Sword of the Sea is a game that’s very up my alley. Developed by Giant Squid, the studio behind Abzu and The Pathless, Sword of the Sea has that same vibe. There’s another seemingly empty world to explore that you make more lively, and you do it all from the comfort of your sword that you don’t actually use for violence.
As you’d expect, Sword of the Sea really oozes with style. After all, how badass is it to be surfing on a sword adding some much needed color to a dry desert with moisture and vegetation? Hardly anything is explained in the game, save for how to jump and activate certain lit up obstacles with your sword, so the game really gives you agency to do just about whatever you want.
Aside from just the exploration, the game does relish in the fact that you’re “swordboarding”, so there are opportunities for you to work the halfpipes and do combos and tricks to get high scores. I don’t know how essential it is to do any of these minigames, because unfortunately I fell victim to issues that make the game unplayable.
Sword of the Sea is absolutely beautiful, at least in this screenshot it is.
Here’s the problem, and it’s probably more my fault than anything. When the code was given, only the Steam version was available. As of this writing, the game isn’t Steam Deck-verified. I play on the handheld quite a bit, and I’ve played quite a few unverified to completion. Unfortunately, I can’t do it with Sword of the Sea. I don’t have a good enough PC otherwise. Sorry folks!
The game’s frame rate is rough, and let me tell you: I don’t really care about issues like this. But when I think it’s noticeable, and I don’t find it playable because of it, those are just the brakes. I’m hoping the PlayStation version has better performance, so I’ll be waiting for its release tomorrow. Fortunately, it’ll also be available on the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog on Day 1, which I do have.
All this said, I’ll just need a little bit of time to play the game on PS5 to see if it suffers through the same issues, so I appreciate the patience. I hear the game is short, so hopefully after tomorrow you’ll have a full review from me sooner than later.
Sword of the Sea is a game that’s very up my alley. Developed by Giant Squid, the studio behind Abzu and The Pathless, Sword of the Sea has that same vibe. There’s another seemingly empty world to explore that you…
Sword of the Sea is a game that’s very up my alley. Developed by Giant Squid, the studio behind Abzu and The Pathless, Sword of the Sea has that same vibe. There’s another seemingly empty world to explore that you make more lively, and you do it all from the comfort of your sword that you don’t actually use for violence.
As you’d expect, Sword of the Sea really oozes with style. After all, how badass is it to be surfing on a sword adding some much needed color to a dry desert with moisture and vegetation? Hardly anything is explained in the game, save for how to jump and activate certain lit up obstacles with your sword, so the game really gives you agency to do just about whatever you want.
Aside from just the exploration, the game does relish in the fact that you’re “swordboarding”, so there are opportunities for you to work the halfpipes and do combos and tricks to get high scores. I don’t know how essential it is to do any of these minigames, because unfortunately I fell victim to issues that make the game unplayable.
Sword of the Sea is absolutely beautiful, at least in this screenshot it is.
Here’s the problem, and it’s probably more my fault than anything. When the code was given, only the Steam version was available. As of this writing, the game isn’t Steam Deck-verified. I play on the handheld quite a bit, and I’ve played quite a few unverified to completion. Unfortunately, I can’t do it with Sword of the Sea. I don’t have a good enough PC otherwise. Sorry folks!
The game’s frame rate is rough, and let me tell you: I don’t really care about issues like this. But when I think it’s noticeable, and I don’t find it playable because of it, those are just the brakes. I’m hoping the PlayStation version has better performance, so I’ll be waiting for its release tomorrow. Fortunately, it’ll also be available on the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog on Day 1, which I do have.
All this said, I’ll just need a little bit of time to play the game on PS5 to see if it suffers through the same issues, so I appreciate the patience. I hear the game is short, so hopefully after tomorrow you’ll have a full review from me sooner than later.
by Danreb Victorio
