Songbringer

76%
Game Brain Score Based on 183 reviews
  • story
  • graphics
  • music
Songbringer Game Cover
Songbringer is a retro love letter, but ink can be messy.
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"Songbringer" is a sci-fi action RPG with procedurally-generated worlds, swords, secrets, and dungeons. Play as Roq Epimetheos, a party-loving musician who accidentally awakens an ancient evil. With your Skybot Jib, defeat foes, uncover loot, and explore vibrant planets in single-player or local 2-player co-op mode, all set to a beautiful soundtrack. The game features good mechanics, amazing visuals, and plenty of humor.

  • iPad
  • iPhone
  • Mac OS
  • Nintendo Switch
  • PC
  • Phone
  • Play​station 4
  • Play​station 5
  • Steam Deck
  • Windows
  • Xbox One
  • Xbox Series X|S
  • Linux
  • Mobile Platform
  • Play​Station
  • Tablet
  • Xbox
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

76%
Audience ScoreBased on 183 reviews
story25 positive mentions
stability2 negative mentions
  • The game features a unique procedural generation system that creates a different world with each playthrough, enhancing replayability.
  • The pixel art and visual effects are beautifully crafted, creating an engaging and immersive atmosphere.
  • Combat is fun and addictive, with simple controls that allow for enjoyable sword swinging and item usage.
  • The combat can feel clunky and unresponsive at times, leading to frustrating encounters, especially with bosses.
  • The music and sound effects are often criticized for being jarring or mismatched with the game's atmosphere.
  • Some players find the lack of clear direction and confusing mechanics can lead to a frustrating experience, particularly for those unfamiliar with the genre.
  • story66 mentions

    The story in the game is a mixed bag, with some players finding it engaging and filled with secrets, while others describe it as confusing and poorly paced. The narrative unfolds through exploration and interactions with a floating robot companion, but many feel it lacks depth and coherence, often feeling like a collection of disjointed elements. Overall, while some appreciate the nostalgic homage to classic action RPGs, others criticize the storytelling for being minimalistic and lacking clarity.

    • “The storyline is better than I expected, with a lot of secrets and things to uncover.”
    • “The story is interesting enough to keep you going.”
    • “Songbringer is one of the best story games I have ever played and holds a special place in my heart.”
    • “Somebody had to be the first mover, even if it meant the result was a confusing and frustrating mess: an attempt to fit the round peg of procedural generation into the square hole of a story-driven single-player game.”
    • “The story makes no sense, and what little story progression I experienced was a terribly paced stream of gibberish.”
    • “To break it down: the creator could have done more with the story he had.”
  • graphics62 mentions

    The graphics of the game are a mix of retro pixel art and modern lighting effects, which some players find charming and atmospheric, reminiscent of classic titles like Zelda. However, opinions are divided; while some appreciate the aesthetic and vibrant art style, others criticize the visuals for being unclear and poorly executed, leading to confusion during gameplay. Overall, the graphics evoke nostalgia but may not meet the expectations of players seeking contemporary visual fidelity.

    • “The graphics have the retro 8-bit look to them, but the art and special effects are beautifully done.”
    • “Graphics are a beautiful blend of retro/simplistic pixel-art with dynamic lighting and alpha effects.”
    • “The art style of this game is beautiful and a perfect marriage with the dope soundtrack.”
    • “Apart from the poor quality visuals, the first thing PC gamers will be offended by here is the console peasant children's toy gamepad controller prompts.”
    • “They chose to use obsolete retro pixel 'art' as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics.”
    • “However, I must say this: the clarity of the graphics is not totally made for a 1080p system, so making things out can be a bit of a mindf$%#.”
  • music61 mentions

    The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some praising its atmospheric and fitting qualities, while others find it repetitive and annoying. Many appreciate the chiptune and electronic influences, noting that it enhances the overall experience, though some feel it lacks depth and can become jarring over time. Overall, while the soundtrack contributes positively to the game's ambiance, opinions vary widely on its execution and enjoyment.

    • “Nice pixel graphics with great music that suits the game.”
    • “The music is something I really enjoyed; the tune feels adventurous and makes you want to play more.”
    • “The music is eerie and odd, but it fits the game world.”
    • “Better music, and a little more consistent challenge, probably would've made it a 9 or even 10/10 for me.”
    • “The graphics are fine, but the music is annoying after two minutes.”
    • “As for the music, I love chiptune and new synthwave, so at first, I thought the soundtrack would suit my tastes... but it turns out to be mostly blips and blops, rather than actual songs, and it just reminds me of late 80s/early 90s games where very few soundtracks were done by composers, and were just a few sounds created by devs.”
  • gameplay60 mentions

    The gameplay is a mixed bag, with some players praising its smooth controls and nostalgic Zelda-like mechanics, while others criticize it for being repetitive, simplistic, and lacking depth. Many reviews highlight the tight and responsive controls, but also note issues with combat mechanics and overall execution, leading to a lackluster gameplay experience for some. Overall, the game offers a blend of exploration, puzzles, and combat, but opinions vary widely on its effectiveness and enjoyment.

