Songbringer Reviews
I don’t think it is groundbreaking or the next biggest hit. The elements of the game are ones that have been done before and it doesn’t offer anything innovative to that list. Songbringer also doesn’t provide enough information on what its story is. When it does, that info is extremely vague and leaves more questions than answers. While it calls itself procedurally generated, the worlds seem exactly the same. Combat, weapons, and their upgrades were the only things that excited me about the game. If you are looking for a game with old school Zelda-like qualities, give it a shot.
In theory, Songbringer should be excellent. As a procedurally generated take on the original Legend of Zelda, there's plenty of room to innovate with old and new ideas alike. Unfortunately, the old ideas feel derivative of better games and the new ideas are hardly revolutionary. The overall aesthetic and sound design do a great job at creating atmosphere, which makes it all the more disappointing when the level design falls victim to the typical procedurally generated pitfalls. Without attention specifically given to enemy placement, how areas connect, and dungeon design, Songbringer never sustains a consistent level of difficulty or quality. Procedural generation is a handy tool, but not when it's used as a substitute for actual level design.
Good adventure game with a large world to explore, unique items, and diverse combat. Suffers from many technical flaws however.
Songbringer is a great example of the potential of procedurally generated dungeons, if only the rest of the game was at the same level.
Songbringer is neatly designed, written with wit and humour and has some fun gameplay, but it struggled to keep my interest through its entirety and I found myself finding it hard to replay dungeons after many a death.
While its procedurally generated levels are one of the most beautiful i’ve ever seen, Songbringer fails on making its gameplay and, especially its combat, a compelling experience.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Songbringer is a super-tough, rewarding RPG that doesn't quite give enough
Songbringer’s eccentricities are enticing and endearing to be certain, but last only for so long. At the end of the day, weird does not a good game make.
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.
Criticising the very point of the game might seem unfair, but I can't change my own tastes and can only speak from my own experience. If procedurally-generated worlds sit better with you and you enjoy dungeon-crawlers and action games, chances are this one's for you.
With medieval & cyberpunk inspirations, Songbringer is like the modern and fun version of The Legend of Zelda (in NES) that adds humor and interesting weapons but doesn't convince completely when we try to complete it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Neo-retro games have had a great resurgence in recent years with the increased prevalence of Indie developers, and I believe what Songbringer accomplishes is nothing less than a fond wistfulness of those days of cartridges and arcades. While Songbringer plays heavily on the nostalgia of games long past, I believe new players with a little determination can still find a lot to like in this updated take on an old-fashioned game. For a game priced around the same as a movie and popcorn, this is an expeditious journey worth taking. Board the Songbringer sailor. Ekzera awaits.
Songbringer is a coda of the past that retro-inclined gamers will want to leave on repeat. Others may want to skip to a different song.
Songbringer is a game where playing it more than once is the point; it's what justifies the game's whole existence. But each time I fed in a new world seed word, I found myself enjoying the game less. The generated worlds are an interesting gimmick, but they spread Songbringer's shallow mechanics too thin. The game provides nearly limitless worlds to explore, but it didn't give me much motivation to keep at it beyond those first couple runs.
On the whole, if the overland adventure/subterranean dungeon crawl genre strike your fancy and if you dig on the modern indie aesthetic, you’re going to find a lot of procedurally-generated ground you’ll dig exploring.
Songbringer is an enjoyable game that nails the Zelda dungeon-crawling aspect while still managing to bring something new to the table with the procedural seed runs, permadeath mode and a cast of unique and amusing characters.
Songbringer is the game that fans of the original Zelda have longed for, spiced up with a slick Hyper Light Drifter aesthetic. It might not, however, strike a chord with anyone else.
Songbringer is a fun game that is not without its problems.
While it does have cracks on its surface, underneath those cracks, Songbringer sings a beautiful tune.