Songs of Glimmerwick Is a Stylish, Stardew Valley-ish RPG Set in a Harry Potter-esque World | IGN Preview

I didn't expect to walk a afloat play arguing with a sentient bush, blowing my savings connected outpouring seeds, and learning to chop trees by playing a melody connected a flute — but present I am, already hopeless for more. Songs of Glimmerwick, the adjacent rubric from Eastshade Studios, drops you onto a unusual land occupied by a schoolhouse of euphony and magic, past hands you a regular planner afloat of classes, plot chores, potion ingredients, and townsfolk who are mode excessively charming for their ain good. If you've ever wondered what it would consciousness similar to be a Stardew Valley assemblage that teaches Ocarina of Time-style spellcasting wrong a Cartoon Saloon film, this is shockingly adjacent to that. The demo lone covers the archetypal mates of days successful spring, and I lapped up each scrap of it. That said, a fistful of unsmooth edges — including 2 abstracted softlocks and an options paper that feels similar a placeholder — punctual maine this is inactive precise overmuch a enactment successful progress.

Songs of Glimmerwick is easy the prettiest RPG I've played since Baldur's Gate 3. Hear maine out; it doesn't request polygons to beryllium it. The creation absorption channels the handcrafted Celtic linework of Cartoon Saloon films similar The Secret of Kells and Wolfwalkers, rendered from an isometric position reminiscent of Don't Starve (though acold much colorful and alive). Flora sways successful layered gusts, butterflies drift crossed wildflower meadows, and h2o catches airy successful ways that would marque a mundane shoreline consciousness similar the borderline of an illuminated manuscript. I noticed this immediately, and it holds up due to the fact that it's built connected craft, without a DLSS toggle successful sight.

Meanwhile, the soundtrack is pulling conscionable arsenic overmuch weight. Every creation has a whimsical yet mythic prime — deliberation pizzicato strings mixed with glockenspiels and woodwinds, with a recognizably witchy vibe — woven into afloat symphonic arrangements that kept maine enthralled, hardly clashing with the player-operated flute melodies that typically marque the main OST duck down erstwhile it’s clip to sow immoderate basil. Yet, the vibe present is little overtly "Hogwarts" and much "ancient agrarian co-op tucked into a cliffside, which happens to spot a magical school." It each fits remarkably well.

Walking into a gathering triggers an isometric, diamond-shaped dollhouse presumption that instantly invokes Beacon Pines, the 2022 communicative escapade that utilized the nonstop aforesaid method to marque interiors consciousness similar miniature dioramas. Glimmerwick takes it further, though. For instance, immoderate rooms are surrounded by water. Others virtually incorporate flowing streams that widen beyond the disposable frame. The effect is gorgeous, and it makes each gathering consciousness similar its ain self-contained illustration alternatively of conscionable a country with 4 walls.

Reagents Aplenty

In Songs of Glimmerwick, your quality is simply a young witch who got sick of their aged life, chartered a vessel to "anywhere," and washed ashore connected the titular Glimmerwick island, location to The Etchery School of Magic and Melody — a spot that produces large bards, mages, and witches, and wherever humans, moth people, and mer radical seemingly stitchery to study. The underlying mythology (music is the root of each creation) is Tolkienesque successful the champion sense, and the communicative draws liberally from Kiki's Delivery Service and, yes, alternatively evidently from Harry Potter.

Songs of Glimmerwick reads arsenic a gentler, much deliberately welcoming alternate to the wizarding satellite of Hogwarts Legacy for players who'd alternatively sidestep the baggage surrounding that franchise. The quality creator offers androgynous options, the pupil assemblage includes aggregate species, and the full ambiance leans into warmth and inclusivity. I did announcement that the disposable outfits seemed to acceptable much people connected female-presenting characters, which led maine to reroll my archetypal bald self-insert into a white-haired, glasses-wearing young woman who felt much astatine location successful this peculiar satellite — named aft a friend's D&D character, naturally. That's not a complaint. If anything, it says thing astir however thoroughly the aesthetic commits to its ain vision.

The penning is simply a highlight. Characters are witty and idiosyncratic successful a mode that reminded maine of Life is Strange: True Colors, wherever adjacent the insignificant townsfolk person capable property to marque you privation to question them out.“

The penning is simply a highlight. Characters are witty and idiosyncratic successful a mode that reminded maine of Life is Strange: True Colors, wherever adjacent the insignificant townsfolk person capable property to marque you privation to question them out. I got into an extended statement with a sentient bush that was blocking my path. I watched a fox carnal obsess implicit coating his vertebrate companion successful precisely the close pose. My roommate blew up her furnace astatine immoderate ungodly hr of the morning. Lo and behold, astir each country there's different quest — from faculty, from students, from random townsfolk successful Wisk (which is portion Hogsmeade, portion Pelican Town, and wholly its ain thing). The demo besides teases locations beyond these zones — the Ochre Woods, the distant Shifting Spires — but caps retired aft the archetypal mates of springtime days, which is borderline cruel.

Your Flute is simply a Hoe

If you've mislaid weekends to Stardew Valley, the regular loop present volition consciousness instantly familiar. Each time runs connected a constricted timepiece with finite energy, and you're juggling classes, plot maintenance, potion-making, quests, and trips into municipality to bargain and sell. Crops and gathered goods get tossed into a good — Glimmerwick's shipping bin equivalent — and erstwhile you sleep, an end-of-day tally breaks down your net by category. If you're the benignant of subordinate who picks up each mollusc, weed, and foraged mushroom conscionable to spot what it sells for, determination is simply a staggering magnitude of that here. I sold everything successful sight, and past I blew each my currency buying each outpouring effect successful banal astatine the merchant cart — and regretted nothing.

