Wandersong

This game was as amazing as unexpected. I just couldn't put it down once I started. Everything about it is fantastic: visual style, audio, gameplay, but the most important thing is that it has heart. This game wasn't made just to sell; you can see in every step the passion the developers had for it. This is a game made with love, and it stands out as a wonderful work of art. You play as a bard, and you're not the hero of this story. This doesn't stop you from pursuing a heroic goal, though, so you team up with a witch to try to find a way to bring balance to the world before it ends. Your character abhors all kinds of violence, so your only weapon to sort through the world's obstacles is song. And what a weapon it is! With it you can do anything: calm down monsters, move objects, attract the help of creatures, navigate a boat, etc. It's quite amazing how the developers took such a simple, minimalistic gameplay mechanic and made it so versatile in how it allows you to affect the environment around. The game manages to tweak every stage to make sure that the use of the mechanic doesn't get old. It's not all just gameplay, though. The story and characters really shine, and you'll come to love almost everyone you run into. This could easily become an animated movie and it'd be a fantastic one. I really cannot recommend this enough. This is a game I find impossible to dislike and it's become one of my favorite games from the last few years. An instant classic that will stay with me forever and hopefully with you too.

I've been putting off this game since it came out for one reason or another but, from the moment I finaly got around to play it, I knew I was going to beat it one session since I was hooked on from the start. The story, tone, characters and their relations with each other were all very cute and charming to me. Each act had a fun gimmick that kept the gameplay fun and the acts very memorable on their own, not to mention, the music was great from the get go (especially near the final chapters of the game, I still listen to The Crater). Overall, the game left with a warm feeling once I finished it, it's a very special game to me and I highly recommend it.

This is so lovely and perfect. It put a smile on my face every time I played. ALSO if you're nervous about the platforming sections, don't be - I am not a platformer person at all and I found this very friendly. I can absolutely see myself replaying this...it's a new favorite!

This is exactly the sort of game suited for the world's current condition. Wandersong's characters exude a wholesomeness and charm that got me caring immensely about them from the get-go. The Bard is precious, and must be protected. Further, the novel gameplay mechanic of singing your way through "combat" encounters, puzzles, and the occasional dialogue exchange worked really well for me. While not necessarily deep or revolutionary in its design and implementation, giving the player character's voice so much influence over the world really brought the theme to the forefront: you are a bard, and you see the world through the lens of music. The landscape, architecture, and creatures bob along to your ditties, and NPCs remember your songs when you compose them. But what I think left the largest impression on me was the message throughout of unquestioning kindness, thoughtfulness, and unity the game weaves through interactions with NPCs. The Bard might not be a fighter, or a leader, or anyone of any real significance really, but he is a true friend, who sees the best in people first, and strives to leave the world better than how he found it everywhere he goes. He's an entirely unrealistic character in many respects (though he does have his darker moments), but he's a perfect conduit to experience the rest of the cast of this game through. My advice: Play this game. You will feel so much better about yourself and about the world in general as a consequence. I would also strongly encourage you to exhaust dialogue everywhere you get the chance. Really get to know these characters, you'll be rewarded for it by the end.

Wandersong's gameplay boils down to an elaborate game of Simon says. You have song powers that let you solve extremely simple puzzles. Which in most cases are nothing more than to repeat the pattern shown on screen. Unfortunately a lot of times these repetition sequences drag on too long. I couldn't play the game for more than an hour at a time before its gameplay put me to sleep. The graphics are simplistic, kind of a paper cut-out style. The headache inducing rainbow color palette may take some getting used to... The world of Wandersong is stuffed to the brim with quirkiness. Coffee loving pirates that break out into song and overworked birds that hate their jobs. Plenty of feel-good messages get hammered into your skull like believe in yourself, be kind, that kinda Carebear nonsense. But on the plus side, the game can be genuinely funny when it tries to tell a proper joke. Finally a fair warning. This game reeks of tumblr aesthetics. There's gay cave yetis, gender ambiguous individuals with they/them pronouns and sentences like "I felt emasculated and had to assert my male dominance". If you're no put off by all the... "virtue signaling" I believe the term is these days, you'll find a fairly harmless game best experienced by people under the age of 10. As alternative if you're looking for something quick and charming for a short weekend to play or a kid-friendly game to hand to your child/niece/nephew/etc., I'd recommend checking out PikuNiku instead.