Looking at the raw ingredients, Song of Horror has all the makings of a modern masterpiece: genuinely spooky atmosphere, inventive and memorable scares, gorgeous graphics, gameplay variety, and a story that isn't half bad and helps build the lore and add to the scariness of the world.
Why, then, am I giving it a 4/5 and not a 4.5/5 or higher? Well, for a few key reasons.
The biggest problem I have with the game is how it handles its gimmick of permadeath. And yes, I say "gimmick," because that's exactly what it ends up amounting to in how the game implements it. You see, the ultimate ending of the game isn't affected by which characters live or die by the end. The story marches on, with minimal change and absolutely no alteration of outcome, regardless of whether the player keeps all of the playable characters alive, a certain number alive, or all but one alive. This is because the main character of the game, Daniel, cannot die. He has to make it to the end of the game because the story only has one ending. Therefore, if you "die" while playing as Daniel, you get to try again, and permadeath doesn't apply.
So, why in the world would anyone ever play as any of the other characters on offer? Well, the game actually does reward players for switching it up and revisiting the same areas as different characters in the form of the gameplay experience itself. Depending on the character's background, they might be able to, say, disable an alarm before it goes off, or enter a certain area of a map early, or have a unique reaction to a discovery if the contents are specifically harrowing to them. And these small differences do, in theory, give the game a lot of variety and replay value.
But this is where the game's biggest shortcoming lies. It is trying to be two counterintuitive things at once. On the one hand, the game is full of puzzles (which are great, by the way), collectables, opportunities for exploration, and unique character experiences. But on the other hand, that permadeath feature ends up discouraging the player from even bothering to explore much of the game's offered variety. This is due to the aggravation of suffering instant kills for merely clicking on a pathway that often has no indication of danger prior. It's a complete crapshoot on whether turning a certain corner or picking up a certain item will result in the character's sudden and permanent demise. Suffering such consequences for an honest mistake that I was fully warned of ahead of time and can only blame myself for is one thing; being taken out by a cheap shot because the game just wants to screw with me in the service of cheap scares is another.
The other big problem I have, which again ties into the permadeath feature, is how unintuitive and poorly explained the QTE sequences are in this game. I don't hate QTE, and depending on the type of game is using them, they are sometimes the only real player agency on offer. And I'm fine with that in the right context. I enjoy "experience games," "walking simulators," and interactive movies, and in games of those types, QTEs are common. But the best among those games also make such sequences incredibly straightforward to understand and follow. This game does not. Most of these QTE "mini-games" give a brief (and poor) instruction one time, then leave it to the player to figure it out from then on. And these instructions often do not accurately explain what the player is actually supposed to do.
For example: one of these mini-games require the player to hide somewhere while being pursued by an enemy, and while hidden, the player must, according to the on-screen instructions, "match the character's heartbeat" by pressing a certain button. But that's not actually the full story. You can't simply "match the heartbeat" by timing the button press to the sound of the beats. Instead, you must match the visual that pops up on the screen of a white circle growing and shrinking. You have to press the button when the circle is at its smallest aperture. And this visual sometimes doesn't line up perfectly with the sound of the heartbeat. Oftentimes, it follows its own pattern and rhythm, and so, I often found myself having to fight my natural instinct to match the sound of the heartbeat and focus only on the sometimes counterintuitive visual cues. As one might imagine, I wasn't always successful at this.
And remember: you only get one shot at these things. If you fail them once, your character is dead. For the rest of the game.
Unless you play as Daniel, and then you simply restart the stage you're currently on.
This sloppy approach at creating tension and a sense of danger through shoddy mechanics rather than atmosphere and true challenge is the most aggravating thing about this game for me. Primarily because the game does not need these weaker elements in order to be successfully scary. So many other things that are part of the game not only work, but they work brilliantly. Every time a ghost appears out of nowhere in the room with you, or you catch a glimpse of shadowy figures moving in the background, or you hear a noise in the darkness, the game succeeds at creating a very real sense of danger and dread. It doesn't need the threat of permanent death of a character, or clumsy QTEs going wrong, in order to keep the player on edge. Those added elements simply serve to drag the game experience down and hobble it. Furthermore, the game's insistence on keeping the Daniel character alive to the end only encourages players to always play Daniel and discourages them from experimenting with other characters. I mean, why would they when they can avoid the nonsense by just playing as the character who is allowed multiple attempts at clearing these unfair and poorly implemented hurdles?
I should note that you can play any character you want and avoid permadeath, but if you do so, the game will not let you unlock the higher difficulty for multiple playthroughs. Essentially, the game punishes you for playing it "the wrong way," despite making that way an officially offered feature. Just absolutely baffling.