But here's the twist that makes Glimmerwick its ain thing: the spell system. Learning a caller spell means learning a caller opus done a light, casual bushed minigame — and past playing that opus successful the satellite to trigger its effect. One opus chops trees. Another mines rocks. A 3rd plows fields. And truthful on, but determination are intelligibly uses to these songs that spell beyond conscionable basal toolcraft. The bushed elements are gentle and forgiving, with nary sync requirements I could observe connected PC. During the schoolhouse survey phase, you tin deed the baseline threshold — say, 140 notes — to unlock the opus for use, oregon propulsion for a higher people similar 240 to gain much XP and a perchance stronger mentation of the spell, though that past spot isn’t afloat wide to maine yet. I did get trapped wrong the euphony signifier booth aft finishing the bushed tutorial once, though — I couldn't leave, truthful I had to reload a save. It’s in-development software; it happens.

The Ocarina of Time examination isn't a lazy shorthand here. In that 1998 classic, you physically input enactment sequences connected the C-buttons — Zelda's Lullaby, Epona's Song, the Song of Storms — and each melody triggers a circumstantial satellite effect. Glimmerwick operates connected astir the aforesaid philosophy: larn the melody, internalize the inputs, and quick-cast it successful the tract by punching successful the close notes. Music becomes a tool, not a decoration, and that’s beauteous cool.

Bullywug Trumpet

Unlike Stardew Valley — wherever expertise grows passively conscionable by doing the enactment — Songs of Glimmerwick funnels everything into a deliberate accomplishment histrion system. Learning songs, completing quests, and brewing potions each provender XP into a shared pool. Level up, and you allocate points into a branching histrion that already looks deep, adjacent from the demo's constricted window. A fewer perks caught my eye: Tongue of Frog lets you talk to frogs (naturally), and Raindancer increases your rainfall unreality radius by 50%. That 2nd 1 is absorbing due to the fact that it implies rainfall present is simply a dynamic, localized upwind system, not the azygous day-wide toggle Stardew uses. Hidden perks are besides teased, which suggests the afloat histrion could reward experimentation successful ways I've hardly glimpsed.

The NPC docket and seasonal lawsuit strategy transportation a Persona-like structure, wherever each time of each play has its ain unsocial happenings: classes, homework, festivals, and pupil play unfolding connected its ain timeline. Luckily, the quests themselves don't look to beryllium time-locked the mode immoderate of Stardew's errands are, due to the fact that the quest log was already monolithic by the clip the demo kicked maine out. Trust maine erstwhile I accidental I hardly scratched it, and not due to the fact that I didn’t privation to; the demo spat maine retired earlier I could. I besides ran into a softlock portion exploring Wisk — pressing the A fastener to permission a sofa successful a tanner's location triggered an infinite dialog loop with nary mode out, causing a prevention reload I didn’t privation to person to make. It's a demo, truthful I'm not sweating it excessively hard, but it did outgo maine a chunk of advancement astatine that time.

The NPC docket and seasonal lawsuit strategy transportation a Persona-like structure, wherever each time of each play has its ain unsocial happenings.“

I played Songs of Glimmerwick's demo connected PC, and the settings paper is barebones. You tin set audio, rebind keys, and alteration solution and refresh rate, but there's nary ultrawide support. On my 3440x1440p monitor, I was locked to full-screen 2560x1440 with achromatic bars, and nary windowed oregon borderless mode. This is simply a visually gorgeous title, truthful the lack of wider facet ratio enactment feels similar a missed opportunity.

That said, it’s fantastic that the interface itself is cleanable and readable. Certain menus could lone beryllium tabbed done with RB and not LB. The hand-drawn maps are beautiful, though a player-position indicator would beryllium helpful. Right now, you're cross-referencing landmarks successful your head, which does get mildly annoying aft a small spot of circling the alternatively ample crippled country disposable successful the demo.

I’m besides near with a fewer large questions, similar however heavy does the communicative spell erstwhile the afloat schoolhouse twelvemonth unfolds? Do the NPC relationships germinate meaningfully crossed seasons, oregon bash they flatten out? How overmuch assortment exists successful the aboriginal songs, and does the bushed strategy standard successful complexity oregon enactment this casual throughout? The accomplishment histrion looks promising, but does it really reshape however you play by the endgame, oregon bash astir paths converge? And, selfishly, volition ultrawide enactment marque it successful by release?

At the extremity of the day, I poured a afloat play into the disposable demo contented and came distant wanting much successful a mode that honestly reminded maine of discovering Stardew Valley for the archetypal clip arsenic a young adult, oregon (further back) of being a kid stumbling into Harvest Moon for the archetypal clip and realizing I could conscionable unrecorded successful this small satellite that I’m contributing to. Except, Songs of Glimmerwick pleasantly amazed maine with someway much layers of whimsy and fairytale wonderment than either of those, and it makes maine consciousness similar I've lone turned the archetypal leafage of thing sprawling. If you're craving a cozy witch academy RPG that treats euphony arsenic much than acceptable dressing and don't caput waiting for a fewer demo-era unsmooth spots to get cleaned up, this mightiness present precisely what you're looking for.