The Lion’s Song - A Review

A stunning point-and-click adventure narrative that takes you on a heart-filled journey across the art galleries and concert halls of early 20th-century Vienna.

Featuring four chapters, the game focuses on four different characters: Wilma Doerfl, Franz Markert, Emma Recniczek, and Albert Vogl. The narrative seamlessly weaves the lives of these characters, who hail from different professional backgrounds, while Vienna’s history plays a pivotal role in defining each of these stories.

A glimpse into the beauty of the city makes me find the game charming for many reasons. Its strength lies in its visual design and aesthetic setting—a pure visual treat for the eyes and soul. In addition, it is accompanied by a beautiful melody that lingers long after you’re done playing the game.

In The Lion’s Song, we are exposed to the aspirations, plights, and dreams harboured by each of these characters. In terms of narrative appeal and structure, Mathematician Emma Recniczek’s story stood out the most in comparison.

I do think the game could have benefited from a more in-depth dive, given the theme that it was going for, as it isn’t as immersive as one would hope or imagine it to be.

A very beautifully drawn game with some pacing issues. The first story is solid, but the second is a little too slow paced for my liking. However, the third story and especially the epilogue are really great and took this game from around a 3 star to a 3.5 easily.

Emma Recniczek's story not only confronting the inequality many women faced (and still face) in the field of science and higher education, while also doubling as a trans allegory was so wonderfully written, I found myself deeply engrossed in their character while only spending about ~1 hour with them. I also enjoyed the subtle inclusion of a gay character in their mathematician friend (or atleast that is how I read him), as I felt it fit in well with the idea of 'hidden identities,' and it further signalled how ridiculous the prejudice was because here is a character who is completely accepted by-- and ingrained itno the group (on the basis of being a male theorist) but who would probably just as soon be kicked out as Emma if they knew he was gay. It highlights the complete irrelevance of sexuality and gender identity when it comes to your scientific ability.

The Epilogue is a fantastic example of simple, but poignantly effective writing. Showing how each of the previous three characters have impacted these soon-to-be-soldiers in one way or another was already a pleasant bow on the various stories, but the revelation that these men are going off to war (facing a high likelihood of death) for various reasons and the conflicting points-of-views from these characters (that all make sense) was very engaging writing. I especially found the snide remarks from the art thief at Wilma's patriotic brother very interesting, as the thief has spent his entire life struggling to stay alive and here he is faced with a young lad eager to throw his life away for his country. It seems to me that he is angry someone is so careless with their life and ignorant to what pain is (especially the attempted desertion by him not much later was very striking to me).

While this game wasn't always the most engaging work of art, I am very glad I stuck with it. The third and fourth chapter are really wonderful short stories, and the way the various stories interconnect in small ways is strangely rewarding (especially the epilogue). I hope the team behind this continues to create wonderful stories like these, though admittedly I do hope the gameplay itself will be a little more varied and engaging next time around.