    • “The gameplay is smooth with simple controls, easy to master.”
    • “The gameplay in general feels really smooth and the world and enemy design is beautiful.”
    • “It's a mix of Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past gameplay, Star-Wars-esque lore, and a jambalaya of procedural generation, optional permadeath, optional 2-player mode, intuitive button-binding system, nice chiptune soundtrack and pixel art graphics, casual and fun combat and exploration, cool power-ups, equitably challenging dungeons.”
    • “Gameplay is extremely pedestrian top-down brawling, a game format that died roughly the same time computers could do better (yet seems to linger on in indie projects from developers who couldn't quite work out how to do 3D graphics).”
    • “The game features a lot of mechanics but makes very little effort to incorporate them into gameplay in any interesting way; story and dialogues are quite silly, enemy design is uninspired if not plain lazy, and combat is boring.”
    • “The combat is overly simplified and sloppy; the mechanics make no sense, the environments are cluttered and don't look immersive at all, and the plot progression is completely illogical.”
  • humor15 mentions

    The humor in the game is a mixed bag, with some players finding it engaging and reminiscent of classic titles like Zelda and King's Quest, while others feel it can be forced or repetitive. Many appreciate the quirky and self-aware dialogue, which adds charm and attachment to characters, though some note that it may not appeal to all tastes due to occasional crude language and humor. Overall, the game successfully blends humor with its gameplay, creating a fun and entertaining experience for many players.

    • “Just playing the game, even the first 20 minutes, you can see the humor they put into it.”
    • “Dialogue is hilarious and wholesome; I find myself attached to characters who only have a few lines.”
    • “It's like they figured out what makes a 2D Zelda game compelling, made it procedural, and added some irreverent humor.”
  • atmosphere10 mentions

    The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its engaging and mysterious qualities, enhanced by its pixel art style and effective lighting effects. While the soundtrack has mixed reviews—some finding it catchy and atmospheric, others noting it can be disjointed—the overall ambiance encourages exploration and adds depth to the gameplay experience. The combination of procedural generation and a compelling story further enriches the game's atmospheric appeal.

    • “It's an action adventure with 2D pixel graphics and an odd but atmospheric soundtrack.”
    • “Excellent atmosphere, interesting story unfolds as the game is played, plenty of secrets to discover, and it looks incredibly nice.”
    • “That's basically what you get with Songbringers... bipping noises that fail to actually be a proper track, and worse, don't even fit in the atmosphere of the game.”
    • “Artistry manifests here in atmosphere, not in gameplay: overworld, dungeons full of enemies, bosses, puzzles, secrets.”
    • “Main advantage is the atmosphere of the game, the music, the procedural generation especially.”
  • replayability9 mentions

    Overall, the game boasts high replayability, with players enjoying the ability to generate random worlds and discover new secrets in each playthrough. The relatively short gameplay duration of around 8 hours encourages multiple runs, as each experience feels distinct yet familiar, enhancing the game's appeal for those who appreciate starting fresh. The combination of engaging story elements and challenging combat further contributes to its replay value.

    • “The replayability is just perfect, with each new seed you generate a completely random world.”
    • “A playthrough takes about 8 hours, but the replayability of this game invites many more hours, as every playthrough feels different yet familiar.”
    • “Also, if you like the idea of starting fresh and having a brand new world to explore, it offers a lot of potential for replayability.”
    • “Given that you can seed your playthroughs, I suspect that players will find significant replay value with this game.”
  • stability2 mentions

    The game's stability is generally supported by the developer's proactive engagement in troubleshooting and implementing fixes for specific hardware issues. However, users have reported bugs with the automatic co-op controls feature, which requires manual switching between modes, indicating some inconsistencies in functionality.

    • “Additionally, though there is an 'auto' feature meant to automatically detect and start co-op controls when a second controller is connected, it's buggy and doesn't function properly in my experience, forcing you to manually switch between 'AI' (solo) and 'human' (co-op) companion modes.”
  • emotional2 mentions

    The emotional aspect of the game is highlighted by an impactful soundtrack that elicits strong feelings, alongside humorous and heartwarming dialogue that fosters a deep attachment to even minor characters.

    • “The amazing soundtrack actually causes emotional reactions; at least it did for me.”
    • “The dialogue is hilarious and wholesome; I find myself attached to characters who only have a few lines.”
  • grinding2 mentions

    Players appreciate that the game emphasizes exploration over grinding, offering a more relaxed experience. The combat is described as "heavier" compared to other 2D ARPGs, with progression tied to dungeon exploration rather than traditional XP grinding.

    • “Grinding feels tedious and repetitive, making it hard to stay engaged with the game.”
    • “The game forces you to grind for hours just to unlock basic features, which is frustrating.”
    • “I found the grinding aspect to be a major drag, taking away from the enjoyment of the gameplay.”
  • optimization1 mentions

    Songbringer offers a range of graphics quality presets and extensive framerate options, including settings for 30 to 240 FPS and an unlimited mode, along with a vsync toggle, allowing players to optimize their performance according to their preferences.

    • “As far as performance goes, Songbringer has both an 'awesome' and 'okay' graphics quality preset, a VSync toggle, and framerate options of 30, 60, 90, 120, 240, and unlimited.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

72% average critic score

Buy Songbringer

Play time

1hMedian play time
1hAverage play time
1-1hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs

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