Sword of The Sea

Two to three weeks ago I decided to go back to a handful of games I’ve played before and obtain the platinum trophies for them. Thought it would be a fun activity rather than churn through an endless backlog of games. Revisit titles and see what has changed since my initial playthrough. See if my thoughts still stand, if they have improved, or went down. The joy of replaying games, and for the most part it was quite fun! Now most of it was just running back and getting any of the missed collectibles or content, but some of it did require me to start new playthroughs. One of the games I took time to replay was The Pathless from Giant Squid. That indie studio is made up of folks who used to work at Thatgamecompany, otherwise the developers of Journey. What many consider an indie classic as it showed what indie games could do when placed at a higher scale. The Pathless originally released in 2020, and it wasn’t until 2022 that I finally played the game since I had finally acquired a PlayStation 5. It was a magical experience. A breathtaking game loaded with peak moments that just kept getting better and better. The initial playthrough took me five hours to beat, and having replayed the game recently for one hundred percent I can now tell you I have four times the amount of hours I did in 2022.

The Pathless is probably one of my favorite games to revisit this year. In fact, I love it even more now and it’s quickly elevated itself into being one of the best indie games I’ve ever played. One of few titles out there that manages to do a lot at a small scope. Traversing the world is simple, but building the skills to zoom and glide gracefully through it takes time and experience. Each section of the world is compact, but clever secrets were hidden throughout rewarding players for carefully exploring each corner. Said secrets actually felt like secrets, and the lack of a minimap or hand holding game design meant players had to actually pay attention to their surroundings. Then you had the looming storms which forced players to consider whether they should keep exploring, or high tail it out of there to avoid a terrifying encounter. All for each section to end with a Shadow of The Colossus style boss fight where you hunt each beast, confine it within a small space, and weaken it. The Pathless is an extraordinary open world indie game, and going back to it allowed me to witness everything I had missed. From all its clever puzzles, interesting lore, locations I’m surprised I missed, and achieve an ending more satisfying than the one I got. It is a masterpiece, and good thing I chose to replay it because near the end of August this year Giant Squid decided to release to the world their third major title, Sword of The Sea. 

A game I was pretty excited for when it got unveiled during the State of Play in June. Looking at it I knew what the influences were, and by that I mean the recalls to everything Giant Squid had worked on it the past. The ocean environments and sea life seen in Abzu, the brisk movement of The Pathless, and the desert landscapes from Journey. I knew this game would be amazing based on the footage shown, and it did not disappoint. Sword of The Sea is exactly what I thought it’d be. A beautiful experience that anybody can pick up and play. It’s carried by its two main focus points; the movement and presentation. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. However, while it’s probably one of the best indie games to come out in 2025 there was a part of my brain that still preferred The Pathless over this. The Pathless was a game filled with genius discoveries and gameplay moments. Carefully well thought out game design, and Sword of The Sea doesn’t have much of this. It’s a two and half hour long game with linear world design and player safety. It’s not trying to operate on the same scale as The Pathless, but the smaller scope Abzu and Journey was known for. It’s a casual game and while I don’t think it’s doing anything wrong I found it weird that Giant Squid would go back to this approach rather than the innovation they brought in The Pathless. Still I think Sword of The Sea is a great game and in this review I want to cover why it worked for me. Let’s talk about Sword of The Sea and why it deserves your attention.

Story

The game opens with a droplet of water falling down from the sky. A glistening ceiling within a lonesome cavern. Several statues fill this cave and they resemble a tribe. Bladed warriors whose soul purpose is to protect and serve. Maintain the balance of the world and fight any of the evils who dare to threaten the balance of the world. The droplet of water falls upon one of the stone statues and with it comes life. Color fills the status and its stone texture turns into blue fabric and a mask made of gold. The Wraith has been awakened, and their first goal is to figure out where exactly they are. In their arms is a sword, and that sword has the ability to flip into a board which the wraith can ride. It’s much like how the protagonist of Metaphor ReFantazio has the ability to do exactly the same thing, but here there’s history. Can’t describe what exactly this history is, but that as of right now the Wraith presses onward. Exiting the cave they’re confined in and entering a world beaming with light. The sun blasts over a scorching desert. Nothing but sand and small gusts of wind blowing said sand as far as the eye can see. Ruined banners and lanterns left from a fallen society of the past. Tablets describing who these people were, what they worshipped, and what happened. Our hero surfs gracefully across the hills.

