Many indie games try to recapture the spirit of the past and while they come close, they try too hard to capture lighting back into a bottle and fizzle out as a result. This is not to say that they are bad games, but they try to replicate the games inspiring the,. This often ends up holding back games that could have been more but weren’t. Then we have games like Songbringer, a game inspired by a classic, but one that’s takes the influence and goes in a different direction while still paying homage.
Songbringer is influenced by the original Legend of Zelda, but with a unique twist that ties into the sci fi nature of the game world. In Songbringer, the world is procedurally generated by World Seeds. These are six letter combinations that you type when you start a new game. The same world will be generated more or less each time, but a change in the world seed/combination will alter the layout of how the world is arranged. Thus no two playthroughs will be alike, and there is limitless potential for replay value. I have to say, it is a novel idea and one I would like to see catch on as it is a great twist on the idea of preocedurally generated levels.
Songbringer is a competent Zelda 1 inspired indie game, but definitely has its own ideas. If anything, it feels like the original Sci Fi themed ideas Shigeru Miyamoto had for Zelda 1 is what is at play here to an extent. There are weapons to be gained, enemies to be fought and dungeons to be explored, and it all feels just right. Not too familiar that it is derivative and not to different that it no longer pays homage. Songbringer perfectly walks a delicate line that most indie games struggle with. With its throwback style graphics, great sound and neat tweaking of combat and puzzles, it has something for everyone. If you do not like procedural generation of levels in a game like this, you might want to look elsewhere. In Songbringer, the user control of the procedural generation is the hook of the game. The developers took an idea that wasn’t used and made it work today. I highly recommend this.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided.