The Legend of Roq. The plot to Songbringer is simple, but it helps to push the player along and gives a reason to explore the world other than just seeing what the game will create.

Songbringer is a 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 Ekzerra, he unwittingly awakens an ancient evil. The sword is pretty fraggin’ sweet though. It… hums.

Mere moments after the user inputs their desired six-character world “seed” in order to carve out Songbringer‘s procedurally-generated world — once the opening cutscene of the titular space ship crash-landing on a seemingly alien planet, subsides — it’s made abundantly clear that the game is taking a hefty chunk of inspiration and influence from the original Legend of Zelda on the NES. And only that game. In both its design and its progression, the fact that the main character starts out in a fairly square plot of land, only to enter a nearby cave to discover and acquire a sword, you’d be forgiven for thinking all the game really needed to complete the facade was an old man warning you that “it’s dangerous to go alone”.Joking aside, there’s nothing inherently wrong with developers wearing their inspirations on their sleeve (albeit here, in a much more visible fashion). Deuterium wars vs. Songbringer does indeed try to prioritize challenge and learning one’s way over any sort of hand-holding or forcible direction, striking that fair balance a series like Metroid or indeed Zelda has architected via offering subtle suggestions to perhaps hunt down the right item/weapon or simply try an alternate route in order to gain another dungeon key. In that respect, Songbringer’s design during the less-frantic moments is a welcome sight and one players can easily get soaked into.