Swan Song Review (PC)

Swan Song makes an effort to pacify the soul with a melodic and oftentimes emotional tale that hangs each of its notes on a scale built on regret, loss, and an unfinished masterpiece that yearns to be found and finalized with just the right chords. A magical music box; a beautiful swan; and a handful of memorabilia that occasionally vies to reconstruct past memories of a creator who had a heart for finding the perfect song. Combined, Swan Song orchestras a short yet blissful journey that, true to the spirit of melancholia, finds a way into your heart and keeps you in anticipation of the next crescendo.

A melody-based puzzle game at its core, Swan Song invites you to embark on a short adventure through the memories of an old craftsperson—a character who, in an effort to conceal their identity, stows their life into a magical music box. The box, which is where you spend your time in Swan Song, contains a plethora of objects, keepsakes, and small pieces of information that pertain to the character in question and, above all, the true meaning behind the box itself. Who was it to be gifted to? What happened to the creator? Why does it contain magical qualities? And how can you fill in the blanks to rebuild the melody?

Between the act of unraveling trinkets, heirlooms and gradually piecing the narrative together, you find yourself with a series of simple yet highly effective puzzle-based dioramas to solve. With a swan, a scale of musical notes, and a series of blocks that shift and move to your every input, you receive the task of constructing short and bittersweet melodies to ensure that the swan can cross the platforms and move to the next beat. After completing a puzzle, you receive yet another fragment of evidence with sentimental value, and you set out to compose the next piece of music, all in the hopes of unraveling the whole story.

Although billed as a puzzle game, Swan Song is just as much about telling a story as it is about challenging you to overcome a wide variety of obstacles. The box, for example, doesn’t often require you to think outside of it. Rather, it gives you a handful of notes, a scale to place them on, and a simple mechanism that allows you to witness the sentient swan traipse the path that you yourself pave out before it. With that, it doesn’t slap you on the wrist for being out of tune, nor does it demand that you embrace your inner virtuoso to complete its journey. On the contrary, it gives you all of the right tools to weave short melodic rhythms into a color-coded timeline, and it provides you with the breathing room to whisk your thoughts into the story.

With a striking visual element that leans into various seasons and a lot of objects that can keep you hanging on to the next beat, Swan Song quickly comes across as an elegant composition that, when chained together correctly, can feel like music to your ears. It’s still all rather emotional, as it does touch on various aspects of terminal illness, loss, and sorrow. That said, for whenever it hits a downward spiral in its rhythm, it often finds a way to elevate itself with its magical infusions and satisfying gameplay loop. Although it can feel rather simple, it does manage to keep you thoroughly engaged, if not with another puzzle, then with an object that makes you ask more questions.

Even with a rather somber tone, Swan Song feels like an absolute delight to orchestrate. With an original plot, a satisfying series of rhythmic puzzles, and just enough items to hold your attention, you more or less have all of the right notes to host a great arrangement here. It’s cozy when it needs to be, and it’s depressing when it chooses to be. The thing is, you never quite know what you’re going to receive from the final note of each completed puzzle. But then, maybe that’s the reason why it is so darn compelling. Music has that effect on you, truly. This world just happens to add a lick of magic to the mix, and honestly, it works in its favor here.

While Swan Song is relatively short and lacking in full orchestral ambience, it is a beautifully composed song that delivers exactly what it initially set out to convey. It can tug on your heartstrings, and it can give you a lot to think about between each of its crescendos. But that’s music for you, in a nutshell. Swan Song just happens to know how to sing all of the right verses as and when needed. The voice acting and the hundred or more original puzzles, really, just adds a little extra depth to the arrangement.

With all of the above said, die-hard puzzle fans will likely struggle to elevate their skills here, given that Swan Song isn’t a technical masterpiece, but more of a gentle song with roughly half the notes and scales to carry its performance. Even still, it feels like a game that I can praise with ease, more so given that it touches on an original concept that, at least to my knowledge, hasn’t been choreographed before. Again, it’s a short number that might not appeal to those who want a powerful chorus with challenging nodes to conquer. However, for those who enjoy simple and effective verses that pack just enough of a punch to tickle your emotions, Swan Song ought to feel like a breath of fresh air.

Verdict

Swan Song flutters its wings to the melancholic beat of a beautifully orchestrated musical that will happily tug on your heartstrings for all the while you choose to compose its short bittersweet symphonies. Even with a lack of logical problems and challenges to solve, it finds comfort in a short and elegant song—an unspoken masterpiece, if you will, that is likely to get your heart in tune and your feet in sync with a rhythm that might just make you appreciate the little things.

With thanks to its original score, its elegant puzzles and its emotional tone, Swan Song manages to frame a brilliant indie game with a unique heart. And on that note, I’d say that it should find a way to channel itself into your ears. You might not love the crescendo, but you will find comfort in the warmth of the verses and the message that it tries so desperately to convey.