I love music. You should all know this due to the several times in the past I’ve gushed on about video game soundtracks and how incredible they can be. How if it can fit the mood and setting of a game it can increase the effectiveness of a moment. How an emotional scene can be made even sadder, or a combat scenario can be more energetic. Music is more than just the blaring of an instrument. It can add personality to a video game. A lot of people may argue music isn’t as important as gameplay or writing, but I’d argue it is. To be fair there are games that benefit from having no music . The quietness of Bloodborne helps add to the sense of exploring an abandoned world. The silence of Silent Hill helps create a foreboding atmosphere. Music is optional for video games, but I’m here trying to convince you that music is important. The beauty of Hollow Knight, the chill feels of Persona 5, and the epic duels of Guilty Gear: Strive probably wouldn’t be as great if it weren’t for their amazing soundtracks.
Music is important! There are dozens of individuals who are working on music and soundtracks each day. Not just for the video game industry, but for numerous types of industry. They pour a lot of time into their work and do what is required of them. Hoping that when their songs play on screen people can appreciate them for it. That they delivered the performance they wanted. I open the review up like this, because today’s game heavily involves the use of music. The game I’m talking about of course is Crypt of The NecroDancer. A rhythm-based dungeon crawling roguelike made by indie studio, Brace Yourself Games. Ryan Clark, the director of NecroDancer, was intrigued by the design of roguelikes such as FTL and The Binding of Isaac. Wanting to give his own spin on the genre, but not make another title similar to existing ones. Basically he took NetHack and asked the question, “What if there was a metronome going off in the background?” This led to NecroDancer, his debut indie and his most acclaimed one.
NecroDancer was received really well when it was originally released and garnished for being one of the most innovative roguelikes and titles in the rhythm genre. It had a simple to understand gameplay loop that was hard to master, and thanks to its simple control scheme it was easy to pick up. You could even play it with a MP3 and dance pad if you were willing to do the modding for it, because NecroDancer was modder friendly. Even after release, the developers continued to add new content to the game in the form of new characters, modes, and zones. Ways to implement a high amount of replayability and infinite hours of play to a pretty short game consisting of only four zones originally. NecroDancer became the gold standard for modern rhythm games and even helped influence titles like BPM: Bullets Per Minute. The devs would partner up with the big dogs at Nintendo four years later to deliver a crossover sequel, which was received equally as well. Currently they are working on Rift of The NecroDancer, which is another follow-up but in a different vein. Going for a Rhythm Heaven approach instead of the roguelike approach from before. NecroDancer is just so loved…..
Then I played the game myself. I have very confused feelings for Crypt of The NecroDancer. On one hand it has a really engaging music-centered gameplay loop and intriguing story to back it up, but on the other hand there are some really unjustified ways to make the game more difficult than it should be. This is the most unforgiving game I ever played, and there are points when the game stopped being fun and it started to just become an annoying grind. Yet again, this is me just trying to plow through the main content. I covered the sequel awhile back and stated how excited I was to try out the first game, but now having played I think I like Cadence of Hyrule more. Not to say I hate NecroDancer and found it disappointing. This is a good game to play for casual fun and today’s review is going to explore what I liked and disliked about it. Today we’ll be delving deep into the depths Crypt of The NecroDancer.
Story
We follow Cadence, a young girl who is one night busy digging away in a graveyard. Just when she thinks she struck something the ground beneath collapses. Sending her tumbling down into an unexplored cavern. Cadence hits her head on a rock and this is good enough to knock her out dead instantly. Just before her soul can move on though a mysterious man in a darkening cloak steals her heart. Stating that her soul is under her control and unleash she can break the spell she will be trapped in the crypt forever. Hence the title of the game, Crypt of The Necrodancer. This leads to Cadence picking up her trusting spade and dagger, and navigating the chambers of the crypt. Fighting her way through the onslaught of undead monsters standing in her way. Along the way we learn more of Cadence’s background and why she was digging in the graveyard.
We learn that Cadence’s father was a legendary treasure hunter adored by everyone around him. He went on grand adventures and always had shiny loot to bring home. He had the drive to always push onwards, but that positivity stopped when Cadence’s mother passed away from an unknown illness. This put the entire family in shock, but the one most heavily affected by it was Cadence's father. However, a few days after the funeral Cadence's father discusses with his brother about a tomb containing a trinket. A sacred relic that possessed magical capabilities and it was called the Golden Lute. Cadence doesn’t understand this at first, but we the player do and can probably predict what happens next. An epic family tale about sacrifice, hardships, and trying to do the best you can to keep the ones you love around longer. It’ll be a treacherous journey full of hardships, but through several mistakes you’ll learn and get a little bit further.
