Stylish and gorgeous, Songs of Silence has been teasing us with a story-focused approach to 4X strategy for most of the year, but now we’ve had another look as part of the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted. The team at Chimera Entertainment showed off Songs’ three factions—the Firstborn, Starborn, and Crusade—in combat, with units ranging from warriors mounted on flaming rams to giant three legged cauldrons and a menagerie of other fantastic creatures duking it out.
The mix of turn-based strategy in managing your territory and moving about and handling your troops through the real time battles is as gorgeous as the rest of Songs, and with inspirations like “our all-time favorites, such as Ogre Battle, Kohan, and Warlords,” according to creative director Alexander Kehr. It’s easy to see the rest of the pieces coming together for a worthy challenger to the Heroes of Might & Magic throne. Aside from the clear gameplay inspirations, Songs is taking emulation of the greats literally by delivering an orchestrated soundtrack from Hitoshi Sakimoto, composer of classics like Tactics Ogre, Odin Profile, and the shamefully-still-not-on-PC Final Fantasy Tactics.
Past the stunning presentation choices, Songs combat system is emulating more the fairly recent autobattler genre (and older Ogre Battle) by putting you in more of the planning role. Your control over your art nouveau fantasy minions mostly revolves around making sure you’ve got them in the correct spots before each fight starts, and then influencing the ongoing battle with your reserves and the cards you play. You’ll never be a helpless spectator to your defeat, but you won’t be tackling micro in each fight either, instead playing more of a card-slinging Sun Tzu role for your troops.
Songs of Silence has a demo currently available on Steam, if the mix of strategy and storytelling is your style. Chimera Entertainment also announced its plans to launch in spring 2024.