Songs of Glimmerwick puts you in the robes of a green witch learning the craft in a magical university. There is no other fantasy as welcoming.
In the seminal 1911 book “The Secret Garden,” a young girl is sent to an ostentatious estate in the English countryside with her uncle. In it, she finds a sprawling garden in disrepair and tasks herself to bring it back to life. During the process, a newfound passion for nature finds her. A timely reminder that will never go out of style, Songs of Glimmerwick similarly invites curious players to immerse themselves in a gentle fairy tale about a young witch in a magical university. Using music as the catalyst to explore her powers, learning each day about them mirrors an experience many who dream of green witchcraft will love.
The aforementioned young witch is sent a letter to enroll in Glimmerwick University, to which she then promptly takes a boat to the island where it is stationed. The way every dialogue is thoughtfully narrated brings the point home of playing an adaptation from fantasy literature. This is evidenced by the dragon statue who greets you on the shore before entering the land. Never overly pompous, each conversation is rather playful. The dragon actually forgets his signature greeting because of how long it had been since someone arrived. This also foreshadows the state of the world itself.
Where Nature Leads
Songs of Glimmerwick has a gentle handmade art style that leans into the wonders of nature. As you make your way to the university along the verdant path, every bit of manmade architecture has been reclaimed by plants and roots. Arriving at the elusive school is every bit as astounding as imagining it in your head is. When the top-down camera pulls back, aided by the enchanting soundtrack, it is nothing short of a dream come true. If you ever dreamed of receiving a letter by an owl to a magical school, this is where you can achieve it.
Welcomed by the headmistress and dean, you meet merfolk, ghosts, and fellow humans along the way. Everyone is eager to start a new school year; the conversations circle around their fears and expectations. Throwing in a pun here and there, being a bit nosy to listen in to others’ talk is always rewarding in its own right. Your young witch, whose appearance can be customized from the color of her skin to adding freckles and eventually buying an assortment of pointy hats and beautiful dresses, is a stand-in for the player.
The School Of Your Dreams
Once you settle in your dorm and meet your clumsy roommate, Songs of Glimmerwick settles in on a comfy routine. Structured in a weekly schedule for every season of the year, there are magic classes, cultural events to attend, and side activities to learn more about your surroundings. Learning about your classmates’ experiences, each with a distinct personality and more inclined to study herbalism than potioncraft, gives an unmistakable sense of place that you are, in fact, a promising magical student.
Although there is a clock that marks your every move, there is no pressure in the slightest to rush every action in-game as you would other farm sim games. That’s because even if you have a class at, let’s say, 11AM or a Flower Festival at 7PM and you were busy brewing potions, the clock stops to let you arrive at said event at your leisure. Between expanding your skills as a witch and learning new spells every time, the calendar system lets you breathe easy. This intentional design frees you to explore at your heart’s content and is one of the reasons it is such a welcoming game.
Continuing with the nature theme, you are given the school’s garden to attend. This is where certain magical elements in Songs of Glimmerwick take place. As magic is intrinsically linked to music in this world, one of the beginner tasks required is to craft a flute. More clearly, to ask the town’s craftsman to make one for you. Scavenging a couple of easy-to-find materials, you are gifted your special flute from which you will learn and cast various spells to make your life easier. No need to get your hands dirty, as a floating axe and shovel will do it for you.
Hocus Pocus!
Magical spells are presented via minigames to play. To enchant your gardening tools, for instance, you must play a Guitar Hero-style music game with your keyboard. To learn potions, there are five cauldrons from which you must choose where to send the necessary ingredients to brew a potion before a timer runs out. They are a refreshing change of pace that, if for some reason they feel too difficult, can be made more accessible in the settings. Other than this entertaining gameplay, the world’s focus on nature and magic is palpable at every corner.
What makes Songs of Glimmerwick such a peaceful adventure is how the sound design recreates the outdoors. From the gentle rain—which you avoid with a hovering umbrella—that can almost make you smell the petrichor to passing crickets, it is a true ode to nature. And then you have the music, whose folk sounds while visiting the bustling market right next to the college make it a perfect cozy fantasy. The overarching plot alludes to fascinating conflicts between music and silence but never loses the sense of doing it within a comforting place.
Verdict: Songs of Glimmerwick
Folktales vividly tell stories that are parallel to our world to remind us of something we may have lost along the way. Part farm-sim, part magical school, all an ode to nature, Songs of Glimmerwick is a remarkable achievement because from the very first moment that you play, you feel its kindness reaching out. Through a lush art style, stellar voice work, and its rustic soundtrack, it is a great example of why magic is all around us. We just need to know where to look.
Reviewed on Steam.
A key was provided for this review.
Developer/Publisher: Eastshade Studios
Pros
-Rich customization
- Plenty of silly puns
- You can pet all the animals
- Interesting overarching plot
- Beautiful art style full of greenery
- Magic shows itself in various ways
- The voice acting brings the world to life
- All the classic farm sim activities like fishing and farming are accounted for
Cons
- The beginning takes a little while to get going
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Amazing
