Songbringer

Imagine if the original Zelda game was set in a science-fiction galaxy. Explore this open-world, action RPG with roguelike and metroidvania elements. Mighty bosses lurk deep within procedurally-generated dungeons. Wield, vanquish, unearth, collect, craft, progress, trip, adventure.



Songbringer is a procedurally-generated scifi action RPG with swords, secrets, dungeons, bosses and stuff.

You play the role of protagonist and accidental hero, Roq Epimetheos. With a propensity for partying and making music, he cruises the galaxy with his skybot Jib aboard the ship Songbringer, searching for verdant planets absent the presence of galactic police.

When Roq finds the nanosword hidden in a cave on Ekzera, he unwittingly awakens an ancient evil. The sword is pretty fraggin' sweet though. It... hums.

Jib, the Skybot


Jib began life as a human boy on the skycity planet Yuerder. Growing up, he took an interest in programming artificial intelligence, eventually making a career for himself. On his deathbed, he illegally transferred his consciousness into a skybot, destroying the consciousness link thereby preventing overwrite.

Jib scans the bodies of your fallen foes, sometimes uncovering valuable loot. He can also gain the ability to stun foes. Jib is automatically controlled by AI, or player two can play Jib in local co-op mode.

Lacking the ability to grow one as a human, Jib is obsessed with mustaches.

Procedural


You choose a 6-letter world seed when beginning a quest. This seed is used to procedurally generate the planet, overworld, secrets and dungeons.

Entering the same world seed will always generate the same world, no matter which platform you are playing on. Thus lore and competition can be shared with others.

Play a new seed and surprise yourself with a new world. Or enter a seed you are familiar with for a speed run.

Open / Non-linear


The generated overworld is open and non-linear. Head in any compass direction you like or play dungeons out of order. You aren't even required to pick up the sword.

Of the nine dungeons Roq and Jib can uncover in each world:
  • Some are thematic, containing puzzles and items integral to completing the world.
  • Some are secret, hidden side quests in which abilities can be gained.
  • Some are tough as nails with overwhelmingly difficult foes, mobs and bosses.

Secrets of the Cacti


Everywhere one looks, there is much that is not seen. Concealed treasures abound. By eating cacti, Roq gains psychedelic powers and is able to perceive the secrets that lurk in plain sight.

Some items Roq discovers can be combined to create distinct artifacts. Find a blink orb and a fire cube? Take these to the droidsmith aboard Songbringer to craft a fire orb enabling Roq to teleport forward a few steps while turning into a fireball.

Songbringer features no experience points (no XP). Progress is made by crushing mobs, vanquishing bosses and claiming lost technological devices.

Leaderboard


On completing a quest, several factors are quantified to produce an overall score:

  • Time to complete
  • Percentage of map uncovered
  • Percentage of items obtained
  • Game mode: regular vs permadeath

Your score can be saved to a global leaderboard sorted by world seed. This leaderboard cycles through seeds by popularity and freshness. You can manually override to view a particular seed.

Metacritic

68

Price

Max: 19,99€

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Min: 19,99€

Reviews

“I absolutely loved Songbringer. It’s a the type of game that is addictive and fun and you can easily start playing it at midnight and next thing you know it’s 5:30 am and you have to get the kids up and ready for school in half an hour. [...] This is great in nearly every way and has put itself on a short list for consideration once it’s time for Game of the Year awards. Yes, I went there and you should to. This is a must own.”
Big Boss Battle

“Songbringer is quite simply brilliant. [...] It’s a feat of technical skill in more ways than one and offers countless hours of dungeon crawling potential. [...] For anyone who enjoys a good adventure or the old LoZ titles, Songbringer is the game for you.”
9.2 – N3rdabl3

“A combination of action RPG and rogue-ish exploration of a wonderfully detailed yet procedurally generated world. [...] I think it’s hard to underplay just how successfully the seeded world feels coherent and complete – something on which a lot of procedurally generated games can easily fall short.”
Rock, Paper, Shotgun