Songbringer
Wizard Fu · 2017 · Action RPG, Open World, Roguelike, Hack and Slash, Dungeon Crawler
PC
Very Positive80% · 13068Metacritic
Compare prices in Official Stores
Screenshots
About Songbringer
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.
DLC & expansions
🎁 Complete the collection
Base game + 0 of 1 DLC at today's best prices (some DLC unpriced).
$19.99
to own everything
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
7/10 runs well on SteamDeck.2 found this helpful
[b]Roguelike Zeldalike[/b] - Playtime: 19 minutes - Played: 2026 - Context: I don't like roguelikes but i sort of liked The Legend Of Zelda back in the day. [b]Review[/b] In this 2D game you walk around and smack things with your sword. Often something falls out of the environment when you smack it (hp/gold). There are stores that sell upgrades. There are save points that restore your health. It can be clumsy to navigate because areas weren't designed but generated and some of the pixel art is vague. The music is annoying too. But mostly i'm just not sure what i'm supposed to get from this. This was fine in the late 80s and early 90s but Diablo (1997) basically made this kind of game redundant.
As someone that still plays the first Zelda game, this game scratches that itch that makes you want more out of it.. The game is completely randomly generated based on any 6 letter word or combination you put in, from the world, to the dungeons, the secrets, and the appearance of some of the items you get so every playthrough can be different.. The exploration is interesting enough to make me keep playing just to find out what challenges you'll get out of the next dungeon.. I just finished the game and I'm already starting my second playthough.. Wonderful game! Definitely worth the price!
I'm kinda shocked by the lack of love for this game. I thought it absolutely ripped! Is it the best game of all time? No, but it's a really good game in it's own right and I'm super impressed it was made by one guy. In terms of game play, I'm not sure why it's listed as a roguelike since it's a straight-up throwback to the original Legend of Zelda on the NES. You explore the map and gain powers and items as you clear dungeons. You start off weak. but by the end you're a higher-being hopped up on peyote. The dungeons are numbered, so it makes it pretty easy to do them in order. I liked the art and music a lot, but understand those things won't click for everyone. Combat is basic, you have a sword and slash your way through enemies, but you get other weapons and abilities as you progress. I think the game started to really click for me after the 3rd dungeon. It seems most people don't give this game a chance and quit before it even gets going. You can get it on sale super cheap if you're hesitant to pay full price. So what are you waiting for? Unlock your third eye and give it a go!
I didn't love this game, that's for sure. The procedural generation component was a cool idea that was unfortunately poorly executed. I don't blame the developers for this; at the time, procedural generation for open world, linear ARPGs of this kind was in its infancy. Somebody had to be first mover, even if it meant the result was a confusing and frustrating mess: an attempt to fit the round peg of procedural generation into the square hole of a story-driven single player game. Get it on sale, because in the context of video game history it will probably remain an interesting artifact. I can't much recommend playing it, but again, I can't fault the devs for having to be the first to try it.
I remember playing this game! I hated it.
Community reviews
—
0 reviews
Sign in to write a review.
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this game.
