The thing I love about indie games is that they can go outside of the box of traditional ‘triple A’ games and try something new and unexpected. Sayonara Wild Hearts by Simogo does this in every sense. It’s art direction is stunning and its soundtrack is something every developer would die for. However, playing through this ‘pop-album video game’ I kept asking myself: how much of it is a video game? Find out in my Switch Review of Sayonara Wild Hearts!

Falling through the ceiling.

Falling through the ceiling

Sayonara Wild Hearts is a game about heartbreak and in my opinion forgiveness. Our would be protagonist is in a deep pit of depression and anxiety. As her heart breaks, the universe is thrown out of sync and a diamond butterfly appears to her.

The butterfly literally turns her world on its head and our protagonist falls through the ceiling onto her longboard and sets off on her journey of conquering her inner demons. To do this, our protagonist is turned into her superhero alter ego ‘The Fool’ and must challenge motorbike wielding gangs like the ‘Hollowing Moons’ and Death herself to break hearts and rebalance the universe.

The Fool

As the subtitle of the game suggests, SWH’s story is presented as an album, with each level acting like a track on an album. The concept works extremely well as each level is accompanied by a completely new track. The whole thing is tided together perfectly by the narrator, voiced by Queen Latifa.

It reminds me of artists like Daft Punk, mixing the incredible music with an unusual story and bright contrasting visuals to create something totally unique. The game aspect of SWH however, was somewhat lacking.

Riding at 200mph

The gameplay of SWH falls into the endless runner genre. Your character is usually riding some sort of vehicle on a track. Whilst travelling on the track you have to collect as many hearts as you can and chase down enemies. By the end of each chapter you’ll have caught up with your prey and will challenge them in battle. Battles usually consist of a few quick time events with your character eventually breaking the heart of that boss.

Howling Moons

In some respects, you could compare SWH’s gameplay to that of modern Sonic the Hedgehog games. With that comparison though, also comes the same problems. Throughout the game you’re basically chasing down hearts, given a false sense of speed whilst doing so. Sure you go fast, but when there are tight gaps to drive through the game slows down, often throwing you off your pace and causing you to crash. Furthermore, because of quick and convenient checkpoints, I never felt challenged in the game.

After you die three times in a track the game asks you if you’d like to skip this section. I appreciate this feature and the fact that you can turn it off however, I don’t know why anyone would need to skip. This is because the game is too easy and often felt boring. Of course there are some cool moments in the game. For example when you interact with a VR headset and when you get a bow. These moments are accompanied by great tracks and make you feel cool however, for me there’s not enough of them in the game.

Sayonara to controls!

The only thing that adds some challenge to the game is the clunky controls. With endless runners I think it’s essential to have tight controls. Obviously you want to get the best times and highest scores on each run. However, SWH’s controls are just frustrating! It was like trying to control a raging bull with just tooth floss as the reins. When trying to collect hearts it was impossible to get every single one, especially if the line of hearts wasn’t straight. The sceptical side of my thinks the bad controls my be a causality of the game coming out on Apple Arcade and that the game was designed first and for most for a touch screen.

Is it worth buying on the Switch?

If you’ve been following my reviews for a while you’ll know I’m a fan of shorter games. Personally I don’t have that much time to play games so the shorter the game, the better for me. In my Old Man’s Journey review I argued that the game was worth €14.99 because I enjoyed its story and puzzle mechanics. I compared it to buying a movie ticket and enjoying a two hour movie. Sadly, I don’t think I can say the same for SWH on the Nintendo Switch. I beat the game in about an hour and though I love the music and the art direction, the gameplay just wasn’t enough for me to justify its €11.99 asking price on the Nintendo eshop.

Chasing down hearts

Yes you can replay the game as there are medals for each level (gold, silver and bronze) if want to collect every gold medal. However, playing through the game casually, I managed to get silver and gold medals. There are also the Zodiac riddles that offer some secrets in the game. Nevertheless, I don’t think you would get that much extra content out of the game doing these. I would play it again just for the music but you could just download or purchase the game’s soundtrack.

In my opinion, SWH isn’t worth picking up on the Switch right now. If you have Apple Arcade you should play it there. If you’re like me and have an android phone, I’d wait a while until the game goes on sale.

A soundtrack to DIE for!

Nevertheless, I do like SWH even with its faults. The art style is gorgeous. It reminds me of the polygonal look that YIIK: A Post Modern RPG. Sayonara is on another level though! It is animated superbly, especially during the flying scenes. Even the track icons look so cool! Accompanied by an extremely good soundtrack, the experience of SWH is an enjoyable one.

Stunning scenes

The music in the game alone makes me want to play again. My favourite track is ‘The World We Knew’ by Linnea Olsson, Danniel Olsen and Jonathan Eng. Olsson’s vocals remind me of the old Haim album “Days are Gone’ and the track itself plays at a pivotal part of the game where I feel ‘The Fool’ becomes powerful. In addition, the beat of the song is timed perfectly with some cool stuff in the game that you (the player) make happen.

Breaking Hearts

Sayonara Wild Hearts is a great music video but a very average game. To me, it feels like developers Simogo had an amazing idea for a piece of art, but the actual gameplay of the game was added as an after thought. Its controls are too sloppy, it offers next to no challenge and apart from a few memorable moments- the gameplay was boring. Nevertheless, I still loved the overall experience because the art and music were so memorable.

Breaking Hearts

But should you buy it on Switch? Well no. For it’s length of about 1-2 hours, I’d argue the quality of its gameplay is not worth the asking price of €11.99. In my opinion, wait for the game to go on sale. Or if you’re an Apple Arcade subscriber, play it there!

Therefore, I give Sayonara Wild Hearts by Simogo and Annapurna Interactive my score of

Have you played Sayonara Wild Heart on the Switch. What did you think of my Sayonara Wild Heart Switch Review? Let us know over on Twitter or come and join the SIF Discord server.

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