Sword of the Sea

Publisher: Giant Squid

Developer: Giant Squid

Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Playstation 5 (Reviewed)

Anyone who knows anything about this industry knows about 2012's Journey. With its astounding presentation and a soundtrack that went on to be the first game soundtrack to receive a grammy nomination, Journey was a groundbreaking game that few developers dare to emulate...except for Giant Squid. But that doesn't really count since it was formed by the key people behind the game in the first place. 

Despite the studio's pedigree, however, their results have been mixed. 2016's Abzu was, in my opinion, lacking in everything that made Journey great. And 2020's The Pathless featured a compelling movement system, but it was plagued by the kinds of technical issues that tend to accompany transitions between console generations. Still, I always go into Giant Squid projects with an open mind...and "open mind", in this case, also includes accepting that nothing is going to top Journey. Comparison, as they say, is the thief of joy, so that's the attitude I try to go into these games with. Now, in 2025, we have Sword of the Sea.

Let me see if I can convey my experience effectively. I booted up Sword of the Sea, beat it in a (standard for this type of game) 3-hour single sitting without a single thought in my head, then felt an almost immediate twinge of nostalgia once the credits rolled. This was puzzling. How could I "miss" something that I'd just kind of played through without thinking about? Well, I think Skill Up put it best when he called this game a "sensory bath." When you boot up Sword of the Sea, you're not going to play a game: you're going to be kidnapped by one, and you're going to spend the whole time having your other senses taken away...if you like it in the first place. I don't want to oversell the experience if you're fundamentally opposed to these types of games or won't settle for a Giant Squid experience that isn't as emotional as Journey...but I think if you allow it to, Sword of the Sea will be a siren's song that drags the outside world to its death for as long as you're with it. 

Yeah, needless to say, I'm recommending Sword of the Sea with gusto, and I'm going to do my best to try and sell the experience in more objective terms as this review progresses...but I can't promise anything. I was only able to start writing notes down after the credits rolled, after all.

Sword of the Sea takes place in a world that was once almost entirely ocean. Ruled over by gods, titanic warriors, and other staples of cultural creation myths, this world...certainly existed. Look, set-in-stone narratives are never what these games aim for. And despite having some actual text logs around to explain things somewhat, it's all still background dressing. 

You are a "wraith" who has been granted a legendary sword with the power to move across the ocean with ease. So, basically a sharp surfboard, if you want to be reductive. Either way, there's also a gigantic primordial fire serpent that has upset the natural balance and caused some stretches of the ocean to be replaced with sand or snow. Your job is to move through the world, restore the ocean, and eventually face off against the fire serpent. One thing to note here: these non-water areas are not solid ground. This is still largely an ocean planet, it's just that the contents have been altered. So, both sand and snow flow like water, complete with waves. I thought that was an interesting choice. 

In the same way that set-in-stone narratives are never really a thing in these games, gameplay itself is usually pretty sparse. But Sword of the Sea follows the The Pathless playbook in that it kind of "gamifies" its traversal. It does so in wholly unnecessary ways, but not in any way that hinders the rest of the game or demands mastery. Essentially, as you soar through the world, you can perform tricks. That's it. If you happen to jump off the top of a wave, you can spin around a bit on your sword to rack up points in a score that gets calculated at the end of the credits. Like I said though, it stays in its lane. What I mean by this is that this aspect is in no way in your face. You don't have a score counter in the UI, there aren't any extremely flashy sound effects when you pull off a trick, no "wa-HOOOs" or "AWESOME"s. It's more-or-less just a flourish you can use to kind of "customize" the visual experience a bit. In New Game + mode, you can place a score counter in the UI if you wish, but in a first playthrough, it isn't there.

My saying New Game + there probably raised an eyebrow or two. The presence of such a mode implies there's something to be carried over into a new playthrough. This is true, and you may not know/remember this, but it actually has been a feature since Journey, though it was never called "New Game +" specifically back then. Essentially, there are hidden collectibles in the levels, some of which you might miss, so this mode allows you to give the game another shot without losing your progress towards 100% completion. There's also a kind of currency you're rewarded with for exploring. You deposit these pieces of currency at silent NPCs throughout the world, and once you've deposited enough, you unlock new tricks to perform. 

