A First Look at Songs of Silence, a Dark and Fascinating Game

Songs of Silence is an early-access strategy RPG. The game reminds me of Ogre Battle, Unicorn Overlord, and Heroes of Might and Magic. I’m a little torn on this one because I like most of the game’s content. I have a few minor problems with it, though.

While it reminds me of some of my favorite games, there is something off about it. The story has been good so far, the gameplay is fun, and the graphics are beautiful. I’m still trying to get used to a bunch of little things with the combat and the controls, though.

Since this is still in early access, I won’t give it a score. I going to wait for the full game to be before I give it a full review. This is more of a first impression of the game as it currently stands.

TLDR: So far, this is a good game with some minor issues that will probably go away the more I play the game.

A Great Start to a Story

I like the story so far. Songs of Silence feels like one of those games in the 1990s where the developers would include a 500-page book to explain all of the lore. It would help here because I wasn’t sure what they were telling me, and it didn’t help that the opening cutscene glitched a bit.

You play as Queen Lorelai, and she is trying to lead her people away from their kingdom. Something attacked and destroyed their home and killed Lorelai’s parents. There is so much more going on here that hasn’t been explained.

There are regions of the world called “The Silence,” which are home to some kind of creature that people and animals turn into. In some parts of the world, these things are called purgatories. We don’t learn too much about them aside from the fact that they are dangerous.

Some of the other nobles are also acting paranoid and are starting wars with their neighbors. This causes your party to flee a few times before settling in an abandoned city. From here, you continue to fight to keep your land safe.

It is a good start to the story. Hopefully, more of this world will be explained, as I felt a little overwhelmed by it all. Much of the world’s history is still hidden from the player or is in the encyclopedia, which I didn’t look through in great detail.

Gameplay

I like the gameplay in Songs of Silence. It reminds me of a combination of Ogre Battle and Heroes of Might and Magic. The battles are closer to Ogre Battle, and the main screen resembles Heroes of Might and Magic.

On the battle screen, the game is an auto-battler where you have a few options to impact the battle. These come in the form of cards tied to the character class of your unit’s General/Hero. I’m not a fan of this system. It works for the game, but I don’t like it much.

There is one other way you can impact the battle. Before the battle starts, you can arrange your units to exploit the other side’s weaknesses best. You might want your cavalry lined up to attack the enemy infantry and avoid the spearmen.

Like other strategy RPGs, you can only have a few soldiers in each unit. This number can increase as a general gains experience. You can only recruit more men in a city; this is where the game feels like Heroes of Might and Magic.

Cities are where you recruit units and are used to help you gather resources. There are a few different types of cities, each providing a different resource. This replaces the mines and other resources that you find in Heroes of Might and Magic. I like how the developers simplified this system.

Where I’m at in the game, I only have two characters in my party. During the missions, I feel very underpowered in the battles. I understand what the developers are going for, but I would like the option to recruit more generals earlier in the game.

Overall, I like the gameplay. Songs of Silence is close enough to Ogre Battle and Unicorn Overlord while being unique. I have a few problems with the gameplay, but I’m sure the more I play it, the more I’ll get used to it.

Visuals

Songs of Silence looks awesome! I love the art style in the cutscenes and the world map. The battle scenes look okay, but it can be hard to tell what is going on and whether you’re winning.

The units on the combat screen look very small, and the battles are very chaotic. I suppose they’re supposed to look like that since it is a battle, after all, but it can be hard to follow the action at times. It made it hard to know which of my cards I should play.

Each unit has a life bar. I didn’t find this helpful because it made it look like a unit had been killed off when it was just one soldier in a unit. Everything on the battle screen was hard to follow after the initial clash.

As the game goes on, you fight stronger opponents, and the battles get harder to follow. This could be something I have to get used to in the game, but it doesn’t feel as good as the battles in Ogre Battle or Unicorn Overlord.

The cutscenes and world map look beautiful! I do love how everything outside of the battle screens looks. The character portraits are great. Songs of Silence is a beautiful game to look at.

N/A. Because this is still in early access, I won’t give it a score. I know I did give scores in the past for early access games, but I will stop from this point forward. These will be first impressions posts instead of full reviews.

Pros

• Great graphics
• Good Gameplay
• Excellent start to a story

Cons

• Controls take some time to get used to.
• Few characters to control
• I didn’t like the auto-battle combat as much as I thought I would

Conclusion

I’m looking forward to seeing where this game goes from here. I only have the first five chapters at this point. I don’t know how much more will be added, but I bet it will be good.

It does have some minor issues, but those are due to me learning how to play the game. The controls and user interface feel a bit awkward because I am not used to it yet. Once I do, I’m sure everything will be fine.

If you like this, you might like my reviews of Ogre Battle and Unicorn Overlord. Here is a link to the Steam page for Songs of Silence.