I stumbled across an ad for Symphonia and was met with a visually striking game thematically tied to music. Initially, I thought I was looking at a Metroidvania of sorts, which is what piqued my interest, but that isn’t the case here. Symphonia is actually a platformer Developed by Sunny Peak, a French studio in Paris, and published by Headup. I’m pleasantly surprised and there’s a lot of potential here.
Story
The world of Symphonia was a prosperous land founded by four prodigious musicians. However, a catastrophe arose which made the founders vanish, thereby causing all the musicians to part ways, leading the realm into silence. A time later, an automaton discovers an ancient relic, a mask, and places it in the founder’s amphitheater. Upon doing so, a violinist is summoned, presumably one of the original musical prodigies. You take the role of this violinist on a journey to find out why the other three founders are missing, gather an orchestra, and restore the World of Symphonia and its musical machinery to its former glory.
Gameplay Elements
Symphonia’s steam page specifically states that Symphonia is a “non-violent and poetic platformer.” Meaning, I didn’t experience any moments where I had to stomp or beat enemies with my violin to progress. Really, the “enemy” is the hazardous environments of thorns, pits, and spikes overrunning Symphonia that one has to navigate in order to progress. Or, rather, the enemy is the loss of hope and/or music in Symphonia. There’s a compelling juxtaposition here between restoring a world to its former beauty through sheer will and creative action through the use of music but not resorting to violence. Interesting design choice.
We get a bit of a taste of the abilities in the demo. One can play the violin to unlock certain doors blocking the way. Then there’s your typical jumping mechanics with the A button or using a trigger button to poke the ground with your violin bow, effectively making your character bounce off the ground or double jump higher in the air. The jumping mechanic with the triggers feels nice and snappy, creating extra speed for your character, but for some reason the shorter jumps and basic movement with the analog stick and A button feel a bit too sluggish and unresponsive for my liking. Pressing the A button almost feels like you’re stuck in mud for a brief moment. They clearly are pushing you in the direction of using the bouncing jumping mechanic to accelerate but I’d still like a little bit more basic run and jumping speed.
There’s also a catapult mechanic where you attach yourself a pincushion and can aim your character across chasms, over spikes, and combo that move with the violin poke jump to gain speed and jump even further. Very well done and feels smooth. You couple that with what I noticed in the controller configuration called “grappling bow” (not featured in the demo) and I think traversing the world of Symphonia could feel stellar.
I mentioned in the picture above that the founders have notes for hair and collars, which is a nice, subtle touch. Well, when you die in the game, you’ll see a brief red shape of a quarter rest, which in musical notation represents a period of silence. Clever.
Graphics & Sound
The graphics are simply stunning. I love the color palette and it really invites you into the world of Symphonia. Same thing goes for the music. There is a bit of a epic but somber score throughout the demo that invokes a feeling of despair but a little bit of hope throughout the realm. It’s just beautifully executed.
Conclusion
According to their Twitter, Symphonia should release in Q4 2024 for both PC and console. Overall, very interesting concept. This might be something to watch out for in Q4.
