Sonority Demo Gameplay Preview

I managed to play the demo for Sonority recently and it turned out to be a pretty unique puzzle game solved by playing musical notes.

Sonority is a mystical world where music has the magical power to bring animals and humans together. You play as Esther, a young girl adventuring into ancient ruins in search of a magical tune to cure her ailing friend Batama, who happens to be a talking bear. I guess the burden was getting unbearable. Ok now that we got the bear puns out of the way we can get into the game play.

The game play of Sonority is pretty interesting. The puzzles are based on musical notes. Each interval will move one piece in the level and it will move up or down or rotate clockwise or counterclockwise depending on the shift in pitch. For example, to move a block upwards two segments, you would need an interval to increase by two. Playing C to E would move the block upwards two segments.

You start off the game with only one note so the puzzles start really simple and as you acquire more notes, the puzzles get more complex. They keep the puzzles fresh and challenging by throwing in new mechanics such as having to use platforms as elevators to access certain areas mid puzzle. Each area has a theme and mechanic the game explores and I did find myself getting stuck on the later puzzles. This was a good thing as the puzzles provided more of a challenge and you had to think through possible solutions.

The game also had collectable items and areas where you could backtrack to unlock more side areas. The game is linear for the most part but these small side areas provided enough of a reason to explore the map.

The game felt pretty good to play. You had sections of puzzles interspersed with short cutscenes where Esther talks to the eccentric animals of the ruins. You can choose to explore each level before moving on as well.

Overall, the demo for Sonority is look pretty good. I did run into some game breaking bugs but that’s to be expected being a demo. The puzzle mechanics are unique and enjoyable, the world is colorful and wholesome, and the game was pleasant to play.