Gameplay
NecroDancer is a combination between rhythm based action, dungeon crawling, and of course the procedural generation and learning process of a roguelike. We’ve covered a lot of roguelikes previously on this site, but if you don’t know, basically a roguelike is a game where if you die you start back at the beginning. You lose all your weapons, upgrades, and gear, and only a small handset of resources are kept to purchase a few upgrades and items before heading into another run. You will die a lot in this game, but with each failure comes a new opportunity to learn. To understand what killed you and how to prevent it from happening next time. There’s even a practice room that allows you to learn the attack patterns of enemies and bosses. All types!
There are a total of four zones in this game, excluding the fifth zone added later on, and they all have their gimmicks and unique enemy types. Zone 1 is just this basic dirt filled cavern, Zone 2 is a mushroom cavern with mushrooms littered about and blocking your way, Zone 3 is divided into a hot and cold zone with different elemental effects and enemies, and Zone 4 has every room blocked off meaning you have to dig forward and be prepared what lies in the next room. You navigate around using the D-pad and it’s done through a grid. You can move only up, down, left, and right. There is no option to move diagonally or a few extra spaces. Digging through blocks is done by just interacting with the surface, and tougher dirt can only be done with stronger spades. Attacking is done by just pointing towards the direction the enemy is, picking up items just as you are landing on the tile they are on, and opening doors is the next same button prompt as digging and attacking. Everything is done through the D-pad besides the use of spells and items, which creates a simplistic set-up for a simple game.
Now what makes NecroDancer special is that every action has to be timed to the beat. Fail to time it correctly and the action won’t register. Not only are you timed to the beat, but enemies and their attacks are timed to the beat. Meaning you must be able to tell their movements and postures so that you can find windows to strike them. There are a plethora of weapons to pick up during your run. You start off with a dagger but can unlock a spear, broadsword, greatsword, whip, flail, and even ranged weapons like a bow or gun. You also have bombs, which are limited and take a few beats to blow up but can do a huge amount of damage to a small area of foes if laid down correctly. Enemies will range from zombies who walk around aimlessly, bats who fly around aimlessly, skeletons who try to hop toward your position, slimes who bounce around, monkeys who grasp onto you and try to mess up your movement, and many more. There are the incredibly strong minibosses who block your way from reaching the next floor, and of course the main bosses who lie at the end of every zone. They will annihilate you very quickly, so you better get good at remembering their attacks.
Other hazards you may want to be wary of are traps. Bomb tiles that spawn a bomb, spring tiles that launch you towards specific directions, a confusion tile that reverses the controls, a spike tile that just shoots up a spike that damages you, and the tempo tiles. The tempo tiles aren’t really traps, but they can be used to create either advantages or disadvantages. You may either speed up or slow down the beat of the music, and this can either speed up the action or give you more time to look at what is coming at you and deal with it as it draws closer to your position. You may also stumble upon treasure chests, and when you interact with them they may drop one of many items. Weapons, armor, rings, spells, etc. I know specific colored chests will drop rarer or specific loot, but I never bothered to pay attention. You may be wondering how to get a wider variety of loot or exactly what you want? The answer is you can’t get exactly what you want, but you can unlock new loot so half the problem is solved.
Whenever you defeat a boss or explore dungeons well enough you will stumble upon diamonds. These can be spent in the main hub to unlock new upgrades and items. They can only be spent to unlock training rooms against bosses. Be aware that when you enter another dungeon you lose all the diamonds you kept on the previous run, so spend them whenever you can on useful stuff. However, to have access to these rooms you first must discover the NPC who runs these facilities. They will be hidden around dungeons and require a key to unlock the cage they are trapped in. Sometimes the key is hidden, will be made of glass which requires you not to get hit, or have to be purchased from a merchant. Oh yeah, practically every enemy you kill will drop gold. This is a currency lost whenever you die during a run, but it can be used to purchase items from shopkeepers. One shopkeeper lies on every floor, but there are secret shopkeepers hidden behind teleporters and will sell special gear occasionally. You may not be able to afford everything, but there is a way to accumulate more coins. Not just by killing more enemies, but keeping to the beat and chaining a multiplier. The higher you keep the multiplier, the more coins you earn from defeating enemies.
