[PREVIEW] Swan Song – Cozy Puzzles Guided by Music

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Cozy games lately tend to be hit or miss. They often try too hard or not hard enough, ending up with gameplay that feels stale or turns into simple busy work. Swan Song tries to do something a bit different. It mixes puzzles and music that slowly become more complex as you progress. The game takes place inside a magical old music box, where you use musical ideas to guide a small swan safely through each level while an emotional story slowly unfolds.

Each level feels like a blank piece of music waiting to be written, filled with memorabilia or photos appearing over time to help tell the story as you move forward. You don’t control the swan directly, but instead guide it using notes. You place notes of different shapes and sizes on a musical scale, and every note you place decides which platforms activate when the melody plays.

Once your notes are set, you wind the key of the music box and watch the song come to life, raising platforms and opening paths that let the swan move ahead. If you fail, you can retry as many times as you want since the game is built around trial and error, so it never feels too punishing and gives you space to properly learn as you keep playing.

Specifically, the focus is on smart placement rather than music knowledge. Experimentation is the core idea: what starts with a single note can turn into double notes, and later you face new challenges, like soldiers that push the swan off platforms. In general, the puzzles become more technical and mechanically deeper as you move through each chapter.

Quiet Journey through Sound

What makes Swan Song stand out is how closely its music and story are tied together. You learn that the music box is the creator’s final work, made as a tribute to his family. With every level you complete, more of his memories and his family’s story come into focus, and this gradual reveal gives emotional weight to the puzzles you solve. Music plays a central role in Swan Song, not just in its mechanics but also in its tone and mood. It isn’t the same all the time, as it changes as you progress.

Visually, the game uses warm, low-poly graphics that feel handmade and comforting. This gives Swan Song a cozy and wholesome feel that stays with you throughout the game. This mix of calm focus and emotion helps Swan Song stand out from many other puzzle games. It feels like a quiet journey where the puzzles support the story just as much as the gameplay itself. Because of this, those who enjoy puzzles with narrative depth and musical interaction will likely find Swan Song rewarding long after they finish it.

Since the full release is still a few months away, a demo is available on Steam that you can try right now. It offers a good first look at how the game plays, showing its pacing, visual charm, and hints at the deeper story waiting in the full version. The developers also told us in our interview that the game will include secret levels, which you can read more about here.