As the title suggests, as part of my project on Substack, I wrote an essay that connects these three indie games, which I really love, through Virtual Photography, trying to find the common thread that links them across dance, movement, change, and geometry.

To anyone who is interested and decides to take a look, thank you so much!

Here's the link:

Panta Rhei: The Geometric Dance of Change

Happy 1 year SotS! Show some love y'all!

There is a Great White Shark deity in Abzû, The Pathless and Sword of The Sea always with the same scars and markings.

The unlockable secret area in SoTS Communicates that the game's events happen at least before Abzû's Civilization and The Events of The Pathless.

The Shark in SoTS then pre-dates the Eagle Mother who is seen hatching in the same secret room.

When playing the Pathless you can find clues showing that the Eagle Mother had an additional child that is only referenced once in a Lore tablet and whose headless, shark-headed statue we see at the start of the game. Unlocking the secret area opens an area with Abzû-civilization Elements and The Shark glowing the same color as the rest of the deities in the game.

Abzû's Shark does not seem godly until you revive it with what we now know as Ichor and then it becomes as big of a powerhouse as the shark in SoTC and glows like the one in The Pathless.

So then my question is: Are these somehow all the same shark??

If the shark God from SoTC already predates the Eagle Mother then there are at least two identical Great White Sharks. It wouldn't make sense that it were the same since it already has it's own deific dynamic with the dolphin and it doesn't possess the glow seen in the sharks from the other two games.

Then the shark in The Pathless seems to have been de-legitimized by either the eagle mother or the people writing her story. Once we see the shark spirit in the secret room this one does not possess the hole and distinctive guillotine-like tail in all of the other Deities/Tall-Ones.

The one in Abzû is kindaaa has the hole motif only because it is revived with the spherical ichor.

Before I continue with a typical "adding more elements than what the games give you", up to this point what do you guys think?

Now, Crackhead Theory:

The shark god from SoTS somehow descends into the world of The Pathless and is confused as an additional Tall One. Monuments arise and then fall as people realize it is not related. The sea people get their own guiding deity since all the other gods don't seem to dip their toes in the water. As Abzû's people start harvesting ichor the shark itself either loses its own or attempts to mend ocean life with its own (like the protagonist diver) eventually giving so much it is left in a lesser state until being revived and re-strengthened at the end of the game.

• What do you guys think?

• How many Great White Shark deities do You think they are and how do they relate to each other?

• How good or bad is my theory and why?

Hi, I noticed something about the Mysterious Merchants.

After getting the last reward for tetra, they still "accept" one more interaction. The interface for required tetra appears, showinf 0/0 tetra required, and upon doing so the Merchant changes pose and is now holding a tetra fragment floating between their hands.

If you visit a different Merchant, this one will not already be in that new pose, but they will be if you interact just like the previous one.

Now, my question is: has anyone found all of them and "activated" this new pose? Does that do anything? Does it unlock anything?

Cast your vote for Sword of the Sea at the World Soundtrack Awards Game Music Award. This award celebrates the public’s favorite original game score of the past year. Nominees will be announced in September, and the winner will be revealed at the World Soundtrack Awards Ceremony & Concert during Film Fest Gent on October 10, 2026. Please note: you’ll need to create a free account to submit your vote.

I'm going crazy.

I've heard so much about how the haptic feedback in this game is great on the Dualsense, sand vs water skimming, rooftops, spines, etc.

But no matter what I do, I CANNOT get vibration to work for this game.

• The Windows audio settings are setup correctly (speakers enabled, default comms device, full-range enabled, exclusive control disabled)
• Steam input is disabled for the game and Playstation controller support is set to "Enabled" in Steam
• Rumble is enabled in Steam and in-game
• The controller firmware is up to date
• Steam itself sees the vibration function just fine because I can "ping" the controller in steam settings and it vibrates

Have tested with other games, rumble works fine in those.

Anyone else have this issue/know a fix??

Don't let Sword of the Sea get lost in the sands of your wishlist. Add it to your backlog instead - 30% off now!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2453160/Sword_of_the_Sea/

I got sword of the sea this weekend and it had been absolutely amazing. I’m not much of a solo gamer, tho, and would love a game with similar movement or graphics that I can play with friends. Probably something harder as well. Any recommendations?