Despite the flaws, I genuinely love the game's atmosphere. And for that reason alone, I can't give it anything lower than 4/5. But it was so close to being a 4.5/5 or a 5/5 that it aggravates me to see them get it so wrong in such avoidable ways.
Why, then, am I giving it a 4/5 and not a 4.5/5 or higher? Well, for a few key reasons.
The biggest problem I have with the game is how it handles its gimmick of permadeath. And yes, I say "gimmick," because that's exactly what it ends up amounting to in how the game implements it. You see, the ultimate ending of the game isn't affected by which characters live or die by the end. The story marches on, with minimal change and absolutely no alteration of outcome, regardless of whether the player keeps all of the playable characters alive, a certain number alive, or all but one alive. This is because the main character of the game, Daniel, cannot die. He has to make it to the end of the game because the story only has one ending. Therefore, if you "die" while playing as Daniel, you get to try again, and permadeath doesn't apply.
So, why in the world would anyone ever play as any of the other characters on offer? Well, the game actually does reward players for switching it up and revisiting the same areas as different characters in the form of the gameplay experience itself. Depending on the character's background, they might be able to, say, disable an alarm before it goes off, or enter a certain area of a map early, or have a unique reaction to a discovery if the contents are specifically harrowing to them. And these small differences do, in theory, give the game a lot of variety and replay value.
But this is where the game's biggest shortcoming lies. It is trying to be two counterintuitive things at once. On the one hand, the game is full of puzzles (which are great, by the way), collectables, opportunities for exploration, and unique character experiences. But on the other hand, that permadeath feature ends up discouraging the player from even bothering to explore much of the game's offered variety. This is due to the aggravation of suffering instant kills for merely clicking on a pathway that often has no indication of danger prior. It's a complete crapshoot on whether turning a certain corner or picking up a certain item will result in the character's sudden and permanent demise. Suffering such consequences for an honest mistake that I was fully warned of ahead of time and can only blame myself for is one thing; being taken out by a cheap shot because the game just wants to screw with me in the service of cheap scares is another.
The other big problem I have, which again ties into the permadeath feature, is how unintuitive and poorly explained the QTE sequences are in this game. I don't hate QTE, and depending on the type of game is using them, they are sometimes the only real player agency on offer. And I'm fine with that in the right context. I enjoy "experience games," "walking simulators," and interactive movies, and in games of those types, QTEs are common. But the best among those games also make such sequences incredibly straightforward to understand and follow. This game does not. Most of these QTE "mini-games" give a brief (and poor) instruction one time, then leave it to the player to figure it out from then on. And these instructions often do not accurately explain what the player is actually supposed to do.
For example: one of these mini-games require the player to hide somewhere while being pursued by an enemy, and while hidden, the player must, according to the on-screen instructions, "match the character's heartbeat" by pressing a certain button. But that's not actually the full story. You can't simply "match the heartbeat" by timing the button press to the sound of the beats. Instead, you must match the visual that pops up on the screen of a white circle growing and shrinking. You have to press the button when the circle is at its smallest aperture. And this visual sometimes doesn't line up perfectly with the sound of the heartbeat. Oftentimes, it follows its own pattern and rhythm, and so, I often found myself having to fight my natural instinct to match the sound of the heartbeat and focus only on the sometimes counterintuitive visual cues. As one might imagine, I wasn't always successful at this.
And remember: you only get one shot at these things. If you fail them once, your character is dead. For the rest of the game.
Unless you play as Daniel, and then you simply restart the stage you're currently on.
This sloppy approach at creating tension and a sense of danger through shoddy mechanics rather than atmosphere and true challenge is the most aggravating thing about this game for me. Primarily because the game does not need these weaker elements in order to be successfully scary. So many other things that are part of the game not only work, but they work brilliantly. Every time a ghost appears out of nowhere in the room with you, or you catch a glimpse of shadowy figures moving in the background, or you hear a noise in the darkness, the game succeeds at creating a very real sense of danger and dread. It doesn't need the threat of permanent death of a character, or clumsy QTEs going wrong, in order to keep the player on edge. Those added elements simply serve to drag the game experience down and hobble it. Furthermore, the game's insistence on keeping the Daniel character alive to the end only encourages players to always play Daniel and discourages them from experimenting with other characters. I mean, why would they when they can avoid the nonsense by just playing as the character who is allowed multiple attempts at clearing these unfair and poorly implemented hurdles?
I should note that you can play any character you want and avoid permadeath, but if you do so, the game will not let you unlock the higher difficulty for multiple playthroughs. Essentially, the game punishes you for playing it "the wrong way," despite making that way an officially offered feature. Just absolutely baffling.
Despite the flaws, I genuinely love the game's atmosphere. And for that reason alone, I can't give it anything lower than 4/5. But it was so close to being a 4.5/5 or a 5/5 that it aggravates me to see them get it so wrong in such avoidable ways.