The first time I really got hooked on a puzzle game was 1996's Tetris Attack on the SNES. It was a simple enough concept, sliding pieces around to make matches of 3 symbols or more on a grid, but it was the tiniest hint of something greater happening behind the scenes that really took it over the top for me.
As you played, two little avatars stood in the center of the arena and taunted each other, launching tiny attacks whenever you got a good combo or matched four or more pieces in one go. It was the kind of thing that sent my imagination flying, seeing these blocks on my screen shift in purpose from abstract pieces that gave me points into magic balls of energy that fueled Yoshi to take down Lakitu.
It set a standard that I rarely saw matched again — until Spirit Swap. Soft Not Weak took that challenge and broke through the stratosphere, providing an enhanced version of that classic match-3 experience and finding an even more unique way to recontextualize the puzzling by making the fights places of deep interpersonal connection instead.
Just the Facts |
Developer: Soft Not Weak |
Publisher: Soft Not Weak |
Platform(s): PC*, Xbox Series S and X, Xbox One *denotes platform reviewed |
Price: $19.99 |
Release Date: February 3, 2025 |
Review key provided by developer. |
S-senpai... w-will you spirit swap with me...?
Soft Not Weak (aka the name of my autobiography) are a small team of friends who came together to find a way to change the way games are made, operating as a no-crunch, worker-owned co-op striving to make games in a much more manageable and palatable way. Having met with the team at PAX in 2023 where they showed Spirit Swap, you could feel the genuine passion and joy exuding from them. Everyone who touched this game was excited to be part of it — and when you're playing it, that comes through.
Born out of a love for match-3 legends like Panel de Pon (or Tetris Attack for western audiences), Spirit Swap seeks not to reinvent the wheel but to refine it. To repackage it for a modern audience and to make it all the better by tying it to a narrative all about interpersonal relationships and finding your chosen family.
In Spirit Swap, you inhabit the spirit-swapping boots of a witch named Samar, whose job is to tidy up spirits — they manifest in our reality as tiny shape blocks with adorable faces — that cross over into our realm. Spirits are mischievous above all else, inconveniencing folks in their day-to-day rather than actually harming anyone, but a job's a job. As you tour through the city of Demashq on a spiritual patrol, matching-3 to send spirits back to their dimension, Samar bumps into the very attractive friends in her circle and finds herself tidying up their interpersonal messes just as often as she cleans up the spiritual ones.
You'll be surprised to find the game technically finishes within an hour or two, taking you quickly through what the team calls the "Golden Path" by giving you quick intros to each character. This initial burst of story sets the scene for Samar's friend group and their complicated relationships, and serves as a preview of Demashq's most eligible dateables. Because once that finishes, the 5-6 hour long "post-game" allows you to get to know all of your friends even better, before deciding if you might want to smooch them sometimes. (I'll answer your first question now: yes, you can date everyone you want to date all in the same playthrough with no negative effects. Or keep things platonic!)
Spirit Swap's narrative is one of genuine joy. It's gay as hell, cops don't exist in its world, and everyone is hot. It's the kind of world where your greatest concern on any given day is working out relationship issues for your friends, and that is the kind of world I want to live in. Its writing feels grounded, aspirational, and relatable in a way that never made Spirit Swap's story moments feel like a chore. The cultural touches in Spirit Swap, from Demashq's Levantine inspirations, to various Middle Eastern pastries being deliciously described all throughout, to its diverse and queer cast of characters, give the game an even more unique tilt. It's a loving reflection on the team at Soft Not Weak and the personal influences they bring with them to the game, serving to enrich the world and its characters, particularly in a field where we see so much of the same things so often.
When it comes to the relationship building aspect of the game — a big portion of the post-game — I was so happy to see such a variety of relationship types represented here, for all their beauty and all their mess. There's a polycule that is impossible not to fall for, a best friend circle rocked by a breakup within the group, an aro-ace angel who loves mozzarella sticks, and a town full of people needing someone to just ask them to take a step back and take a break for once.
It was simultaneously eye-opening in some of its newness and deeply relatable in its rawness. It's fluffy and joyful, and the warmth of its relationships will fill you up, but it also addresses emotional truths I didn't expect. Spirit Swap sacrificed bombastic drama for realistic conversations and was all the better for it.
Seeing and hearing is believing
Part of what helps sell Spirit Swap's interpersonal experience is the incredible voice acting that is seeded all throughout. The game isn't fully voice acted, but the "major" scenes are all voiced — your first meetings with the game's characters and the juiciest relationship moments in the post-game — and they always label when a scene is or isn't voice acted so you know going into it.
There's something to be said about the fact that all of the game's actors just feel like... people. They feel like friends you might overhear flirting or bickering in the room next door and not like over-dramatized characters. Whether it's the comforting silky smooth delivery of NJ Agwuma as Mo, the constantly adorable buzzing muttering of Kadecia's Kedsi, or the appropriately himbo-riffic tones of Greyson Yousif's Iskandar, the entire voice cast brings their best. Jay Taylor as Samar delivers each corny pun and endearing attempt at flirting with the warmth of the exact kind of person who'd make friends with an entire town of baddies like Samar does.
