Bookbound Brigade Reviews
I really wanted to like Bookbound Brigade, but its flaws are too great to overlook. There are moments when it all comes together and you get a real sense of achievement from navigating a tricky section of traps or figuring out a nice environmental puzzles, but these are too often overshadowed by boring combat and the chore that is getting around the world. Unlike the books and stories that Bookbound Brigade is inspired by, good writing is not enough to salvage this story.
Bookbound Brigade is a stylish, fun and unique light metroidvania with a brilliant concept. It lacks of polish and balance, sometimes the control scheme is unprecise and the combat system is a little bit flat, but the platform sections are generally great and the idea of the eight-bound-brigade works well.
Review in Italian | Read full review
An enjoyable Metroidvania with some significant issues. It's not easy to navigate and the combat is subpar, but the formation shifting and late game upgrades make it easier to keep turning the pages
I really enjoyed Bookbound Brigade's humour, art style and world design but unfortunately, the unresponsive formation changes and bad map design really drag down its score. The characters are enjoyable and the gameplay, on the whole, is sound. Hopefully, after a patch to fix the control issues, I will return to find all its secrets. Until then I would wait for a sale and hopefully the fixes this game deserves.
Booknound Brigade, just like the books from which it draws inspiration, can become an excellent travel companion: a challenging metroidvania with clear mechanics, amusing and intelligent in its many ideas.
Review in Italian | Read full review
All in all, Bookbound Brigade is a pretty fantastic and enjoyable platformer. Don't let its colorful exterior fool you, this little game has enough challenge to hang with other big boy Metroidvania titles.
Bookbound Brigade feels less like a literary Avengers and more like a literary Suicide Squad. It simply has not done enough to justify itself. Strictly for diehard Metroidvania fans.
Bookbound Brigade has a lot of brillant ideas, is funny and well painted, but the mechanics have some missing points, with frustrating platform moments and dull combat.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Bookbound Brigade had the potential to be a good or even great game. Unfortunately, it fell victim to being dull and obnoxiously difficult.
A solid game but arguably so. The story is not particularly great. Platforming sections range from great to artificially difficult and obnoxious. I would like to give the score a little higher but given that I ran into session ending bugs that forced me to reset the game a few times I believe I have to be cautious and dock its score a bit as I do not know how widespread the issues may be for those willing to buy the game and try it out.
In a cartoon literary Metroidvania game, you try to save the Book of Books using a group of heroes. Well, it is not as funny as it seems.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Bookbound Brigade is fun and implements some interesting ideas, although it suffers from some issues that could be fixed in the future.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Between the unreliable map, the tedious combat, the tired sense of humour, and the missed opportunity to do anything noteworthy with the "literary mash-up premise", Bookbound Brigade's good ideas are overshadowed by poor execution.
Digital Tales latest title, Bookbound Brigade is a fun and easy to digest game in Metroidvania genre. But unfortunately there are a number of technical issues, that can spoil the fun and waste the high potential of this game away. Platforming is tedious and combat could be a lot better. Though the graphics are beautiful and the story is kinda unique. It absolutely feels fun to play this game, though it may not be your best Metroidvania experience.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Bookbound Brigade brings some very interesting innovations to the already traditional metroidvania style, especially in the setting and design of a protagonist ensemble and not a lone hero. It has a very competent level design, but it fails in what could stand out the most: the combat system and the change of formation, leaving an almost contradictory feeling where the fun, from time to time, gives way to frustration.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Between it's poor writing, sloppy controls, and lackluster exploration, Bookbound Brigade has a lot of missed potential. With how long and difficult a linear corridor in the game can be and exploration overall taking a backseat, it doesn't succeed very often as a Metroidvania. Meanwhile the bad characterization and juvenile writing kneecaps a framing device that could've been interesting enough to make up for the bland gameplay. I can't see myself ever returning to the game, and I don't have much reason to say anyone else should bother with it either.
Sadly, nobody’s a winner playing Bookbound Brigade, and there’s nothing to celebrate by taking part, either.
Bookbound Brigade is a Metroidvania that simply misses the point. It builds on all of the worst aspects of the genre while enjoying none of its strengths.
If you're looking for an impressively challenging Metroidvania then Bookbound Brigade is a game that you'll definitely want to play.
As an English major and classical literature nerd of sorts the setup for Bookbound Brigade easily piqued my interest...