Songbringer

With a particle-heavy 8-bit paintbrush, Songbringer is a glam metal Zelda. Songbringer doesn't try to finish what Hyper Light Drifter started; Songbringer has heart of its own. It's easy to like but hard to love.

Calling a game hard usually errs on the side of fact rather than opinion, and there’s no mistaking the spike in Songbringer’s difficulty after the first few dungeons. So, it’s worth mentioning if only just to list that as one of its undocumented features. And to highlight this aspect of the experience for those that tend to struggle with top down combat that requires a fair bit of skill. In the end Songbringer is an exciting, if familiar, take on the old Zelda formula that for the most part plays as good as it looks.

It is certainly a title to keep an eye on.

It is certainly a title to keep an eye on.

While swinging around a humming nanosword never gets old, Songbringer's aimlessness prevents the party from really getting started.

Songbringer is a randomly generated top-down Zelda-like that has a surprisingly cohesive story and may be worth a play if you can snag it on sale.

The core premise behind Songbringer had my attention, and the gameplay does a decent enough job of making me enjoy that…most of the time. Getting lost happened to me often, aimlessly wandering around occurring and frustrated me. Yet I’d persist and eventually find my way to a new location, story element, or ability and then continue on my way. The pixel art looks good, if not a bit blurry up close, and the soundtrack, while matching the aesthetics seemed a little too ear grinding for my tastes. Still, I enjoyed myself and I will return to Songbringer. It’s zany and a great idea for an adventure game even if a few things could be tweaked. I’d love to see more of Roq and that’s saying something. An adventure dungeon crawler with a wacky and funny heart.

Unlike some other roguelikes, Songbringer didn’t quite suck me in. The shortcomings in gameplay, variation, and narrative make the desire of another run fade away quicker than most. That said, it is still a challenging, fun and creative example of the genre.

If Wizard Fu set out to make the most faithful of homages to the original Legend of Zelda specifically, Songbringer fits the bill with its hands-off approach to exploration-driven adventure. Unfortunately what the game initially builds up with its environments and keen visual style is partially swept aside by some unruly technical aspects.