And when it comes to listening to great things, it's not just the voice actors that bring the quality. If the title wasn't obvious enough, the eponymous lo-fi beats do some heavy lifting too. Meltycanon's soundtrack matches the sometimes zen, sometimes chaotic vibes of spirit swapping, offering the classic kind of lo-fi beats you'd expect and some intense drum-n-bass in equal measure all throughout. There's a magical quality to some of these tracks that feels just as otherworldly as the world of Demashq. It's very good, and it's entering the Spotify/Bandcamp rotation immediately. On the visual side, Spirit Swap is best described as joyfully diverse. The city of Demashq is a wonder, from its nature-based magic-electricity to the abstract, dream-like buildings erected there — like the The Polycule's multi-hyphenate library-garden-concert hall house. The in-game spirit board, where you'll do your swapping, is colorful, comfortable, and most importantly, easy to read in the chaos of trying to create matches.
And then there's the swappers themselves. We're not shy about being queer and thirsty on main, whether it be the romantic interests in Coral Island, Fields of Mistria, or Amarantus, but just wait 'til you meet all of Samar's incredibly attractive friends. Each has a clear vibe, shows beauty in a rich diversity of body types, and had us chasing down the beautiful hand-drawn romance splash screens you get for filling up hearts with them.
What about the match-3 tho?
If you're at all familiar with the Panel de Pon, Puzzle League, or Tetris Attack style games, you know what to expect from Spirit Swap.
Using a two square horizontal cursor, you'll maneuver across a grid of colorful shapes to swap pieces horizontally so that you're able to make combos of three or more of the same shape. As the pieces constantly rise, you'll make matches to stop time and help you clear it further or send junk to your opponent who is doing the same on the other side.
It's simple. It's so fun. And Soft Not Weak more than fulfills the brief here in making their own Panel de Pon-like. On lower speeds and difficulties, it can be a zen-like experience of slowly shifting a board to your liking and watching your combos erupt after meticulous setup. On higher speeds, there's an adrenaline to reading the board as fast as you can, identifying the perfect matches to make, and executing them before your board gets out of hand. And with the Story mode breaking things up with visual novel-like interludes and the Endless mode offering you the chance to swap without worrying about an opponent, there's a little bit of something for every puzzler here.
Spirit Swap's twist comes in the use of its spells. Put as simply as possible, they are unique patterns you can put your pieces into (examples: a 2x2 square, a diamond, an X) that allow you to trigger some powerful moves that make your swapping easier. Adding even this one layer of complication into the pattern-finding you're already doing across your board makes both the zen and the chaos even more engaging, and I've had matches turn on a dime because of them. I wonder just how balanced in usefulness they all are, because I certainly locked into a set of spells that I rarely felt like jumping ship from, but that may be user preference more than anything.
One of the most important things in puzzle games, especially those that thrive most in a Versus mode like this one, is finding a balance in difficulty. I'm happy to report that I genuinely find Spirit Swap to be one of the most accessible puzzle games I've played in a while thanks to how customizable its difficulties are. In local Versus, you can set individual speeds and difficulties for each player so everyone can play in a way that's comfortably challenging for them. In Story, you can swap difficulty on the fly and even force win matches if you're finding some of the post-game swapping too difficult and want to see the story through to the end.
I was especially surprised at how well this manifested in Versus, as my partner and I have been able to play really fun matches despite my literal childhood spent playing games like these and their relative freshness to the genre.
It's not entirely perfect here at launch, as there are some clear glitchy bits. Dialogue lines that play out of order, strange slowdowns and micro freezes that occur at the beginning and end of matches, achievements popping out of order and the like. But nothing that genuinely affects the gameplay in a meaningful way, and the team is actively looking to patch the game with fixes and new content down the line.
Spirit Swap: Lo-fi Beats to Match-3 To is everything I could have asked for in a return to Panel de Pon match-3 gaming — and then some. It reminded me how purely enjoyable this style of puzzle gaming can be and how powerful an intentional and purposefully joyful narrative can be, especially spearheaded by a BIPOC, trans/nonbinary, and queer team.
If you're a fan of Tetris Attack, Panel de Pon, or match-3 in general, Spirit Swap is a must-try. If you're unsure but find the narrative and the hotties compelling, give it a shot anyway and maybe discover love in a genre you never expected.
What a way to kick off 2025. See you on the swappin' battlefields.
Video Games Are Good and Spirit Swap: Lo-fi Beats to Match-3 To is . . . GREAT. (8.5/10)
+ a joyful and diverse low-stakes narrative, match-3 gameplay refined and done beautifully, very gay and very fun
- a few odd glitches are more than noticeable, solo experience runs out faster than you'd like, the realization that you can't just live in Demashq after you're done
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