Throughout history progress of mankind has been propelled by many coincidences. Lighting striking a tree and thus giving us fire was probably the first – and best known – of those ‘coincidences’. As you read a history book, you can almost pinpoint a certain time and place where progress was made. Around the turn of the 20th Century, Vienna was one of those places. The Lion’s Song lets you experience Vienna at that exciting time.
Three-quarter build-ups, one-quarter letdown.
The Lion’s Song lets you play as four different characters compiled in their own episode. You get to experience how they all try to excel in their own field. The first episode lets you play as Wilma, a young and talented composer, who needs to find inspiration to write a new piece – The Lion’s Song – for an upcoming concert. The second episode follows Franz, an aspiring painter, who needs to find ways to see his subjects in other ways than before. The third episode – my favorite – is all about Emma, a mathematician, who tries to present her theory to a field of skeptical men.
While playing through each episode you subtly notice some characters and references from a previous episode without. This makes you wonder how everything is connected. In the last episode aptly named “closure” you see how The Lion’s Song is intertwined between each story. The first three episodes all went deep into the psyche of each character and made you really think about the choices you needed to make, the last one just failed at being anything but an excuse for an ending.
Narrative Adventure Time
The Lion’s Song presents itself as a narrative adventure game. The term game is really stretching it. I would call this more of an experience where your choices affect the outcome of the story. No puzzles need to be solved to complete The Lion’s Song. Every conversation you’ll have – and you’ll have many as they weren’t lying when Mi’pu’mi Games said it’s a “narrative” adventure – has a possible effect on the story. After each episode you’ll get a summary of what choices you made in comparison to what the other players did. This leaves some room to replay a certain episode again to see what the other outcomes might be.
Music soothes, sepia is still ugly
The thing I really liked about this experience was the music. The soundtrack really sets the scene and adapts to the choices you make enhancing the experience. The visuals are typical for the point-and-click adventures of the 80s/90s. To place everything in a certain timeframe, the developers decided to put everything in a sepia tone. Going with the whole 50 shades of brown theme is never a good choice in my opinion. Just add some color and this experience could be so much nicer.
Conclusion
Don’t expect a game. If you want to ‘experience’ a nice story that makes you think about the choices each character makes to excel in life, The Lion’s Song is for you.
