Songbringer Encourages You To Freely Explore

Back on April 13, 2015, Nathaniel Weiss launched a Kickstarter to make a dream happen. What was that desire? To work to make an action-RPG that could be different each time you played it. Something that called to mind The Legend of Zelda, but with more customization, freedom, and options. People believed, kicking in $15,063 to make it happen. Now, Songbringer, a more open-ended adventure, is coming to let people have their own opportunities to do what they want, when they want.

It all kicks off with a key. There is no “official” world in Songbringer. You get to determine what the seed for your world is like. If you don’t like the world you get after briefly exploring, go ahead and restart with a new seed. For the first world I visited, I used Silico, as in Siliconera. There was a hunter with food not far to the left two dungeons within a few blocks of the landing site. It was all rather convenient, and while using other words like “cat” and “Jenni” were equally interesting, I liked starting with my initial area to find my footing.

Now, Songbringer clearly pays tribute to many The Legend of Zelda elements. Roq Epimetheos is a hero along the lines of Link, albeit more talkative. Both are a pixelated adventurers exploring a grid-based map one square at a time. They’re exploring dungeons, finding keys and skills. They’re collecting weapons like bombs, boomerangs, and boots to aid them in defeating their foes and getting access to new areas. While Roq is probably a little less noble, the basics of dungeon-crawling remain the same. Explore new areas. Vanquish ancient evils. Overcome your humble beginnings, with no special weapons and only three health containers to your name, and gain an admirable wealth of advantageous equipment.

But that same equipment is another way in which Songbringer allows its players to stretch its legs. You never know what you will find and how you will find yourself using it. Take the nanosword, the quintessential weapon and item you expect to acquire first and use most in any The Legend of Zelda-like game. You have the option of not taking it. It calls to mind the very first The Legend of Zelda, where someone could bypass the sword temporarily and get by completely on bombs. It feels like that in Songbringer, only to a greater extent. Especially since its crafting system lets you take more minor items and patch them together. Many of the pieces of equipment, items, and materials can be combined when you find the droidsmith and necessary parts.

Another thing that really helps with exploration is the cooperative element. From the very beginning, someone else can join you in Songbringer. This allows you to alter your own tasks and strategies. The first player always controls Roq, with his more vast repertoire. He has multiple weapons and items available. The second player can control Jib at the start or, when someone completes a specific dungeon, Velle. Jib is a skybot with only a few abilities initially. The second player can use him to distract foes, protecting Roq. He’s more mobile, giving access to areas, and helping search enemies for loot or grab some items like keys. Velle, once unlocked, has a ranged attack, can grab items, and of course also act as a distraction. Since these second player characters revive easily, unlike Roq, they can make exploring and surviving much easier. Especially if permadeath is turned on and Roq can die when his health is gone.

There’s a sense of freedom and openness people will sense in Songbringer as they begin their journey through the game. Everyone chooses the world they start with. They determine if they go through a standard or permadeath adventure. An adventure can be undertaken alone, or with another friend locally. You can use the nanosword, accumulate other items to make their way through the game, and combine items to make new useful tools. There’s a constant element of choice, from what I’ve experienced so far. It makes it easy to find your footing and a playstyle that suits you.

Songbringer will come to the Xbox One and PC on September 1, 2017 and the PlayStation 4 on September 5, 2017.