Songbringer Review – An 8-bit Dungeon Adventure

<p>Combining Zelda-like dungeons with fast paced combat&comma; <em>Songbringer<&sol;em> is the story of a human named Roq and his skybot buddy&comma; Jib&period; Roq accidentally awakens an ancient evil entity and must adventure across the planet of Ekzera to defeat it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Each new game of <em>Songbringer<&sol;em> begins with procedural map creation&period; You can allow the game to assign a unique map&comma; or you can enter the 6-letter seed of a previous game&period; According to the developer&comma; there are millions of worlds available&period; With each seed&comma; the dungeons are in new places on the map&comma; and the dungeons themselves change layout&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Once your character&comma; Roq&comma; begins his adventure&comma; he has complete and total freedom to explore&period; Most areas of the map can be explored early on in the game&comma; before discovering items like bombs to clear obstacles&period; If you stumble upon the fourth dungeon before finding the first&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re free to investigate and attempt to clear the dungeon&period; In my playthrough&comma; I went from the third dungeon to the fifth&comma; then tracked down the first and second&period; This non-linear gameplay adds to the randomness of each playthrough and helps with replayability&period; It also makes speedruns trickier when trying a new map seed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129205" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129205" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-129205" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;28011542&sol;2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Songbringer&comma; Wizard Fu Games" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129205" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Songbringer&comma; Wizard Fu Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Gameplay is simple&colon; explore dungeons&comma; defeat bosses&comma; and gain items and upgrades&period; Roq can have up to 6 items equipped at any time&comma; from a boomerang hat to a teleportation device&period; His main weapon is the Nanosword&comma; which he swings with a blinding fury during combat&period; There are mysteries to be discovered through meditation and people to meet along the way&period; For players wanting a challenge&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s an optional permadeath mode and an achievement that unlocks when you complete the game without using the Nanosword at all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even with the procedurally generated worlds&comma; dungeons can become repetitive&period; I often found myself walking into a dungeon room&comma; feeling quite sure I had just cleared the same room moments before&period; By the sixth and seventh dungeon&comma; I was feeling disappointed&period; The repetitiveness of the puzzles may be helpful to speedrunners&comma; but to people who are playing the game for leisurely Zelda-like adventuring&comma; they fail to deliver&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Instead of puzzles&comma; the boss is the highlight of each dungeon&period; Most bosses do not require much combat strategy but they are all challenging and artistically-appealing&period; The pixel graphics in the dungeons and throughout the game are quirky and fit the Zelda-like theme&period; However&comma; they are sometimes muddied and unclear&period; When you kill an entire room of monsters or when a dungeon boss disintegrates after battle&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s difficult to distinguish the loot from the mess&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129207" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129207" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-129207" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;28011813&sol;4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Songbringer&comma; Wizard Fu Games" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129207" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Songbringer&comma; Wizard Fu Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Another game mechanic slows down the looting process&period; When you defeat an enemy&comma; items don&&num;8217&semi;t automatically drop from them&period; You have to wait for your companion&comma; Jib&comma; to disengage from combat and scan each one&period; He doesn&&num;8217&semi;t seem to automatically detect each enemy&comma; so sometimes that means leading him back across the screen to scan&period; This reinforces Roq&&num;8217&semi;s relationship with Jib but can be annoying at times&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Each defeated dungeon boss rewards a Demon Tooth that gives your character more courage&period; This is another parallel to <em>Legend of Zelda<&sol;em> games&period; However&comma; Roq doesn&&num;8217&semi;t have health points like traditional adventure heroes&period; His game ends when he runs out of courage&period; Every dungeon also awards an item or upgrade&comma; such as boots that increase speed or gloves that increase the rate at which you swing your sword&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Once you&&num;8217&semi;ve beaten your first game of <em>Songbringer&comma; <&sol;em>you can add you name to the leaderboard&period; The leaderboards keep competitive players coming back to the game and add to the replayability&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s an achievement for beating the game under 2&period;5 hours&comma; and many players have beaten the game faster than that&period; For someone wanting to explore every corner of the map and collect every item&comma; it can take 8 or more hours to beat the game each time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129206" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129206" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-129206" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;28011729&sol;31&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Songbringer&comma; Wizard Fu Games" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129206" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Songbringer&comma; Wizard Fu Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The absolute highlight of the game is sound design&comma; and I recommend playing with headphones&period; The retro-style music is incredible and fits the game perfectly&period; The lightsaber sounds of Roq&&num;8217&semi;s sword swinging around a dungeon feels fuzzy and nostalgic&period; There are so many small details in the sound design that make the game feel complete&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As with most indie games&comma; <em>Songbringer <&sol;em>has an interesting conception story&period; It<i> <&sol;i>was a Kickstarter-funded project by solo developer Nathanael Weiss&period; He did the programming&comma; art&comma; music&comma; and design himself&period; His behind-the-scenes videos of the game development process provide a rare resource to fledgling designers or curious fans&period; He covers everything from graphic design and animation to building a press kit on the YouTube channel <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;c&sol;NatWeiss">here<&sol;a>&period; One of my favorite parts of playing an indie game is learning about the people who make them&period; For this reason&comma; these development videos were an exciting find&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; <em>Songbringer<&sol;em> is successful at its end goal&colon; it&&num;8217&semi;s nostalgic&comma; fun&comma; and allows for unlimited playthroughs&period; It delivers the old school Zelda vibe while updating it for the modern&comma; digitally-connected gamer&period; Between the development videos and leaderboards&comma; a strong&comma; supportive community has begun to grow around the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC review copy of <em>Songbringer<&sol;em> was provided by Wizard Fu Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;