Review: Songbringer (PlayStation 4)

Darkness sleeps just beneath the cracks on the ever-changing planet. The curious will uncover powerful artifacts and forge them anew. The strong will take the nanosword and crush galactic giants.

Pros:

• Pixel graphics that look very much like Sword and Sworcery.
• Three save slots.
• Online leaderboards- Any % speedrun, 100% speedrun and highest.
• Two game modes- Regular and perma death.
• 840.3MB download size.
• World seed entry.
• Platinum trophy.
• Sci-Fi action RPG.
• Map uncovers as you explore.
• Infectious soundtrack that is both chilling and relaxing.
• Uses DS4 touchpad and the speaker and its one of the better speaker integrations, Using it for sound effects and random noises.
• Oozes atmosphere from the lighting to the soundtrack.
• 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.
• Very Zelda feeling.
• Simple HUD (has a auto hide option)
• Analog and d-pad support.
• Easy controls. You abiltities are assigned to a face button that shows on screen.
• Save and quit option.
• Dungeons are scattered around the world and can be found and attacked in any order. Some dungeons are puzzle based whilst some are all about fighting.
• Play how you like philosophy.
• Find secret areas and paths.
• Pick up weapons and items like bombs, a lighter, cactus and many more.
• Cactus will not only heal you but also cause the screen to go all psychadelic as you buzz your tits off.
• Story is loose and you can find lore in dungeons, Signs and meeting NPC.
• Strangely addictive.
• Day/night with weather effects.
• Many enemy types.
• Hard to put down.
• Dark lonely atmosphere.
• Cool animations from combat to meditation the game just looks brilliant.
• Game time played is displayed.
• Combat is very simple with button presses, Enemies re act to getting hit differently, You can run away.
• Trees and bushes everywhere and you can hit them to find loot.
• Health drops.
• Shop to buy loot can appear if you find it.
• Diamonds are the games currency.
• Earn extra hit points from playing.
• Find checkpoints that heal you and save the game.
• Can setup a new world at any time by entering a different world seed.
• Co-op support. Local only the second player controls Jib.
• Jib-You AI bot that accompinies you, He will scan fallen enemies and may find loot every now and then.
• Great satisfaction of completion when you clear a dungeon or solve a particularly tricky puzzle.

Cons:

• Sluggish combat, Very slow and hard to hit enemies thanks to the animations.
• Little explanation really.
• Music whilst good can go through stages of looping the same tune over and over.
• Can get lost and confused as to what to do.
• Checkpoints are far apart.