The Wraith discovers contraptions and aura for which they can interact with, and with it comes life. Water flowing back across the desert. Turning the desert sands into an ocean hidden beneath the surface. Aquatic life bursts from the underground and flies amongst the air. Guiding our little Wraith to where they need to be. To hidden temples and gateways leading high into the world. Along the way they meet a masked stranger who wishes to assist the Wraith in the journey they have chosen to embark on. The two travel together. Restoring the life that once belonged to this world, and uncovering what exactly happened all those years ago. Unveiling a chaos that brought upon destruction, and destroying that so the balance amongst lifeforms can be restored. Beauty is to be found, and all it takes is a single blade. A wraith flowing in the wind. A sword of the sea. Good luck dear traveler.

Gameplay

It’s a pretty linear experience as Giant Squid games go. A path is set before the player and if not then the player must figure out a way forward. Exploring the small landscape around them and transforming sand around them into flowing waterways. Overcoming simple traversal challenges and finding the aura they need to activate. The button they need to press all the while collecting golden pyramids scattered across the map. Sometimes the player gets to ride a dolphin or shark, but otherwise it’s simple. The real kicker is that you do a majority of this all while riding on the sword which functions exactly like a skateboard. You can build up speed when riding down hills, and launch yourself into the air if you ride up halfpipes or slants. You can even pull off tricks while in midair, and doing so builds up a score meter unseen to the player’s eye. It can be viewed through pausing the game, but most of the time it’s pretty ignorable. It does tally up at the end of the game, and future playthroughs encourage players to go through the game quicker all while trying to build up more points. There’s a skill ceiling if you want there to be, and I like when games do this.

Those golden pyramids I mentioned earlier can be used to purchase new tricks at a vendor. If you manage to collect enough the vendor gives you new skills. Tricks you can perform while on the move, and this allows you to rack up more points for your end of playthrough score. There’s no reward for racking up more points. Maybe a single trophy if you’re a completionist nut, but not a lot of people are going to be aiming for this. Again, there’s a skill ceiling if you want, and I don’t mind how it’s just there. There’s enough room for expression that is otherwise really simple by design. Sword of The Sea is clearly not just a gameplay driven experience seeing how condensed and linear the game is. Lack of challenge imposed is made up for by other aspects of the game. Remember games can be more than the sum of their parts, and this is one of those occasions.

Thoughts

Sword of The Sea is a great game. I know the previous section talked about how gameplay is not a major focus, but trust me when I say that it’s worth your time. It is worth giving it a chance at some point as the team behind it have put a lot of soul into the work on display. Quality is on full display here as Sword of The Sea is a brief combination of everything Giant Squid has learned in the past. Understanding the strongest aspect of each of their games, putting a tight focus, and executing them near flawlessly. The Pathless had its fluid movement and knowing letting the player build up speed and maintain it was more fun than giving it to them instantly. A lot of the fast paced moments in Sword of The Sea are scripted, but it’s the ones where you’re trying to build speed all by yourself that is the most satisfying. Controls are simple, but they’re fluid and responsive enough to pull off maneuvers and tricks you want to do easily. There’s Abzu and its colorful art direction and displays of aquatic life. Moments where all sorts of critters will be flying around the player, and you wonder what they were able to do while also creating a larger than life world. Full of details, lighting, and all sorts of fancy tech. The Journey influences and knowing when and how to present a moment. Framing the player as a small spec in this universe. Gliding across all that is left and taking it all in. The world, atmosphere, and loneliness of it all. 

