I did not anticipate to spend a full weekend arguing with a sentient bush, blowing my financial savings on spring seeds, and studying to cut timber by taking part in a melody on a flute — however right here I’m, already determined for extra. Songs of Glimmerwick, the subsequent title from Eastshade Studios, drops you onto a unusual island occupied by a college of music and magic, then arms you a every day planner full of courses, backyard chores, potion elements, and townsfolk who’re means too charming for their very own good. In case you’ve ever questioned what it might really feel prefer to attend a Stardew Valley college that teaches Ocarina of Time-style spellcasting inside a Cartoon Saloon movie, that is shockingly near that. The demo solely covers the primary couple of days in spring, and I lapped up each scrap of it. That mentioned, a handful of tough edges — together with two separate softlocks and an choices menu that looks like a placeholder — remind me that is nonetheless very a lot a work in progress.
Songs of Glimmerwick is well the prettiest RPG I’ve performed since Baldur’s Gate 3. Hear me out; it does not want polygons to show it. The artwork course channels the handcrafted Celtic linework of Cartoon Saloon movies like The Secret of Kells and Wolfwalkers, rendered from an isometric perspective reminiscent of Do not Starve (although way more colourful and alive). Flora sways in layered gusts, butterflies drift throughout wildflower meadows, and water catches gentle in ways in which would make a mundane shoreline really feel just like the margin of an illuminated manuscript. I seen this instantly, and it holds up as a result of it is constructed on craft, with out a DLSS toggle in sight.
In the meantime, the soundtrack is pulling simply as a lot weight. Each composition has a whimsical but mythic high quality — assume pizzicato strings blended with glockenspiels and woodwinds, with a recognizably witchy vibe — woven into full symphonic preparations that saved me enthralled, barely clashing with the player-operated flute melodies that usually make the principle OST duck down when it’s time to sow some basil. But, the vibe right here is much less overtly “Hogwarts” and extra “historical rural co-op tucked into a cliffside, which occurs to seat a magical college.” All of it suits remarkably nicely.
Strolling into a constructing triggers an isometric, diamond-shaped dollhouse view that instantly invokes Beacon Pines, the 2022 narrative journey that used the very same method to make interiors really feel like miniature dioramas. Glimmerwick takes it additional, although. For example, some rooms are surrounded by water. Others actually include flowing streams that stretch past the seen body. The impact is beautiful, and it makes each constructing really feel like its personal self-contained illustration as an alternative of simply a room with 4 partitions.
Reagents Aplenty
In Songs of Glimmerwick, your character is a younger witch who obtained sick of their outdated life, chartered a boat to “anyplace,” and washed ashore on the titular Glimmerwick island, house to The Etchery College of Magic and Melody — a place that produces nice bards, mages, and witches, and the place people, moth folks, and mer folks seemingly collect to check. The underlying mythology (music is the supply of all creation) is Tolkienesque in the perfect sense, and the narrative attracts liberally from Kiki’s Supply Service and, sure, fairly clearly from Harry Potter.
Songs of Glimmerwick reads as a gentler, extra intentionally welcoming different to the wizarding world of Hogwarts Legacy for gamers who’d fairly sidestep the bags surrounding that franchise. The character creator affords androgynous choices, the coed physique consists of a number of species, and the entire environment leans into heat and inclusivity. I did discover that the accessible outfits appeared to suit extra naturally on female-presenting characters, which led me to reroll my unique bald self-insert into a white-haired, glasses-wearing younger woman who felt extra at house in this explicit world — named after a buddy’s D&D character, naturally. That is not a criticism. If something, it says one thing about how totally the aesthetic commits to its personal imaginative and prescient.
The writing is a spotlight. Characters are witty and idiosyncratic in a means that jogged my memory of Life is Unusual: True Colours, the place even the minor townsfolk have sufficient character to make you wish to search them out. I obtained into an prolonged argument with a sentient bush that was blocking my path. I watched a fox creature obsess over portray his chook companion in precisely the fitting pose. My roommate blew up her furnace at some ungodly hour of the morning. Lo and behold, round each nook there’s one other quest — from college, from college students, from random townsfolk in Wisk (which is an element Hogsmeade, half Pelican City, and completely its personal factor). The demo additionally teases places past these zones — the Ochre Woods, the distant Shifting Spires — however caps out after the primary couple of springtime days, which is borderline merciless.
Your Flute is a Hoe
In case you’ve misplaced weekends to Stardew Valley, the every day loop right here will really feel instantly acquainted. Every day runs on a restricted clock with finite vitality, and also you’re juggling courses, backyard upkeep, potion-making, quests, and journeys into city to purchase and promote. Crops and gathered items get tossed into a nicely — Glimmerwick’s delivery bin equal — and while you sleep, an end-of-day tally breaks down your earnings by class. In case you’re the sort of participant who picks up each mollusc, weed, and foraged mushroom simply to see what it sells for, there’s a staggering quantity of that right here. I offered every part in sight, after which I blew all my money shopping for each spring seed in inventory on the service provider cart — and regretted nothing.
