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 604 reviews

music190 positive mentions

stability6 negative mentions

Symphony offers a unique experience by allowing players to use their own music library to generate levels, making each playthrough feel fresh and personalized.
The game features a variety of unlockable weapons and ship customization options, adding depth and strategy to the gameplay.
The visuals are vibrant and engaging, creating an immersive atmosphere that enhances the overall experience.

The user interface for song selection is clunky and lacks proper filtering options, making it difficult to navigate large music libraries.
The game can become repetitive over time, as the enemy patterns and gameplay mechanics may 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
1,000 mentions
19 % positive mentions
79 % neutral mentions
2 % negative mentions
The music aspect of "Symphony" is highly praised for its innovative integration of players' personal music libraries into the gameplay, allowing each song to create a unique level with enemies that respond to the music's tempo and intensity. While many players enjoy the thrill of shooting to their favorite tracks, some express frustration with the game's simplistic music management system and the lack of a strong connection between the music and gameplay mechanics. Overall, the game is seen as a fun and engaging way to experience music, especially for those with extensive collections, but it may not fully satisfy those seeking a deeper rhythm-based experience.
- “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.”
- “Symphony offers a solid amount of exploration with your music, using different sets of enemies per song and offering various weapons to customize your ship and your play style.”
- “The sorting feature for the music is so simplistic that it's hard to even find music you want to play.”
- “The gameplay is hectic, tight, and is actively adjusted by your music. However, the actual music doesn't seem to affect the way enemies move or spawn.”
- “The music doesn't matter. There is no special music you have to play for the story to go on.”
story
100 mentions
13 % positive mentions
83 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The game's story is generally considered simple and somewhat cheesy, serving primarily as a backdrop for the gameplay rather than a focal point. While some players appreciate the unique integration of music and narrative, many find the plot weak and intrusive, with boss battles that disrupt the flow of the game. Overall, the inclusion of a storyline is seen as a novel feature for a music-based shooter, but it often feels like an unnecessary addition rather than a compelling element.
- “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 others in the genre.”
- “The inclusion of a simple story and set of bosses makes all the difference in engrossing the player.”
- “The story line is pretty cheesy, but the gameplay is satisfying, challenging, and customizable.”
- “The fact that the game even tries to have a story is weird enough.”
- “The story is useless for this type of game and unattractive; the bosses are easy and only of 5 types.”
gameplay
99 mentions
31 % positive mentions
66 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
Gameplay in Symphony is a mix of classic arcade-style shooting and music integration, offering a unique experience where player actions are influenced by the tempo and intensity of uploaded songs. However, persistent bugs and crashes detract from the overall experience, while some players find the connection between music and gameplay lacking. Despite its addictive nature and customization options, the gameplay can become repetitive and frustrating, particularly during boss fights and at higher difficulty levels.
- “The gameplay is frenetic, complex, and stylish, all helped by a compelling progression system.”
- “It combines your music with fast-paced, challenging, customizable, and enjoyable gameplay where you progress through an admittedly sketchy storyline.”
- “It's beautiful, incorporates musical elements into game mechanics in a unique and clever way, and provides a great way to enjoy your music in a more active, visceral way.”
- “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.”
- “The gameplay itself is very limited, and as a bullet hell, it's not designed very well.”
graphics
42 mentions
57 % positive mentions
36 % neutral mentions
7 % negative mentions
The graphics in the game are widely praised for their stunning visuals, vibrant neon colors, and smooth integration with the music, creating an immersive experience. However, some players note that the chaotic screen effects can lead to confusion during gameplay, making it difficult to discern important elements like bullets and enemies. Overall, the graphics are considered beautiful and engaging, though they may overwhelm at higher difficulties.
- “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.”
- “Amazing graphics style and fun gameplay.”
- “The visuals are a mess to look at, the song recognition system is pretty trashy, the gameplay isn't anything innovative, and I feel like the game tried to nickel and dime me for the m4a support.”
- “Not that you would know what killed you - with the default graphic settings, your bullets' and the enemies' bloom mix together creating a lighty mash where nothing is discernible, including bullets headed your way.”
- “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.”
replayability
11 mentions
45 % positive mentions
27 % neutral mentions
27 % negative mentions
The game offers significant replayability through multiple difficulty levels, customizable weapons, and the ability to use any song as a level, encouraging players to experiment with their music libraries. Users appreciate the variety of unlocks and challenges, making it a fun and engaging experience that keeps them coming back for more. Overall, it is highly recommended for fans of music and shooter genres due to its extensive replay value.
- “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.”
- “Tons of unlocks and difficulty levels create replayability orders of magnitude higher than other music-generated games... highly recommended for music & shmup fans.”
- “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.”
- “Tons of unlocks and difficulty levels create replayability orders of magnitude higher than other music-generated games... highly recommended for music and shmup fans.”
- “Simply doing so has extended the replayability of the game for me and had me play the game probably a bit longer than I would have otherwise.”
stability
7 mentions
43 % positive mentions
-29 % neutral mentions
86 % negative mentions
The game's stability is a mixed bag, with users reporting significant 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 ongoing stability problems. Overall, the game shows potential but requires further updates to address its current instability.
- “This game runs great on low-end computers with incredible FPS!”
- “I haven't experienced any crashes or bugs, which is impressive for a game of this scale.”
- “The performance is consistently smooth, even during intense gameplay moments.”
- “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
4 mentions
50 % positive mentions
-25 % neutral mentions
75 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is tailored primarily for dubstep and electronic music, which may limit its appeal to players of other genres. While the gameplay ensures that players can complete songs regardless of skill, performance still impacts scores and rewards, encouraging engagement. The leaderboard system effectively tracks various performance metrics, and players are encouraged to experiment with ship builds for enhanced gameplay.
- “You basically can't fail (you will play until the end of a song), but your score and rewards will depend on your overall performance, so there's still a reason to try.”
- “In general, I feel like this game is really 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
3 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
Players appreciate the initial concept of the game but find the grinding aspect to become repetitive and tedious over time, particularly during boss fights, which can detract from the overall enjoyment. Many feel that grinding should feel more organic and aligned with the game's musical theme.
- “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 the music, is it not?”
humor
3 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 catch players off guard. The comedic cutscenes, such as those featuring unexpected music choices, contribute to an overall lighthearted and entertaining experience.
- “Funny game and also simple.”
- “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.”