Swann's Song

Swann’s Song is a simple visual novel. An old man and a young boy arrive at a pond with a swan and engage in a conversation about life, loss and growing up. The background is primarily static, and gameplay consists of clicking through dialog. There is background music with some environmental sounds, but no voice acting. There are dialog and script choices to make but I don’t believe that these drive the overall conversation in an alternate direction. At the end of each chapter, you are prompted to enter a thought. I don’t believe that these have any purpose other than offering the player a moment of pseudo-participation in the conversation. On the Steam store page, the developer is clear that the game has a single ending. This would confirm that the player’s choices or inputs have no tangible impact. The game is designed to be played in a single sitting (i.e., progress is not saved) and will take you just under an hour. If you follow the prompts and finish the story, then you should earn 100% of the achievements. I found the pace of the conversation to be much slower than the speed of my reading. Thus, it felt like most of my time was spent waiting for the next bit of text. …

Truly, truly beautifully written. It occurs to me that you might have a totally different experience with this game depending how old you are when you encounter it. Tremendous.

a reminder of our inherent finitude and the potential for gratitude when faced with the abject horror of the end. one of the strongest tributes to the power of human connection i have seen in culture in some time.

A very beautiful game I enjoyed a lot The music and the visials are beyond praise Thank you!

A conversation between an old man and a young boy, a little nostalgic, a little sad. At some moments, it asks you to write, and those moments make you reflect not only on the story but on your own life.

I loved the dialogue, and couldn't stop once I started the game. Visuals are so beautiful. I would love to see something bigger with this style. Game is short, like 1 hour long, but totally worth it!!