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Title: Sword of the Sea is what happens when Matt Nava strides back into
Journey's shadow

Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2025 23:31:48 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/sword-of-the-...

Sword of the Sea is a game about letting go. Its main mechanic involves
surfing across vast desert dunes on a thin blade, slicing through glittering
sands and scaling ancient towers on a quest to unearth the secrets of
civilizations past. It plays best when you forget about the controls
entirely, and just surrender to the slick physics and let your little
character flow. With enough exploration, youΓÇÖll naturally discover glowing
orbs and shining gold gems, and the sands will transform into deep, crystal
clear seas with fish swimming through the air, carving wet paths through the
dirt. Your character, dressed in flowing robes and a gold mask, rides the
orange hills and the blue waves with the same easy athleticism, reacting
instantly to every input on the controller.

Charge up a jump and then complete sick tricks with a few quick inputs, or
unleash a bubble of sonic energy to smash nearby vases, uncovering bits of
currency in the shattered pieces. The protagonist moves in whatever direction
you push, stopping immediately when you let go of the analog stick. There are
giant chains to grind, a hover ability in some areas, and half pipes
generously positioned around the environments. Control prompts pop up when
youΓÇÖre first introduced to an ability, but the text fades quickly and
youΓÇÖre left alone in the desert. There are no waypoints in Sword of the
Sea, but the environment tells a clear story, inviting you to solve puzzles
in the mysterious temples dotting the landscape. Find glowing orbs on the
rooftops and hidden down secret passageways to unlock the buildingsΓÇÖ
secrets, opening up new areas.

I played about 20 minutes of Sword of the Sea at Summer Game Fest, but I
wanted to surf its dunes for a lot longer. ItΓÇÖs the kind of game that makes
the real world fade away, no matter how chaotic or intrusive your immediate
surroundings are. ItΓÇÖs built on rhythm and vibes, and it encourages a
meditative flow state from its first frames. Learn the controls and then
forget them; play with pure intuition and itΓÇÖll most likely be the right
move.

ΓÇ£The game is about surfing, and it's really about the process of learning
to surf and getting comfortable with surfing, and then trying things that are
a little bit beyond your abilities, failing, and then figuring it out and
actually accomplishing them,ΓÇ¥ Sword of the Sea creator Matt Nava told
Engadget on the SGF show floor. ΓÇ£And in the process, you kind of realize
that surfing is all about harnessing the power of something greater than
yourself. YouΓÇÖre not paddling ΓÇö the waves carry you. The zoomed out
camera, the little character; in a lot of games, they're right on the
character, because the character is the focus. But in this game, it's about
how the character is a part of the environment, that is the focus. And I
think that's a constant in a lot of the games that we've made.ΓÇ¥

Nava is the creative director and co-founder of Giant Squid, the studio
behind Abz├╗ and The Pathless. Even with these two successful games under his
belt, Nava is still best known as the art director of Journey,
thatgamecompanyΓÇÖs pivotal multiplayer experience that hit PlayStation 3 in
2012. Nava has spent the past decade attempting to build explicitly non-
Journey-like games with Giant Squid, and while Abz├╗ and The Pathless both
have his distinctive visual stamp, theyΓÇÖre the opposite of Journey in many
ways. Where Journey was set in a dry, desert landscape, NavaΓÇÖs follow-up,
Abz├╗, took place in an underwater world. After that, The Pathless was mostly
green, rather than dusty orange.

Giant Squid

With Sword of the Sea, Nava let go. He dropped all preconceptions of what he
should be making and mentally said fuck it. He finally allowed himself to
manifest the game that came naturally to him.

ΓÇ£In this game, it's very much taking on, accepting and proclaiming that
this is me,ΓÇ¥ Nava said. ΓÇ£I did Journey. I'm doing orange again. And I'm
going back to the desert because I have way more ideas that we couldn't do in
that game … It’s like I’ve been living in my own shadow for a long time
in a weird way. It's like, why am I doing that? I should just be who I am and
continue to explore the art that is my art.ΓÇ¥

Sword of the Sea is a specific and special game, and even though itΓÇÖs set
in an orange desert, it doesn't feel like Journey. The game also includes
music by Austin Wintory, the Grammy-nominated composer behind Journey, Abz├╗
and The Pathless. Together, Nava and Wintory form a formidable foundation.

ΓÇ£A lot of video game scores, they just make a music track for the area,ΓÇ¥
Nava said. ΓÇ£If you're in the town, you hear town music, and then it just
repeats. But that's not how it works here. The music advances as your story
advances, it reflects where you are on your surfing adventure, what you're
learning how, how far your character has gone on this character arc. And so
that's where the music of a video game like ours should be.ΓÇ¥

As Nava and I chatted, someone sat down to play Sword of the Sea on a nearby
screen, and when I glanced up, I saw that they were gliding through an area I
didn't find in my runthrough. A giant animal skeleton was half-buried in the
sand, bright white vertebrae dotted with gold gems for the player to collect.
There are a lot of secrets to find in Sword of the Sea, Nava assured me. The
best way to find them is to just let go and play.

Sword of the Sea is due to hit PlayStation 5, Steam and the Epic Games Store
on August 19.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/gaming/sword-of-the-...
nava-strides-back-into-journeys-shadow-233148894.html?src=rss

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