Songs of Glimmerwick Review – Leisurely Musical Magic

Magic is often cast through magical chants or spells with a speech requirement. But when the world is just recovering from a period of silence, music becomes the preferred method of casting. Songs of Glimmerwick hands you a flute and throws you in an open world farming simulator. Developed and published by Eastshade Studios, you slowly rebuild a garden while engaging with a vibrant world.

Long ago, some individuals discovered magic through the power of music, speech, and potion-making. However, a group called the Silencers banned all sound in an attempt to consolidate magic power. They were overthrown and magic is coming back to the world. You are a young witch pursuing magic shortly after the Silencers lost power, traveling to the town of Glimmerwick for your studies.

The narrative takes a slight backseat to your time at Glimmerwick. Your focus is primarily on your studies, getting to know people, and discovering new locations. As you progress, it turns out that the events of the past haven’t fully settled. Some students, despite having freedom from silence, are starting to think about what the Silencers did correctly; while your development as a witch comes first, you always see people with opinions about the past.

I appreciated the variety of opinions from characters as it gave more depth to the world. While everyone is happily practicing magic or living their life, they have independent thoughts. There are discussions, small debates, and even questions about what the future should look like. It resembles a discussion in the real world without pushing one viewpoint ahead of the other. Even then, it never overshadows your main work as a student.

While studying at Glimmerwick, you take on a job maintaining the university garden. Like every farming simulator, the garden is a mess and it falls to you to clean it up. Fortunately, as you spend more time in school, you learn spells that help you manage the garden. Growing crops is your main form of income and you eventually expand into selling pastries or potions. That money is reinvested into the garden or helping you learn new magic.

Your classes at Glimmerwick give you some starting spells and potion basics. As the school year continues, you increase your repertoire and are able to solve more problems around town. Both students, faculty, and townspeople run into problems that only you can solve. Leveraging your connections, magic, and garden harvests allow you to make the world a better place. If you can’t fix a problem immediately, that’s also fine; there’s no pressure to solve a problem if you can’t do it right away.

The lack of pressure is something I found relaxing, especially in a schedule that feels tight. Even if I ran out of time, the game does let you know that it’s not a big deal. Problems will still be there tomorrow and no one thinks poorly of you. Several issues don’t have immediate solutions and you must progress the school year until you find out more. I never had to rush or worry about failing; the solution would eventually appear given enough time or I could put two-and-two together to find the solution myself.

Without the constraint of time, I could take in the charm of Glimmerwick and the surrounding areas. There’s lots of nature and magical creatures to witness, such as a dragon that greets you. As you progress through your studies, more areas open up and with it, more ways to interact with the world. I never felt like I was wasting time as there was always something to do or somewhere to look.

The UI does snap you out of the enchanting charm of Glimmerwick at times. I found that it is suitable for the most part but there are aspects that are inconvenient. For example, there aren’t any tooltips to explain what an item does, forcing you to view it manually in your inventory. And any complex interactions like moving a wagon become frustrating and complicated. Maps can’t track individuals for quests, which made me spend more time hunting down people all over the land.

There is also a lot of guesswork in completing quests. For example, you aren’t explicitly told how to bake goods in the game. One quest does require you to bake, but you must try every heat source to see if it works. Other descriptions ask you to find a person, but never tell you where exactly they are located. In a game where people move around constantly, not knowing where they could be drags out the quest time.

While there is an appeal to not having your hand held, I did feel like there could be improvements. I don’t need to constantly know where everyone’s positions are, but identifying people could be easier. When I buy something from a store, I should at least know what I’m buying before I spend the money. These are small gripes, but they snapped me out of the Songs of Glimmerwick’s charm multiple times.

Songs of Glimmerwick lets you take your time as you progress through the school year. Building your garden and completing quests for the community immerses you in campus life without pressure. However, the UI isn’t the most convenient and it makes gameplay harder than it needs to be in some sections. Quests also don’t have a clear way to complete them at times. But there’s a charming adventure waiting for you that, while not perfect, manages to ensnare you with its charm.

Victor reviewed Songs of Glimmerwick on PC with a provided review code. This review is based on the version of the game available at the time of writing and our score will not be changed.