Gimme a customisation screen, gimme a pictureque ‘arry Potter-like RPG, gimme a magic flute… that’s what’s in store in Songs of Glimmerwick: a magical avatar that enrols in a fantasy school to play sweet, sweet music and play notes to the tune of nature. Any game that starts with a customisation screen with a fair amount of options to choose from is good in my book, especially when the graphics resemble an actual storybook. The art style is pleasant and inviting, which is kinda key, given that you’re just about to embark on some wizardry and could do without meeting a dragon within a couple of minutes of gameplay. It’s ok, it’s just a talking statue.
After a rather lengthy introduction, which is equally surprising for something so in-depth for a demo, it becomes clear that you’re a new student enrolled in the illustrious Etchery School of Magic and Melody. A little like Hogwarts’ Legacy, only without the melodrama, the opening of the game serves as a welcoming self-contained lair of magic and wonder where everybody seems to be friendly enough, and doesn’t have any nasty agendas. It’s all very quaint.
You begin with a main objective of locating a suitable robe, having a craftsman make up a custom flute for you, and meeting the locals before stepping on the campus. There’s no rush, despite the clear objectives, and I found myself enamoured with the locale, acting as an erratic kleptomaniac and half-inching anything that wasn’t bolted down. My intuition was that Songs of Glimmerwick would be a game that embraces foraging and crafting, and I wasn’t wrong. Just maybe getting to know people before stealing all their stuff would be better for first impressions. Fortunately, everyone is easygoing and doesn’t mind having a tea leaf in their town.
Setting out to collect the goods to go on the campus was a good intro into the mechanics, with a clear heads up on how gameplay works. As identified in the introduction, there’s a bit of an issue with noise and people putting on a Depeche Mode song and enjoying the silence. Folks seem to have forgotten how important music is and how it is in tune with the world in which we live, identified by one of your first encounters, where someone plays a flute to open a new path for you. Additional factors that come into play include skill trees and a generous crafting feature that focuses on decorations, and, naturally, spells. After this brief introduction (unless you’re wandering around town looking for things to steal), you join the rest of the students at Etchery.
This is where the social aspect of Songs of Glimmerwck kicks in. The dorms are introduced, theme park decor is introduced with magical artefacts, and a well-placed mirror so you can magic up a new look if you didn’t like the moustache you picked at the start of the game. However, before you woo any of the spellbound baddies, you have to sign up for a job which involves the farming aspect of the game. Unlike after games of hard grafting, you learn tunes for your flute (which you manually play), to use magic to do the heavy lifting. This is limited to mana availability, though consumables can rectify this.
Aside from the flute minigames thingies, there’s also some potion-making options without creating love or stink potions by grabbing your dad’s aftershave, squirty cream and the mud in the garden. It’s all very pleasant, all very wholesome, and paired with the rather lovely artwork are the fully voiced characters. The music’s rather pleasant, too. So, with all these pleasantries, it sounds like a lovely game, right? Yes. However, Harry Potter isn’t my thing, nor is potion making (besides using my dad’s aftershave, squirty cream and mud to make love potions to use on my wife), so as nice as it is, it’s not really the kind of game I would play for the long haul – and I expect this to be a very large game.
If this does sound like your sort of thing, such as the Potter references, wholesome crafting and playing delightful flute minigames, then I reckon you need to add this one to your wishlist. Really, there’s nothing wrong with it whatsoever. Songs of Glimmerwick just isn’t my bag, baby.
