Have you ever wanted to ride a floating sword like a skateboard? Well, Sword of the Sea lets you do exactly that! Oh and there’s an emotional narrative through some gorgeous landscapes too, I guess. Joe Morgan reviewed Sword of the Sea when it first launched on PC last year, praising the visuals and storytelling while noting the sword-boarding mechanic felt a little underbaked, if still a lot of fun. Playing the game on Switch 2 with the recently released port, I have to agree with his assessment, though with the caveat that fully exploring each area gives you more to do with the platforming mechanics and there’s a “you make your own fun” situation.
The storytelling in Sword of the Sea is sparse and handled with a very light touch. There are cutscenes sprinkled throughout the adventure, but there are no voices or dialogue so things are largely left to facial expressions, music, or general ambiance to convey tone and mood. Riding a dolphin through the dunes as you replace the sands with a vibrant ocean feels triumphant, while being cast down into the lava level feels dangerous and a little hopeless. It’s a short game, my final time was around 2 hours after thoroughly exploring every area, but I suspect I missed some things and definitely didn’t unlock every movement ability. I’m not even sure you can on a first playthrough, as collecting all the little triangle things I saw only got me through the first three. There is new game plus, so I suspect they want you to run through multiple times to get everything.
Like Joe said, I do wish there was a bit more to the skateboarding mechanics. Your final score is tallied at the end of the game, but you can’t actually see it while you’re playing so I have no idea what actually scores points. I assume it’s performing tricks, but who knows how tricks are scored or what other actions earn points. You do get the ability to see your score and a few other bonuses in new game plus, so I assume hiding it is for narrative purposes. I only found a single score attack minigame across the entire adventure, and I really wish there were more, or at least that they were a bit easier to find. As it is though, the platforming and movement is pretty fun in and of itself.
The game looks gorgeous in either docked or portable modes, and while it feels smooth apparently the game runs at 30 fps. There are also several moments where things will dip very noticeably below that target, which is disappointing. After playing Dragon’s Dogma and Resident Evil on here, I can’t help but feel the game could hit a smooth 60 or even 120 given enough time and money to throw at the problem, but this is an indie title and both of those things are generally in short supply so it’s understandable.
While the Switch 2 Joy-Con 2 don’t have as many bells and whistles as the DualSense the game seems intended to be played with, a lot of care has gone into the rumble here. It’s subtle and gentle, while greatly enhancing the play experience and being a little difficult to describe if you haven’t experienced it. You can feel water droplets and burning flames right in your hands, and both of those are just in the opening cutscene. Gameplay provides even more immersion, being able to feel the surface you’re gliding over ever so slightly. There were even points where the rumble seemed to make some bubble-like sound effects after restoring some ocean. It’s incredibly cool, and probably one of the best displays of the tech on the platform.
Sword of the Sea is a fun journey, and while not as impactful as Journey or Tony Hawk that clearly inspired it, I’d say it’s still well worth experiencing once or twice. This probably isn’t the best version of the game out there, but its short levels and overall runtime make it perfectly suited for portable play. If it at all looks interesting to you, I’d highly recommend it, even if just to look at the gorgeous landscapes.
