Video games can be almost anything these days. Cinematic adventures, abstract text-based RPGs, avant-garde puzzle games, or even fireworks; the possibilities are endless. Sometimes games are so experimental that they defy genres, conventions, or deconstruct the definition of what a video game can be. Titles like .detuned and Linger in Shadows were interactive PlayStation 3 tech demos featuring surrealist imagery, and without a defined goal. These kinds of experiences are typically off-putting to the average gamer, mostly because they’re pretentious and not any fun. What if interactive art games could be fun? Would it be Sayonara Wild Hearts?
For an arty kind of game, Sayonara Wild Hearts tells a fairly conventional and easy-to-follow story amidst its vague and interpretive imagery. At its core, it’s about a woman recovering from a breakup whose emotional pain throws the universe out of balance. Guided by a diamond butterfly, she travels through surreal, dreamlike worlds, taking on the role of a masked biker known as The Fool.
Her journey spans neon highways, futuristic cities, dark forests, and electric deserts as she works to restore harmony, facing off against rivals inspired by tarot cards, who also might be other aspects of herself. The story is very abstract and symbolic, but not terribly interesting. Getting over a break-up or a “broken heart” isn’t all that compelling and is a thin and flimsy anchor for pretentious imagery.
The first thing anyone will notice about Sayonara Wild Hearts is its visual design. The game rocks a bold, minimalist yet vibrant look, drenched in neon pinks, purples, deep blues, and electric highlights, often giving the impression of a Miami nightclub. Clean geometric shapes and sharp silhouettes keep things clear during high-speed action, while surreal, dreamlike scenes shift between Tron-style highways, futuristic cityscapes, shadowy forests, and trippy voids.
The art style mashes up retro arcade flair with wire-frame designs, on-rails shooter sequences inspired by Space Harrier and tarot-inspired imagery. Smooth animations, flashy particles, and fast camera moves make the whole experience feel more intense than it really is, because beneath the flashy presentation lies a hollow game.
Despite its appearances, Sayonara Wild Hearts isn’t much of a rhythm game at all. There is almost nothing to the gameplay since there is nothing to work toward apart from a Gold, Silver, or Bronze rank, which does nothing. The Fool can miss every pick up and still move on to the next stage. Combat is a very forgiving quick-time event that gives infinite retries from the same moment of failure. The game is more concerned with being a visual tour de force and an interactive music video album than being a challenging rhythm action experience. Without any sense of consequence or urgency, the whole experience comes off as dull and shallow, not to mention it wraps up in under two hours.
Being more of an album means it at least has quality tunes, right? Only for anyone into synth-pop. Admittedly, the music is catchy. The emotionally charged tracks with pulsating beats and airy vocals that synchronise with the otherwise empty gameplay, making the action feel like part of a choreographed music video. One of the cooler features in the Switch 2 port is the absence of load times, enabling a mode that delivers a seamless, continuous stream of songs.
Owners of the original Switch release of Sayonara Wild Hearts get the upgrade for free and comes with an absurd 120fps mode, which gives a dramatic boost to the look and feel of the animation. Alternatively, there’s a 4K mode running at 60fps. For this kind of audiovisual experience, it’s the better choice, as the gameplay is so minimal that there’s little reason to opt for the 120fps mode, and the higher resolution really lets the graphics shine at their absolute best.
