- Buy Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To on Steam
- Buy Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To on Xbox
I remember playing so much Pokemon Puzzle League on the Nintendo 64 that the block towers were burned into my mind when I tried to sleep. I could see the colorful squares behind my eyes, swapping and matching in perpetuity.
Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match To (going forward, I’ll just call it Spirit Swap) is the closest I’ve come to chasing that nostalgic high. It mainly comes down to puzzle type: You can use as many moves as you want to “arrange” the blocks before completing a match. This is different than, say, Candy Crush-style games where each movement must result in a match or else it isn’t valid. The catch? You have an opponent that you’re trying to outmaneuver, so speed is key. And your blocks are slowly piling towards the top of the screen, which will result in a game loss (think: Tetris).
But Spirit Swap isn’t just a match-3 game. It’s also a deeply personal narrative about friendship, love, breaking up, and moving on.
Spirit Swap Summary
Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 is a vibrant, spellbinding fusion of classic puzzle gameplay and heartfelt storytelling. You play as Samar, a young witch working the night shift in the eastern outskirts of Demashq, where an unusual surge of wayward spirits has thrown the city into chaos. With a legendary band’s comeback tour about to kick off—and spirits pouring in from another dimension—Samar has their hands full.
At its core, Spirit Swap takes inspiration from beloved puzzle classics like Panel de Pon, layering in a rich visual novel-style narrative packed with warmth, humor, and a diverse cast of witches and demons. By arranging spirits into magical patterns, you’ll unleash powerful spells, uncover secrets, and strengthen your bonds with an unforgettable ensemble of characters (and yes, romance is absolutely on the table).
All of this is set to an ultra-chill, original lofi soundtrack by the incredible Meltycanon, making every moment feel like a cozy late-night hangout. Plus, you can personalize Samar’s room with trinkets and keepsakes, adding an extra layer of charm.
Whether you’re diving into the story, testing your skills in Endless mode, or facing off in local Versus, Spirit Swap delivers a magical, deeply cozy puzzle experience you won’t want to put down.
My Spirit Swap Experience
Hours played: 6.5hr
Rolled credits: Yes
Coziness rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spirit Swap is mostly character-driven narration with bursts of puzzle challenges speckled throughout. Playing as Samar, you get to explore a pre-existing friend group, help solve personal problems, set up dates, level up your affection with people, and maybe even find a special someone to smooch. The game is not, however, a dating sim. It’s more of…a friendship sim with the potential for a ‘happy ending.’
Many of the characters are off-limits for various reasons—they’re asexual/aromantic, they are already taken, or they are just bouncing back from a tough breakup. That means your options are limited. In fact, my top 2 favorite NPCs did not have a romance storyline. Ugh.
However, I loved the diversity of the cast in Spirit Swap. Even if that resulted in me not being able to woo my faves. There are different sexualities, gender and pronoun configurations, and relationship styles (polycule, ethical non-monogamy). You can also date as many available bachelorXs as you want without conflict.
The main story of Spirit Swap can be completed in about three hours. You’ll visit each location on the map and greet the denizens located there, banish some unruly spirits escaping from their otherworldly dimension with the help of a few friends, and prepare for the much-anticipated musical concert of pop group v. For this initial story push, every character cutscene will end in a match-3+ faceoff. However, as the game opens up, the puzzle rounds will become less frequent, focusing more on character interactions and narratives.
The best parts of Spirit Swap happen “after” the completion of the main story, which feels a bit busy and rushed. Once you’ve experienced the culmination of the concert, you can enjoy a slower-paced perusal of the map, hanging out with who you want, when you want. Most cutscenes won’t include puzzles, so you can just enjoy learning more about each character.
There’s Leon, the tattoo artist and closet 5HAG VISION fan with an art supply hoarding problem; Lulu, baker extraordinaire who gets a liiiitle too caught up with trying to solve everyone else’s problems; tech inventor Kedsi who is constantly going a mile-a-minute bouncing from project to project; heartbroken Mo the fashionista, who just suffered a tough breakup and could use a friend to lean on; angelic Kanon, who is still learning demon/mortal “slang” and often takes things a bit too literally.
