Symphony

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Your music is under attack… You must liberate it! In Symphony, you fight through levels uniquely generated by your own song collection, discover items and vanquish bosses to defeat the evil within! With Symphony, we wanted to push the limits of user-music-based gameplay and focused on two concepts: Your music creates the game Every song has a unique emotion, sound and rhythm, and we wa…

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

87%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,206 reviews

music378 positive mentions

stability12 negative mentions

Symphony is a unique and engaging rhythm game that allows players to use their own music library to create levels, providing a personalized gaming experience.
The game features a variety of unlockable weapons and ship customization options, adding depth and strategy to the gameplay.
The visuals are colorful and vibrant, enhancing the overall experience and making it enjoyable to play along with your favorite songs.

The song selection interface is clunky and lacks proper filtering options, making it difficult to navigate large music libraries.
The game can become repetitive quickly, as the enemy patterns and gameplay mechanics do not vary significantly across different songs.
There are technical issues, including crashes and performance problems, particularly on modern systems, which can detract from the overall enjoyment.

music
1,998 mentions
19 % positive mentions
79 % neutral mentions
2 % negative mentions
The music aspect of "Symphony" is highly praised for its integration of players' personal music libraries, allowing any song over 1:30 minutes to become a level, which enhances replayability and personal engagement. Players appreciate the game's ability to sync enemy behavior and gameplay intensity with the rhythm and tempo of the chosen tracks, although some express frustration with the simplistic music browsing interface and the lack of a strong connection between the music and gameplay mechanics. Overall, the game is seen as a fun and unique way to experience music interactively, especially for those with extensive music collections.
- “You can turn literally any song (over 1:30 minutes) into a level in this game, and it always feels perfectly on beat.”
- “A weird digital demon has stolen the souls of all the world's best composers and you have to shoot down enemies to the rhythm of the song that you pick.”
- “It's a colorful, simple shooter made for listening to music.”
- “The sorting feature for the music is so simplistic that it's hard to even find music you want to play.”
- “The gameplay felt exactly the same regardless of the music I used.”
- “The music doesn't matter; there is no special music you have to play for the story to go on.”
story
200 mentions
13 % positive mentions
83 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The game's story is generally considered weak and cheesy, serving primarily as a backdrop for the gameplay rather than a compelling narrative. While some players appreciate the inclusion of a storyline involving demons and music, many feel it is simplistic and sometimes intrusive, with boss battles interrupting the flow of play. Overall, the story adds a unique element to the game, but it is not a primary draw for those seeking a deep narrative experience.
- “The story is clever and the bosses are super unique in the way they move around the map and attack the player.”
- “Unlike most of these games, Symphony has an engaging story where bosses sometimes show up in your music and you have to fight them with the music in the background, which really separates this game compared to other games in the genre.”
- “It is very unique that Symphony introduces a kind of story to the game as no other game that focuses on using your own music has done this.”
- “The story line is pretty cheesy, but the gameplay is satisfying, challenging, and customizable.”
- “The other thing I have a big beef with is that the game has a bizarrely linear progression with its 'story'.”
- “The story is useless for this type of game and unattractive; the bosses are easy and only of 5 types.”
gameplay
198 mentions
31 % positive mentions
66 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
Gameplay in Symphony is a blend of classic top-down shooter mechanics and music integration, offering a fast-paced and customizable experience. While many players appreciate the unique concept of syncing gameplay with their own music, criticisms arise regarding bugs, simplistic controls, and a lack of meaningful connection between the music and gameplay dynamics. Overall, the game is enjoyable for those who prioritize music over intricate gameplay, but it may feel repetitive and frustrating due to its chaotic nature and some poorly designed elements.
- “The gameplay is frenetic, complex, and stylish, all helped by a compelling progression system.”
- “It combines your music with a fast-paced, challenging, customizable, and enjoyable gameplay where you progress through an admittedly sketchy storyline.”
- “The way it uses the music actually affects the gameplay quite dramatically, even down to the speed and intensity of the weapons available.”
- “Some of the boss fights are damn tedious and frustrating, taking away from what a challenge in gameplay should be.”
- “The bugs in this game are persistent; I bought the game in 2012 and haven't played in 8 years, and the bugs are still as ever-present as they were when the game released. They really detract from the gameplay.”
- “And the worst part, I felt no connection between the music played and the gameplay itself, as if you could play any noise and get whatever stuff from it, with no sense of synchrony.”
graphics
84 mentions
57 % positive mentions
39 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The graphics in the game are widely praised for their stunning visuals, vibrant neon colors, and unique art style that effectively syncs with the music, creating an immersive experience. However, some players note that the chaotic screen effects can lead to confusion and difficulty in gameplay, particularly at higher speeds and difficulties. Overall, while the graphics are generally considered beautiful and engaging, they can occasionally hinder visibility during intense action sequences.
