I'm only just about 2 hours in and you can just tell in everyway how much love went into this game. The art, sound design, and the voice acting absolutely top notch. I blinked and two hours went by. At one point I literally just stopped to listen to the sound the water and wind chimes.

Having a very stressful career, this game gave me the first bit of relaxing and peace I've had in weeks. Big thanks to the devs for this gem, I can't wait to keep exploring this world.

Edit as I have post-mean-review regret: do buy the game if you like cozy games! I'm enjoying myself a lot now that I'm not expecting like, Disco Elysium levels of writing. 😅 The character writing is still wildly varied but there's at least one I like a lot now, and some other good moments. I still dislike the main conflict though. (And they fixed spelling errors in a patch!)


If Steam had a "Mixed" option, I'd be choosing it, but alas. I'm writing this to temper the expectations of anyone going in expecting that "a focus on unique characters and story" also means quality writing and thinky quests. I say this as someone who loved the studio's previous games and as someone who believes we shouldn't give games a pass on quality simply because they're "cozy!!"

Unfortunately, there are many things wrong with the writing of this game that show it could have used a good editor and didn't have one. First, the amount of misspellings in the game at launch is unacceptable for a story-focused game and one written by native English speakers at that! (eg. "professers" for "professors", "Todays Letters" instead of "Today's Letters" - there's more.)

Second, and I know only my English nerds will care about this, but it contributes to the un-edited feel of the writing: there's a moment where "powerful mages, renowned bards, and prodigal musicians" is said, and I thought, "huh, long-lost musicians? that's odd in this context." Later, the word "prodigy" is used several times in dialogue and -- y'all, "prodigal" is not an adjective form of "prodigy" but I think the writers thought it was. Again, something a good editor would have caught.

Third, the overall story is attempting to tackle a "authoritarians tried to control magic for ~reasons~" plot which, by the end of Spring, is handled at the level of a shallow children's book. You don't have to try to force grittiness into a charming world with strawberry-shortcake fluff writing; it's ok to keep it light if that's the style of the game! TBD on if this will gain some nuance or depth over the course of the game, but I'm not super hopeful it'll be anything more than tropes & platitudes.

Fourth, and related to the previous point, said authoritarian takeover is given an explicit timeframe (40 years long) yet there's a ~60yo character (who has grandchildren) who says "it was a danger to whistle when I was a child" and a seemingly ~30yo character who says "magic was banned when I was about 9" -- that math does not check out!! Putting major events and characters into a timeline when plotting a story is basic, basic writing advice. Running into this level of logical inconsistency suggests a lack of attention to Glimmerwick's internal coherence -- but consistent worldbuilding matters to good writing.

Fifth: look, I played Ooblets and Fields of Mistria. It is eminently possible for small cozy indie games to have unique dialogue for all interactable characters, especially since Glimmerwick's in-game seasons are 14 days and not the usual farm sim 28 days. This is a cozy game! I want to run around and talk to everyone every day! Repeating dialogue in the first week is bad! I'm never going to talk to any non-quest-related characters past Spring because I'm sick of the repeated dialogue and some of it is so long to button mash through too! On controller, I can't even press B to get out of the dialogue menu, I have to navigate to the "Bye" line every time!


Sixth, the quest writing assumes you have no brain at all and will make it explicitly clear, multiple times, from multiple characters, what you need to do to progress. I unlocked a new potion and thought, oh, I wonder which character will make it blatantly obvious when and where to use this potion to progress and voila, just a few hours later, said character shows up to spell it out! Though with the amount of hitting you over the head the devs have to do to explain that there's no time pressure in the game, perhaps this amount of hand-holding is required due to the game's target audience...

I feel especially let down by all of the above because I loved Leaving Lyndow and it's on my list of "hidden gem" indie games! I played it years ago, but in my memory it's a thoughtful meditation on leaving home for the first time that touched me emotionally. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be similarly emotionally moved by Glimmerwick.

Let's end on some high notes: the art is gorgeous (despite camera zoom reset annoyances) and a joy to look at. The sound design is pleasant and the voice actors are fantastic, on the whole. The music is really really good!! This might be my favorite fishing mini-game ever - I love that it's a different tune per fish, I love that it's thematic to the world, and I find it a nice balance of challenging yet doable. I enjoy the rhythm mini-game for learning spells as well, and wish there was more of it. The potion-making mini-game is also great: thinky and gets me playing it over and over to master it.

There is a lot of charm to be found here -- this is not a bad game, simply flawed -- and I'll still continue playing to see where the story goes and attempt a 100% completion. I only wish the writing had received the same level of care as the art and gameplay systems, and that there had been an overall pass for polish and bug fixing before launch.

knowing this is from the developers of Eastshade i was already really hopeful but... this game really went above and beyond my imagination with its world. every character has so much to say, the world feels so magical and dreamy, each time i go to the town i feel the same magic and awe as it's my first time being there, truly such a dream game. you can't convince me i'm not an actual student at this school. waking up every morning to get my free pretzel (because in true student fashion, i'm broke), going to whatever class i have that day, meeting friends in the common room, gardening, helping people with their silly troubles in town... such a satisfying loop.

with all that said, i have encountered some bugs that negatively affect my gameplay (like i can't plant some seeds unless i move them in my inventory?), and i don't really enjoy the gardening in this game. it doesn't feel as well made as the rest of the game, or maybe i just couldn't figure out the correct way to do it yet, i don't know. i played three hours of the demo and continued from there, so i'm not a beginner beginner, and so far it hasn't really grown on me. but luckily gardening is the least of my worries in this game. i'm just here to enjoy the school life, and thankfully gardening takes up a really small amount of my day, at least so far.

if you've been dreaming of a cozy witch academy game like this and you don't want to make that certain transphobic person richer, just go ahead and buy it. it's indie, made with so much love and care, and you will 100% feel that in the gameplay :)

cozy gameplay <--- i'm giving away a Steam key in my youtube video here if you'd like to join!