I don't think words can accurately convey how perfectly these gameplay facets are woven into the experience to feel like a natural extension of the vibes, so you're just gonna have to trust me on this one. For the currency, specifically, I'd say it's visually and audibly akin to the little fabric particles in Journey that swarm you to make your scarf longer. I think that's a good way to describe the feel.

Everything I've discussed so far has been things that nobody really cares about in these games. If you're picking up a Giant Squid game, you're doing so for the vibes, the art, and the music. I struggled to find the words to describe the feel of the art style here for a long time, and what I eventually landed on was "contrast." When you turn a piece of an area into water, you don't turn the whole thing to water. Even if you find all the water points in the whole area, the whole thing still isn't water. So, the environment will eventually be a beautifully rendered mesh between flowing sand dunes/barren snowscapes and crystal clear ocean teeming with life. The more I think about it, the more "contrast" seems to be the appropriate theme. Every area has the perfect idea of how to mix and match its visual themes, and this effect is only multiplied by a hitherto unheard of level of verticality in the game's level design. The Pathless toyed with verticality to some degree, but not with much success. Here, though, the verticality simply allows the visuals to be far grander and more interactive than they otherwise would be. 

Further enhancing these aspects is a fascinating score from returning composer Austin Wintory. If you're anything like me, you've been underwhelmed by every non-Journey soundtrack he has composed. From Abzu's over-reliance on dissonance to The Pathless' less dissonant but somehow more experimental feel to Eternal Strands completely forgettable status, the man just can't seem to catch a break...until Sword of the Sea. 

I'll stop your expectations right there: it isn't as good a soundtrack as Journey's. But this game also doesn't have the same soundtrack requirements that that landmark title did. While Journey was a meticulously-paced experience filled with emotional heights that needed specific stings at specific times to score, Sword of the Sea is more player-paced. Thus, Wintory isn't scoring for emotional moments, he's scoring entire areas. He's scoring accessories to the world as a whole. As such, tracks are more loopable and aren't bound to make you cry like "Apotheosis" might, but they're also far more ethereal and "suggestive," if that makes any sense. And the kicker is that this soundtrack features some heavy dissonance in certain tracks, but it's contradictorily beautiful dissonance that fits the visual tapestry any given area paints. Highly technical reverb-heavy pianos, boys choirs, minimoogs (I think, but don't quote me on it), opposite-octave string sections, men's choruses that utilize haunting vocal drops, the soundscapes are as varied as they are intriguing. I've listened all the way through it maybe 10 times as I've written for the past couple days. 

A topic that naturally follows these discussions about visuals and music is technical fidelity, and as you might expect, it's solid. I think. I hear talk that there's some minor performance issues on some PCs. I played this on PS5 and didn't see this problem save for a second or two in one specific area in New Game + exclusively. No clue why that would be the case, but just be aware that you might come across some minor framerate drops on PC. 

I did encounter one issue I want to highlight: I've been going for 100% completion, and part of that involves finding all the secret shell collectibles. Doing so unlocks two trophies. I found all the shells, had the correct count on the screen, and got the in-game reward for doing so...but the trophies didn't pop. It's not the end of the world, but my little neurodivergent brain kind of depends on that piece of the experience for the full satisfaction. From what I hear, though, that might not be a game-specific problem, so I won't be taking points off for it...well, normally I would, but normally I'd also give up after experiencing that kind of problem. Not this time, though. 

I've been through a first playthrough and a New Game + run for completion, and I fully intend to do a third runthrough for the "under 2 hours" trophy. The hitless final boss trophy may be too tall an order, but we'll see. What I want to emphasize here is that I still feel compelled to aim for as much completion as possible despite the fact that I might be denied the shiny platinum trophy at the end of it all. That simply doesn't happen, and it speaks volumes about Sword of the Sea's quality that it has become such a strong exception.

Folks, I'm going to once again stop your expectations in their tracks for a second: Sword of the Sea is not going to change your life like Journey might have. If you go into this game expecting that, you're going to be disappointed. But if you go into this game on its own terms, cut out any outside distractions, and just let it make sweet, sweet love to your senses for a while, I don't think you'll regret doing so. 

With no points to subtract, the final score for Sword of the Sea is 2025's second...

10/10 - Masterpiece

Bravo, Giant Squid, bravo!