- “The graphics are gorgeous and everything is synched amazingly well to both the sound and mood of the music.”
- “Gorgeous, addicting visuals set to your own music.”
- “With a mix of bright and flashy graphics, Symphony uses an interesting blend of different styles.”
- “The visuals are frequently a confusing mess thanks to lack of contrast and effects overkill, and the deaths this causes are typically more of a frustration than actual punishment.”
- “Not that you would know what killed you - with the default graphic settings, your bullets and the enemies' bloom mix together creating a light mash where nothing is discernible, including bullets headed your way.”
- “Also, it's really hard to see what is on the screen and the graphic style is just unfit for a fast-paced game in which you should be able to see what is shooting at you.”
replayability
22 mentions
45 % positive mentions
41 % neutral mentions
14 % negative mentions
The game boasts exceptional replayability, driven by multiple difficulty levels, customizable weapons, and the ability to use any song as a level, which keeps players engaged. Users appreciate the variety of unlocks and challenges, making it a fun and casual shooter with endless replay potential, especially for music and shmup enthusiasts. However, some players note that the experience can become repetitive without the inclusion of more challenging elements.
- “Fun, yet challenging, with infinite replayability due to multiple difficulty levels, customizable weapons for your ship, and the potential of every song being a level.”
- “The replayability of songs for more difficulty and power-ups is a very nice addition, and you'll want to keep trying new songs in your library all the time to see what level the game will generate.”
- “The replayability of songs for more difficulty and powerups is a very nice addition, and you'll want to keep trying new songs in your library all the time to see what level the game will generate.”
- “Tons of unlocks and difficulty levels create replayability orders of magnitude higher than other music-generated games... highly recommended for music & shmup fans.”
- “- no demon replayable, kinda boring without them.”
stability
14 mentions
14 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
86 % negative mentions
The game's stability is frequently criticized, with users reporting numerous bugs and glitches that hinder gameplay, particularly on certain operating systems like Windows 8 and Linux. While some players find it enjoyable despite these issues, others express frustration over the lack of fixes and the game's abandonment. Overall, it is described as a fun experience marred by significant stability problems.
- “This game runs great on low-end computers with incredible FPS!”
- “This game runs great on low-end computers with incredible FPS!”
- “Annoying glitches that will never be fixed, abandoned.”
- “Ever since I updated to Windows 8, I cannot play this game; it just gets stuck on the special thanks screen and freezes, and I can only close it through the task manager.”
- “Buggy as hell under Linux, using Arch testing.”
optimization
8 mentions
25 % positive mentions
38 % neutral mentions
38 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is primarily tailored for dubstep and electronic music, offering a unique experience that may not suit all players. While players cannot fail to complete songs, their scores and rewards are influenced by performance, encouraging engagement and strategic ship building. Despite some clunkiness, the leaderboard system effectively tracks various performance metrics, enhancing the competitive aspect of the game.
- “The leaderboard system is awesome; it takes into consideration every aspect of your performance, including your ship power (the higher the power, the fewer points you get).”
- “In general, I feel like this game is really just optimized for dubstep and other electronic style songs, so my advice is to try it. See if it works for your style of music; if it doesn’t, refund the game. If it does, you probably have a really nice game despite the clunkiness here and there.”
- “In general, I feel like this game is really just optimized for dubstep and other electronic style songs, so my advice is to try it, see if it works for your style of music. If it doesn’t, refund the game; if it does, you probably have a really nice game despite the clunkiness here and there.”
- “You can (and should) make ship builds in this game using the weapons and upgrades for optimal performance when beating songs.”
- “The leaderboard system is awesome; it takes into consideration every aspect of your performance, including your ship power (the higher the power, the less points you get).”
grinding
6 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
Players appreciate the initial concept of the game but find the grinding aspect to be repetitive and tedious over time. Boss fights are often seen as frustrating rather than challenging, detracting from the overall enjoyment of the gameplay, which ideally should focus on the musical experience.
- “The initial concept and idea of Symphony is really good and executed well, but it gets kind of repetitive and tedious in the long run.”
- “Some of the boss fights are damn tedious and frustrating, taking away from what a challenge in gameplay should be.”
- “The grinding itself should be organic anyway - the point of playing the game is to enjoy one's music, is it not?”
humor
6 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The game is praised for its humor, particularly during boss fights where random songs play, creating hilarious moments that leave players laughing. The simplicity of the humor, combined with unexpected cutscenes, enhances the overall comedic experience.
- “The time you fight a boss can be so funny seeing as it picks a random song to 'steal the composer's soul' for.”
- “I couldn't stop laughing when the cutscene popped up with 'Playmate to Jesus' or 'Halloween' by Aqua.”
- “Funny game and also simple.”