
A masterclass in action design, Sayonara Wild Hearts delivers an unforgettable experience from start to finish.
91
Verdict
97%
Steam
81
IGDB
Verdict score based on confidence-adjusted Steam reviews?
Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (97% positive from 8.7K reviews)
Critically acclaimed (81/100 critic average)
Compelling narrative and story
Outstanding soundtrack
No significant drawbacks reported
Sayonara Wild Hearts is a 2019 rhythm action video game developed by Simogo and published by Annapurna Interactive. Described as a "pop album video game", Sayonara Wild Hearts follows the story of a heartbroken young woman through a surrealistic landscape. Each level of the game is set to a song, with the player guiding the woman while collecting hearts, avoiding obstacles, and fighting enemies. The game was released for iOS, macOS and tvOS through Apple Arcade, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 in September 2019, for Windows in December 2019, for Xbox One in February 2020, and for PlayStation 5 in February 2025. It was met with positive reviews for its visuals, soundtrack, and gameplay, and nominated for several year-end awards.

Runs well on modern hardware.
23 levels These levels feature pretty good songs and an insane lsd visual music bop trip and nuts to butts action I got atleast Silver in every level which was a nice challenge. There are several cool mechanics that are very different in the levels. There's prolly around 2 hours of gameplay here. I'm glad I played this :) We need more of these cool lsd visual art music trips <3 My rating: [b]4/5[/b]
> Have you ever played a 90min music video? ## Why - Feels like one big anime finale - Plenty of replay value with challenges/score chasing - I replayed it immediately after my first clear - Every level is great; some are spectacular ## Why Not - You hate music and creativity? ## Impressions Sayonara Wild Hearts is the ultimate argument for short games. The thing about rhythm games or endless runners (the closest comparisons in terms of gameplay) is their endless nature means the visuals are necessarily kinda samey and generic, so they can be reused across multiple songs/levels. Totally logical and practical, but Sayonara Wild Hearts has not interest in practicality. Every moment of this game is handcrafted to feel like an action movie or anime set piece, perfectly synced with each level's soundtrack and designed to encourage a feeling of fluidity. The whole game elicits the same feeling I get from getting into a flow in a crazy Silksong boss fight but without any of the frustration; everything feels frantic but the game implicitly guides you toward the right move with point-granting pickups while offering seamless restarts at frequent checkpoints if you do fail. All the levels have spectacular visuals and ideas, which I'd love to talk about but don't want to spoil the excitement of seeing them for the first time. Just know that at some point you end up in a retro bullet-hell style level presented in absolutely wild diagetic fashion and fight a boss with basically the powers of 'X' from 'To Be Hero X' plus a comically large sword. Being as short as it is means every second of gameplay can be packed with mindblowing ideas; to the point where I started a fresh playthrough in the Arcade mode (the whole game stitched together without breaks) immediately after finishing the story mode and it all still felt amazing. If, like me, you find it hard to put Sayonara Wild Hearts down when it's done, the game has you covered. You can try to get gold rank on each song; get an overall gold rank on the full story in arcade mode and solve/complete the cryptic arcana challenges. A 1.5 hour game for this price might be a hard sell, but if you ever take a chance on a short game make it this one. In the highly likely event you can't get enough there's plenty of reason to sink more time into it, and even if you don't I'd be very surprised if you didn't walk away feeling like your experience was worth the money. An absolute banger which everyone should try.
This actually changed my life. Very short game if you dont replay for better scores (only about 1 hour) but MAN is it the best hour of your life!! If it's on sale buy it immediately. The soundtrack, the visuals, the story, the vibes??? Immediately entered my top 10 favourite games of all time. I do think that because the game is so short the full price is a bit too much. play this game.
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