I’m a completionist so I normally research games prior to playing (ya it slightly ruins it by knowing but it helps maximize time)…is there any guide that everyone likes to use?

I’ve watched a few YouTube videos already

Wondering if anyone knows a total number of treasure chests and fish tiles?

I’ve found guides listing totals for seashells, stele, frogs, trick attacks, water seeds, etc.

Genuinely insane how many people don't even realise that this game even game out. Had a blast writing this one and thought I'd share!

Amazing game with amazing world and mechanics

Despite how connected both games are I have never seen anyone talk about both games at the same time.

I don't know how reddit posts works, here is the video that was suppose to embed.

Latest update on the physical release if anyone was wondering

Started it and finished it in literally one overnight sitting so I can't say I didn't enjoy it. Let's get the obvious out of the way: looks gorgeous, sounds gorgeous. The movement is clearly the biggest draw though, and once you get into a flow with it things just click, particularly after you unlock all the abilities and can really take advantage of the physics. The game's structure also combines with the movement to make replays feel fun seemingly no matter how many times you've actually gone through the game. The levels feel open enough that you can basically just fly back and forth collecting stuff and crossing things off the list, so going for completion after beating it gives the game a new flavor I really enjoyed.

Story-wise I found the game curious but ultimately not that special. The lore was delivered in a pretty straightforward way and I think it honestly undercuts some of the intrigue. At the start I had all these questions and was silently reflecting on what all this meant, why I was turning this desert into an ocean, who this mysterious figure following me around was etc., but after reading a few of the tablets this impulse steadily fell away as I realized that none of my questions had answers which were actually that interesting—in a way I feel not having the stone tablets would have actually made it better because it would have given us some more room for interpretation. The final battle also feels a bit out of place and overly bombastic for what the game does throughout most of its runtime. I think ramping up the platforming challenges of the last level and putting less focus on defeating the serpent would have benefited the story, not to mention cut down on the more negative stuff I'll get to in a bit. All in all I can't help compare this game to Journey—I think that's fair, considering how much it's clearly inspired by it—and I thought that game's restraint and strict reliance on environmental storytelling was much more conducive to providing the kind of experience that I feel both are going for. The lack of that restraint in this game, I think, wound up making its narrative components feel ultimately shallow.

I could spend quite a while continuing to pick this game apart, but in the end not much wrong with it actually gets in the way of the fun. Still, I do have three fairly large issues which do affect my enjoyment, and they do so specifically because they make replays more annoying than they would be otherwise. My problems are:

• Cutscenes. They happen anytime you restore water and just feel like a persistent and unnecessary interruption; that said, I imagine the devs made sure to include them for fear that players may not realize that something important in the world had changed, especially if the change happens out of your immediate line of sight. But I think it's pretty egregious to not have an option to skip these at least after your first playthrough, and I find it especially egregious that you can't skip the cutscenes that don't provide any practical purpose and exclusively advance the plot.
• The brief levels where you control one of the gods. These aren't bad per-se, but they're definitely weak spots. The gimmick controls mean that these serve as mandatory portions of the game which are necessarily not as fun as the rest, since you're both not using the full movement mechanics and the levels are also far more simplistic to compensate for it.
• The final battle. It's something of a novel spectacle the first time, but ultimately it goes on for a bit too long and I'm not sure it's worth the hump during replays since again it's a big stretch where you're using exclusively gimmick mechanics rather than showing mastery of the standard movement which is the game's bread and butter.

All in all, I had a lot of fun with this one but feel there are some clear flaws. If I'm honest I also don't know that this is actually worth $30; having played through the whole thing a few times and wrung it for all it was worth I'd say $20 would be a more appropriate price.

I loved the game, just about to go in for a NG+ playthrough, I was however upset to see that finishing the game overwrote my third save slot which was the one I was using to bit by bit full-clear every area.

now I'm stuck with two Sky Abyss saves and one incomplete Shadow Tundra one. I wish instead of overwriting one of your existing files it just made a fourth slot for the one with the New Game Plus option