I have a lot of positive feelings about Sword & Sworcery, but many of them are undercut by the very elements I'm praising.
The game is beautiful with its pixel waterfalls and flickering lights, but also kind of ugly when the sprites and other 2000s Flash-like effects appear.
I love the story's weight in its simplicity, but it's grating to come across the many lines of dialogue that have that early 2010s online quirkiness to them. I could live with a little more gravitas and a little less totally random dancing boars.
It does a lot of really cool things and there are some inspired ideas. (The animation when you've taken damage! Becoming weaker as the game progresses!) But then does a little bit too much in some other areas, and feels like it's trying to be too many things at once.
All in all I can't say I didn't enjoy the melancholy walks through the woods and simple yet effective puzzles, and the game is oozing with style. I just wish they had leaned more into the things that really worked here.
The game is beautiful with its pixel waterfalls and flickering lights, but also kind of ugly when the sprites and other 2000s Flash-like effects appear.
I love the story's weight in its simplicity, but it's grating to come across the many lines of dialogue that have that early 2010s online quirkiness to them. I could live with a little more gravitas and a little less totally random dancing boars.
It does a lot of really cool things and there are some inspired ideas. (The animation when you've taken damage! Becoming weaker as the game progresses!) But then does a little bit too much in some other areas, and feels like it's trying to be too many things at once.
All in all I can't say I didn't enjoy the melancholy walks through the woods and simple yet effective puzzles, and the game is oozing with style. I just wish they had leaned more into the things that really worked here.