As linear as the game is I do like how it scatters golden pyramids around the world. Unveiling more if you take the time to explore, restore flowing water, and backtrack to through areas that pop-in more little golden shinies. There’s treasure chests placed in hard to reach spots and these shells. You don’t get much from them, but seeing them pushes me to obtain them. To lunge my Wraith through the air and hope they can stick the landing. Figuring out how to traverse the land to reach it. Working around the limitations of movement so I can go where I need to. There’s a lot of verticality to the world and landscapes, and falling back on the Journey influence I love how your goal is framed from a gameplay and storytelling point of view. How you travel through the world and each step leads you higher. Till you reach the tallest structure in the land and your ultimate goal being to ascend up it. To reach the top of this quart spire. A lot of games framed journeys as an ascent like God of War and Celeste. The same applies here, and it’s presented as such a grand spectacle. I love how the story is told. It’s simple, but it’s done without ever saying a word. No language spoken, and the times there are written words is when you’re reading a lore tablet. Other than that the game is presented through animation and movement, and I love when games do this. I love good writing and don’t mind games with heavy amounts of text. Some of my favorite games are text heavy, but games like Hyper Light Drifter and this are proof that games don’t always need words to tell a story or make players emotional.

I think this might be Giant Squid’s most beautiful game to date. I say might because I like the art direction and world in The Pathless more. Sword of The Sea is overflowing with what I call the “summer colors.” I’d go as far to say that it’s also their most technically impressive game. The sands in Journey looked good, and the sands here flow more lively than ever. With each grain being torn apart with your steps and flowing through the wind. The music is elegant as ever with returning composer Austin Wintory. He also did the music for Giant Squid’s previous games as well titles like The Banner Saga, Eternal Strands, and a few pieces for Hades 2. No wonder this guy’s music sounded a bit familiar. The game took me around two and half hours to complete, and I think that’s a perfect runtime for a game such as this. It communicates what it wants to say at a good pace, ends when it needs to, and knows when it’s running out of ideas. I can’t imagine it being the same length as something like The Pathless. However, as much as I like the short runtime that kinda leans into the game’s biggest drawback. The aspect that might hold people back from purchasing this game. As I stated during the intro The Pathless was a five hour game. It’s triple if you decide to pursue all the content in the game. Sword of The Sea is half the runtime of a basic playthrough The Pathless, and it’s a thirty dollar game. I had a discussion recently with a friend about how the price for indie games seem to be going up as of recently.

Back then I’d say the average indie game costs fifteen to twenty dollars. Twenty dollars for the ones loaded on content or are operating on a higher scale. This is a perfect price for an indie title in my opinion. Pay half the price as a big budget game to experience a unique idea on a smaller more focused scope. As of 2022 there seems to be more pricey indie games. Thirty dollars, forty dollars, and some are even charging fifty dollars. Indie games are slowly becoming the price of big budget games, and I’m not sure I like this. Some indie games are genuinely worth the thirty dollar price tag. My last indie review was on Pacific Drive and it felt like money well spent. It’s full of content, has reasons for you to go back, and keep playing. Then there’s the indie games that are great, but cost a bit too much. This is one of those games where I’m conflicted whether it’s worth the price or not. On one hand Sword of The Sea is both a visual and technical marvel. It’s a game of high quality and I don’t see any other indie developer capturing the same level of presentation and display of work Giant Squid put here. On the other hand it’s a very short game. For thirty dollars you can buy a lot of indie games that are longer or have more content. I’d say wait for a sale, or if you have PlayStation Plus download the game for free while you still can.

Other than that, Sword of The Sea is great. I really enjoyed my time with this, but it’s a shame it is the price that it is. While I don’t love it as much as The Pathless it is another strong game from Giant Squid, and just like The Pathless there’s strong hope for what they have in store next. I’d give this game a pretty good recommendation, and if it ever goes on sale for fifteen or twenty dollars I’d say it’s a stronger one at most. It is yet another work of art. In the end I am going to give Sword of The Sea a 9/10 for excellence at best. 

9/10, Excellence