina for that long is brutal. You’re given a “break” with the cube, only for your hands though as this part is very easy to die to and is probably the hardest individual part in the level. The drop is very challenging as well, but can be done very consistently (people have beaten this with less than 5 drop attempts). The cube/wave part is genuinely so cool and serves as an amazing transition into the final ship, the finale of your journey. Visually stunning and serves as the end of your journey with the level, but not with your journey of life (hold onto me for a second here) which is where I think the true value of this level lies.

Ashes doesn't just serve as one of the most unique playing experiences you can get with an extreme, but it conveys to you a message. Heidax intended this to convey depression and battles of moving on from it, in the form of a geometry dash level, which is so incredibly brave and powerful. They struggled first hand with that, the level symbolizing how one’s battle might look through that. The very rough and jaded beginning showing the brunt force of someones real issues, everything is overwhelming and dangerous and it feels like so much to handle. As you push through, little by little, you can make it to the “end” symbolized by the calm of this ship. I like what it does here, especially with the poem, as it stands as a sort of peace you get from reflecting on and understanding of your past trauma’s and hardships, and how you learn to accept whats happened to you and still make something of yourself. This is shown especially for me, with the final four lines, stating “the final ambient-ish part is when I finally come to peace with it all

I haven't gotten there yet

but I think I will one day

I want to get over the ashes of my past as well.” I highly recommend you read the whole poem, so powerful.

This level serves as to me as what the true potential for what geometry dash as an artform can be, a tool to share your message with the world. This level, admittedly, isn’t the best, but it does what few levels can attempt to do and fewer succeed in doing. Heidax is genuinely such an amazing person and did a fantastic job with this level. Check it out for yourselves people!

You can tell the instant that you open this level that this was a passion project made by someone who wanted to make the best level they could. ASHES is xHeiDax's magnum opus in this game, and the reason it's as good as it is is because it doesn't confine itself to the game's creating norm, It just does it's own thing

So good!!! Absolutely love the energy of the first parts and the contrast to the cloudy part at the end which I also adore a lot. I'm especially in awe with how the gameplay mimics some of the sounds of the song, in a way.

The ball part in the middle is a bit too basic compared to the rest in my opinion but I still love this. Fantastic job.

I most likely won't touch this level ever again due to how ridiculously high-CPS the gameplay is, but I absolutely love watching it, and it's very satisfying to play in runs. This is one of the most unique extreme demons out there, and I think it missed out on a lot of attention due to being overlooked by the demon list on release

This level has so many visual issues but even those just can't tear me away from how rawly beautiful this looks

Edit: Fine I will use the word raw. This must be a reference to the song in hit album good kid M.A.A.D city The Art of Peer Pressure by Kendrick Lamar

amazingly meaningful level, one of my favorite extreme demons. objectively it's rough and unpolished, but it's just simultaneously so awesome and so emotional. the gameplay is also awesome, the part after the blind click dash orb is like the coolest thing ever you will never convince me otherwise