However this is the twist that makes Glimmerwick its personal factor: the spell system. Studying a new spell means studying a new music by a gentle, informal rhythm minigame — after which taking part in that music in the world to set off its impact. One music chops timber. One other mines rocks. A 3rd plows fields. And so forth, however there are clearly makes use of to those songs that transcend simply primary toolcraft. The rhythm parts are light and forgiving, with no sync necessities I may detect on PC. In the course of the college research section, you may hit the baseline threshold — say, 140 notes — to unlock the music to be used, or push for a larger mark like 240 to earn extra XP and a doubtlessly stronger model of the spell, although that final bit isn’t totally clear to me but. I did get trapped contained in the music apply sales space after ending the rhythm tutorial as soon as, although — I could not go away, so I needed to reload a save. It’s in-development software program; it occurs.
The Ocarina of Time comparability is not a lazy shorthand right here. In that 1998 basic, you bodily enter notice sequences on the C-buttons — Zelda’s Lullaby, Epona’s Track, the Track of Storms — and every melody triggers a particular world impact. Glimmerwick operates on nearly the identical philosophy: study the melody, internalize the inputs, and quick-cast it in the sector by punching in the proper notes. Music turns into a software, not a ornament, and that’s fairly cool.
Bullywug Trumpet
In contrast to Stardew Valley — the place experience grows passively simply by doing the exercise — Songs of Glimmerwick funnels every part into a deliberate ability tree system. Studying songs, finishing quests, and brewing potions all feed XP into a shared pool. Stage up, and also you allocate factors into a branching tree that already seems deep, even from the demo’s restricted window. Just a few perks caught my eye: Tongue of Frog allows you to communicate to frogs (naturally), and Raindancer will increase your rain cloud radius by 50%. That second one is fascinating as a result of it implies rain right here is a dynamic, localized climate system, not the uniform day-wide toggle Stardew makes use of. Hidden perks are additionally teased, which suggests the total tree may reward experimentation in methods I’ve barely glimpsed.
The NPC schedule and seasonal occasion system carry a Persona-like construction, the place every day of every season has its personal distinctive happenings: courses, homework, festivals, and scholar drama unfolding by itself timeline. Fortunately, the quests themselves do not seem like time-locked the best way some of Stardew’s errands are, as a result of the search log was already huge by the point the demo kicked me out. Belief me after I say I barely scratched it, and never as a result of I didn’t wish to; the demo spat me out earlier than I may. I additionally bumped into a softlock whereas exploring Wisk — urgent the A button to go away a sofa in a tanner’s home triggered an infinite dialogue loop with no means out, inflicting a save reload I didn’t wish to need to make. It is a demo, so I am not sweating it too onerous, but it surely did value me a chunk of progress at the moment.
I performed Songs of Glimmerwick’s demo on PC, and the settings menu is barebones. You may regulate audio, rebind keys, and alter decision and refresh fee, however there is not any ultrawide assist. On my 3440x1440p monitor, I used to be locked to full-screen 2560×1440 with black bars, and no windowed or borderless mode. That is a visually beautiful title, so the absence of wider side ratio assist looks like a missed alternative.
That mentioned, it’s unbelievable that the interface itself is clear and readable. Sure menus may solely be tabbed by with RB and never LB. The hand-drawn maps are lovely, although a player-position indicator can be useful. Proper now, you are cross-referencing landmarks in your head, which does get mildly annoying after a little bit of circling the fairly massive sport space accessible in the demo.
I’m additionally left with a few huge questions, like how deep does the story go as soon as the total college yr unfolds? Do the NPC relationships evolve meaningfully throughout seasons, or do they flatten out? How a lot selection exists in the later songs, and does the rhythm system scale in complexity or keep this informal all through? The ability tree seems promising, however does it truly reshape the way you play by the endgame, or do most paths converge? And, selfishly, will ultrawide assist make it in by launch?
On the finish of the day, I poured a full weekend into the accessible demo content material and got here away wanting extra in a means that actually jogged my memory of discovering Stardew Valley for the primary time as a younger grownup, or (additional again) of being a child stumbling into Harvest Moon for the primary time and realizing I may simply reside in this little world that I’m contributing to. Besides, Songs of Glimmerwick pleasantly shocked me with by some means extra layers of whimsy and fairytale marvel than both of these, and it makes me really feel like I’ve solely turned the primary web page of one thing sprawling. In case you’re craving a cozy witch academy RPG that treats music as greater than set dressing and do not thoughts ready for a few demo-era tough spots to get cleaned up, this would possibly ship precisely what you are searching for.