Spirit Swap is a friendship sim more than dating sim. Mostly, you’ll be helping your friends talk through their current problems and learn the ins-and-outs of healthy communication. It can feel a little forced, with most conversations sounding like examples you would read in a self-help textbook. But it was refreshing to see a social sim game champion healthy relationships as opposed to high octane trauma drama.
Every so often, you’ll be pulled into a titular “spirit swap,” which is the in-game way of banishing spirits that have spilled out from their dimension into yours. Left unchecked, they will cause all sorts of chaos. So you and a +1 will be recruited to deal with them post haste. The spirit swapping puzzles are competitive by nature, pitting you up against an NPC or second player via split-screen and/or Steam’s remote play function. This means that only one person needs to own this cozy co-op game for two to play together! You love to hear it.
I have yet to check out the Spirit Swap multiplayer functionality so please leave a comment with your thoughts/feelings about it if you do!
Spirit Swap‘s…er…actual spirit swapping is an addictive, fast-paced match-3+ game that has you control a series of pastel shapes in a stacking window, trying to banish your own clutter while piling on to your opponent’s. As I mentioned before, you can swap anything, anywhere. So you can pick your own game strategy: Do you want to quickly make as many simple matches as possible to outlast your opponent? Or would you rather take the time to set up high-impact combos that will drop “garbage” blocks onto your opponent’s screen, forcing them into defeat?
You can also unlock special items given to you by your crew, which allows you to conjure spells in the match-3 window. For example, getting a 2X2 square can activate a spell that gives you an edge. But what that spell does depends on what item you equip. Maybe it removes all blocks identical to the ones used in the 2X2. Or maybe it removes particular rows or columns in one burst. These can really give you a leg up if you’re falling behind, plus it makes the gameplay more dynamic and strategic.
Each story mode puzzle is “best two out of three” format, which gives you a chance to redeem yourself even if you have a miss here or there. Playing on Chill Mode, I never lost a single life. I was mostly in it for the vibes.
I experimented a bit more aggressively in Endless mode, where the goal is to keep the matches going as long as possible without the blocks reaching the top of the screen. Here, I tried upping the difficulty level and it really made me sweat. You can increase the speed at which the blocks move toward the top of the frame, too, increasing the challenge even more. In Endless, you play against yourself, trying to beat your own high score.
This means you can pick your coziness level. You can keep things chill and relaxed, enjoying a leisurely pace and meditative flow of endless matching. Or, you can take on new levels of difficulty and chase a new personal best score every match.
In Spirit Swap, you can pick your difficulty level, engage in endless puzzles mode and skip the story stuff, and even tweak the game’s settings for accessibility purposes.
Both the story and game setup are so inclusive that it makes me kick my feet and squeal with joy. You can tell that the developer really put some thought into making sure marginalized groups could play and see themselves represented in the characters in some way.
One of my favorite inclusions in Spirit Swap is the body type variation. Everyone is tall, stocky, buff, curvy, plump—that is to say, interesting! I love the idea that I could recognize each character by their body silhouette alone.
The body diversity in Spirit Swap makes the world feel richer and more diverse…not to mention more fun to look at!
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Spirit Swap and can see myself popping in to play whenever I’m craving a match-3 fix. This would be a great on-the-go game, so I look forward to testing it out on Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch one day, too.
Spirit Swap Final Thoughts
Spirit Swap is a sweet, queer-friendly interactive novel with bursts of puzzle-y fun interspersed between deeply personal narration. Come for the charming blend of lofi tunes and match-3 gameplay, stay for the exceptional cast of characters and breathtaking artwork.
Here are my final thoughts about Spirit Swap:
- Spirit Swap would be a great choice for cozy puzzle game players + story driven game players + calming games on Steam (especially at low difficulty)
- Spirit Swap is LGBTQ+ friendly, inclusive, and boasts accessibility features,
- Spirit Swap has a fun, easy-going, and wholesome story without much doom’n’gloom,
- Spirit Swap champions positive ways to handle conflict and difficult discussions,
- Spirit Swap has minimal player input for the story parts, just sit back, read and relax,
- Spirit Swap has a warm, addictive lofi soundtrack and a beautiful bright color palette,
- Spirit Swap has different ways to enjoy the match-3 puzzle segment of the game—making it as prominent or minor as you prefer.
Stay cozy, gamers!
You might also like: Botany Manor Review – Simple and Sweet Planting Puzzles in a Rich, Vibrant World [full review]