Stunning. Few other words immediately describe Songs of Silence. Chimera Entertainment have, before anything else, fashioned a piece of gaming art that looks utterly incredible. This 4X strategic auto-battler does plenty of things differently from its genre peers, but its art nouveau-inspired visuals zing from the screen with the clarity of a fresh lemon. To say it’s refreshing would be an understatement.
Songs of Silence initially offers a series of Campaign missions that explore the conflict between Primordials and Celestials, with humanity caught between the two. These two forces pulled the world apart, leaving one of light and one of darkness, and while this initially led to a period of peace and enlightenment, it soon dissolved into bitter war. Humanity thought itself blessed by the Celestials, but now, under the incoming pestilence of Silence, the remaining humans struggle to survive.
You take on the role of Lorelai, the newly crowned queen of Ehrengard. Her kingdom has already fallen to Silence, and she traipses across the land with her remaining subjects in search of a new home. It’s not easily won though, and instead all she finds is more conflict and in-fighting between the nobles of the neighbouring kingdoms, before she then suffers a bitter betrayal.
It sets the scene for an intriguing fantasy tale, and one that doesn’t simply go for a gung-ho, binary vision of good and evil. It instead gives you a measured, often brutal depiction of war, and those who are worst affected by it. It’s then dressed up with excellent voice work and some of the most impressive character art you’ve ever seen in gaming, making it a genuine pleasure to take in.
Things start out in familiar fashion for the turn-based 4X genre. You move across the over-world map with a limited movement range, and you can enter into combat with any enemies within that. Once combat begins though, you soon discover that Songs of Silence is doing things differently. Battles are fundamentally skirmishes, with your army limited to a set number of units, though these can be buffed up by militia and other reserve units if you’re garrisoned in a location.
You choose your army’s starting positioning, but once you enter combat you don’t have direct control over the majority of your units, each one automatically attacking the nearest enemy in the vein of an auto-battler. What you do have is your deck of actions, with each of your army’s commanders having their own selection of cards to choose from. Each card provides a special ability or attack to help you on the way to victory. Initially, that’s a charge command, sending your mounted units plunging into the enemy ranks, while later cards see you calling winged creatures from the sky down upon them, or causing units to explode upon death.
While your units remain at the same level – it’s a shame not to be able to level up those who’ve been with you through many battles – each commander gains XP and levels up, growing your army and giving you a selection of new cards or the chance to upgrade an existing one. It means that your commander steadily grows in your chosen direction, letting you customise and tailor the abilities and attacks you prefer.
At first, it feels as though battles are short and easily won, but you soon discover that it’s crucial to choose the correct units, and that you’re not woefully underprepared, as Songs of Silence will merrily knock you on your beautifully drawn ass time and time again. You can exchange units between your commanders, and at times you need to make a last-ditch attempt at success by pooling your remaining units together for one final battle.
Songs of Silence makes battles feel hard-won, even though you don’t have full control of your army. You’ll still be there, nervously glancing at your ability cooldowns while trying to protect or resurrect a crucial unit in time. It feels rewarding and focussed, and I love that it’s doing things differently. It’s a real success.
Where Songs of Silence occasionally falls down is the way you select and interact with your units, and on console I was forever selecting the wrong thing, or accidentally moving a unit when I meant to choose another one. I had to tell myself which button to press consciously, and it creates a disconnect between you and the game. It could, of course, just be a personal fumble, but there’s something just that little bit off to the way it fits together here. I’d occasionally move a unit into the safety of a city, only to accidentally move them out again, using up the last of my movement, and stranding them in front of some incoming enemy units. Fortunately, it never ruined my chances, but it is an unnecessary frustration.
The Campaign can also fall into the trap of relying on pure power, and the way you acquire that is through repeated grinding and capturing enough locations to ensure you’ve got a steady stream of resources. It’s little different from how other strategy games function, but sometimes it feels more drawn out than it should be.
This is where Skirmishes come in. These battles allow you to generate random maps and go up against up to five AI-controlled enemies with a series of Fates that alter the gameplay in some way. At first, there won’t be a great deal here, but as you complete Campaign missions you unlock new characters, and additional Fates to switch things up. It’s a never-ending supply of action, and the underlying mechanics shine through when divorced from any narrative drive. Multiplayer against human opponents is identical, though I should note that there aren’t a whole lot of people playing online these days. You can offset that by joining the game’s Discord and finding like-minded players, which is what Songs of Silence points you to do. It’s well worth the extra effort.
The soundtrack is a wonderful additional layer alongside the artistic visual flair, which is little surprise when it comes from Hitoshi Sakimoto, composer of Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy 12 and one of my personal favourites, Valkyria Chronicles. It brings drama and emotion to every encounter, with sweeping orchestral moments ensuring that you’re uplifted at just the right time, before plunging into the darkness and danger that lurks at various points.