Bookbound Brigade Reviews

Bookbound Brigade is ranked in the 15th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Jan 28, 2020

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.

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9 / 10.0
Jan 29, 2020

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

4 / 10.0
Jan 29, 2020

Bookbound Brigade had the potential to be a good or even great game. Unfortunately, it fell victim to being dull and obnoxiously difficult.

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IGN Italy
Top Critic
7.3 / 10.0
Jan 29, 2020

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

GBAtemp
WD_GASTER2
Top Critic
6.5 / 10.0
Jan 29, 2020

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.

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GameSpew
Top Critic
4 / 10.0
Jan 30, 2020

Sadly, nobody’s a winner playing Bookbound Brigade, and there’s nothing to celebrate by taking part, either.

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70 / 100
Jan 30, 2020

Bookbound Brigade has a unique lore which includes some sense of humor which originates from Italy. To understand the full context of the story, gamers may require to go through each of the character backgrounds but the overall layout of the game allows new players to progress without having to concern about having to study the lore.

Review in Korean | Read full review

7.5 / 10.0
Jan 30, 2020

As an English major and classical literature nerd of sorts the setup for Bookbound Brigade easily piqued my interest...

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6 / 10.0
Feb 2, 2020

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

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7.5 / 10.0
Feb 2, 2020

Bookbound Brigade is nice, it really is. The humor in the game, the innovation of the mechanics and the freshness of the literary characters in a new guise make the gaming experience exciting. It's also worth mentioning that the experience itself is damaged by a totally useless map, an excessive difficulty in some parts of the game, an uninspired soundtrack and little attention to the looting system. Nonetheless, I feel strongly about encouraging the development and purchase of the game, which is worth the market price at which it is offered without discounts.

Review in Italian | Read full review

TheSixthAxis
Top Critic
5 / 10
Feb 3, 2020

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.

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Feb 3, 2020

If you're looking for an impressively challenging Metroidvania then Bookbound Brigade is a game that you'll definitely want to play.

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7 / 10.0
Feb 4, 2020

Overall, I enjoyed my playthrough, even though I yelled at the game a ton. It has some faults that need addressing like the input issues (which might not actually be the fault of the developer) and an improved combat system. It's still a fun take on the platforming genre and as such, Bookbound Brigade earns a 7 out of 10 in my books.

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6.5 / 10.0
Feb 6, 2020

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

4 / 10.0
Feb 7, 2020

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.

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8 / 10.0
Feb 10, 2020

A colorful and engaging Metroidvania game with a unique gameplay premise.

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6 / 10.0
Feb 13, 2020

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.

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65 / 100
Feb 20, 2020

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

Gamefa
Top Critic
6.5 / 10.0
Feb 27, 2020

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

Digitally Downloaded
Matt C.
Top Critic
Feb 28, 2020

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.

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