Poetic Trio Review (Xbox Series X|S)

Rainfall, melancholia, and softly spoken stanzas form the backbone of a world that is unapologetically Poetic Trio—a short narrative-driven experience in which words wax poetic with wildlife, and puzzles come in the form of flowers and pillars. As the unsung hero in this field of leaves, droplets and elemental spirits, you thread the lines, formulate the verses, and complete the poems, not with a quill or an old typewriter, but with luminous flora and light, legwork and imagery.

It’s best not to think of Poetic Trio as a full-fledged game, but rather, a short and elegant excursion in which poems and music spell out the story. As a short experience that doesn’t aim to stick around for much longer than a textbook limerick, it makes more of an effort to drip feed you spells of wisdom than shovel it into your brain over unnecessarily drawn-out verses and puzzles. And, to give credit where it’s due, it works rather well in this context. That is, of course, if you can excuse its lack of gameplay, of which there isn’t a lot to write home about.

A walking simulator at heart, Poetic Trio prefers to use its short time on the clock to showcase, but not to teach. Given that most of the “experience” is solely based on poetry and small extracts of music, there isn’t a great deal for you to do here besides walk, harmonize, and meditate to the elemental side of its natural habitat. You collect flowers, bring them to an alter, and unravel a small passage of a poem. A light ushers you toward the next location, and, like a rabbit chasing a carrot on the end of a stick, you follow it. A poem eventually grasps its final words, and shortly thereafter you move on to the next in its three-piece series. That, in short, is all that Poetic Trio is: poetry in motion, and an invitation for you to unwind with it for sixty minutes or so.

In a similar vein as What Remains of Edith Finch, Poetic Trio mostly serves as an on-rails first-person experience. In each chapter, for example, you either follow a breadcrumb trail of flowers, navigate beaten paths, and gradually unravel small pieces of a poem that reflect the subject matter. To that end, what you essentially have here is a linear experience that doesn’t leave a great deal to the imagination. Like a swan song, it simply invites you to bathe in its poetry and enjoy the atmosphere. A piano accompanies you as you gather the words, and the completed poem eventually offers out its hand to give you a lyrical reward.

Suffice it to say, die-hard puzzle fans probably won’t find enough here to scratch “that”’itch. Given the fact that Poetic Trio doesn’t have a lot to offer outside of its three-layer expedition, hardcore gamers might fail to appreciate the beauty in its simplicity. It doesn’t slap you on the wrist for taking the wrong turn, nor does it make a habit of slumping a wide variety of crossroads or curveballs on your shoulders. Simply, it illuminates the path that you need to take, and it tells you to follow it. If that doesn’t sound like your idea of a good time, then you might struggle to bond with these verses.

Of course, as Poetic Trio bases its three poems around three distinct elemental forces, you can pretty much predict what each biome will look like before you so much as graze the tip of the iceberg. A poem about rainfall is gracefully framed in a woodland landscape surrounded by, well, mountains and a lot of rain; a poem about snowfall is etched onto a similar canvas, with flora and snow-drizzled forests; and a poem about wind is chalked out on a canvas of flowers and springtime embellishments, and so on and so forth.

As I mentioned earlier, there isn’t a lot for you to do in any of the aforementioned chapters. In fact, the game is largely about walking, foraging, and connecting the dots between various poems. To that end, there isn’t a great deal for you to wrap your head around. True to its word, it is, above all else, a walking simulator that holds your hand and tells you a story, nothing more, nothing less.

Despite there being a severe lack of interactivity in the game, Poetic Trio does come through with a beautiful backdrop—a setting that is primarily complimented by a harmonic and oftentimes touching OST and a whole host of theme-appropriate elements. Is it a photorealistic setting that sets the new standard for walking sims? No. But it is, however, a feast for the eyes that is surprisingly nice to glare at for fifty or sixty minutes. I guess you can’t really ask much more of it than that.

Verdict

Poetic Trio reads like a good stanza, with heart, soul, and just enough lyrical depth to get the cogs in your head turning for a while. Unfortunately, that’s about as far as it takes it, given that it pours all of said heart and soul into its presentation, yet sadly misplaces the actual gameplay. As a poetry showcase, it’s great, as is it an ideal page-turning experience that can soothe the mind and create a satisfying ambiance that can leave you craving the next verse. But as a game, there really isn’t that much to write home about here. I guess that’s sort of the point, though.

With all of the above out in the open, I will say that Poetic Trio is an excellent choice for those who simply wish to take a breather from the outside world for an hour or two. Although its stanzas and elemental infusions aren’t likely to get your blood pumping or your fingers twitching, there’s a good chance that you’ll find comfort in its simplistic form. It’s short, and it’s evidently lacking in interactive content. But, for what it’s worth, it is a rather beautiful game. If, of course, you can even call it that.