That’s all I really have to say about Crypt of The Necrodancer and its gameplay. Fun, simple, and addicting. If it’s so addicting then why is it so frustrating and hard for me to love? Well, we’re about to address that now as we move on the final paragraph.
Thoughts
Crypt of The NecroDancer is a love-hate relationship. I think the people who will enjoy it will appreciate the amount of content on offer and how rewarding it is to overcome. There are several frustrating bits to this game and we’ll address why it is, but when you do manage to overcome all the adversities that stand in your path it feels rewarding. It feels like learning how to play an actual instrument. You could just blare whatever notes you want, but we all know it isn’t going to sound good. You’ll start off basic, learn what does what, and eventually you’ll try learning how to play a song. There will be trials, errors, trials, more errors, and screaming. There will be points where you’ll throw the instrument on the ground and say you are done, but just when you feel like giving up you’ll get sucked back in. To see if you can do better and perform that song perfectly. Even when you do perform the song perfectly you’ll try again, because you want to see if you can keep it up. To integrate into your heart and soul.
That is what makes music enjoyable and NecroDancer does this perfectly. Learning the patterns of attacks with each enemy. The best items to you, how to navigate efficiently through dungeons, and reaching the end within a shorter period of time. NecroDancer is a pure electronic parade of excitement. Let’s address what other elements I love about this game. The music obviously as it was composed by Danny Baranowsky who did a stellar job. Every track in this game is catchy as hell and keeps your blood pumping for more. I like the simple control set-up like I stated, and how almost everything is done with the d-pad. The pixelart is rather simplistic, but it’s easy to tell what is what. There are a lot of occasions where darkness will cover what is in front of you, but you'll be able to tell the outlines of what objects lie ahead because every enemy and object will become integrated into your memory and become recognizable. The pixel art is also just colorful and has a certain charm to it. A lot of people probably won’t praise the story for this game, but I actually quite liked it. The characters, their backgrounds, and how they connected to each other. I like how every boss in this is a music related pun, and I really like the voice lines for the NecroDancer. How it’s done in a way where it sounds like an old arcade machine like Sinistar. I also like the art design for the cutscenes even though it’s not the best especially compared to newer indies.
There’s a lot to love with Necrodancer, but sadly there’s also a lot to hate. The gameplay loop may be extremely addicting and easy to pick up, but there are a lot of flaws which come with it. Inconveniences, odd design choices, and a difficulty curve that is more unfair than it should be. This is a game that crosses the line of providing a tough yet fair challenge. Remember how I just said mastering NecroDancer is like learning how to play an instrument. Well all the flaws with NecroDancer are some of the problems that may occur. For example, NecroDancer has some of the worst RNG I’ve seen in a video game. There’s still a hefty amount of player skill, but some of what the game randomly generates will end a good run abruptly quickly. Like cramming a handful of enemies into a small room and having them come in towards you, or cramming a bunch of enemies together with a miniboss. I don’t think the best way to provide a challenge is to just throw a horde at the player. It’s like how some instruments can only play one line while others can play numerous lines. It’s like giving a drum a sheet of piano music and telling them to play every line and note when all they can do is stick to the beat. Of course they can’t play every note, because the drums weren’t designed to play every note available on the piano.
The bosses can kill you way quicker than they should. The max amount of hearts you can start out with is six and the rest have to be earned, but even with six your health bar will be knocked down within seconds. Basically, screwing up once or twice leads to instant death. You could say this is the learning process of the instrument, but at times it feels like the instrument is being knocked out of your hands on purpose and you are forced to start again for missing a note even when it wasn’t your fault. There will come a point where you want to stop purchasing upgrades from the hub, because it will decrease the chance you get something you actually want. In fact, I hate how there’s a shop you can purchase items from to start out with on the next run but the three items on offer are always randomized. Why don’t you let me choose exactly what I want? Like what to load out with? None of the fancy stuff, but just a basic spear!
What I hate most of all is the health system. The only way to replenish health is through one use of food items, and it is never fully refilled even when you are approaching a boss. Combine this with the high damage numbers of enemies and it means you have to play even more perfectly. I like games that force you to learn upon mistakes, but not games where perfection is key. Dunkey says it best, “There is a difference between tough but fair, and tough but f*ck you,” and this is exactly the case. The final boss I just gave up on, because you have to go through three floors of incredibly tough foes and a first boss who summons other minibosses before facing him. At least offer me the ability to refill on health between floors, or better yet offer the choice between a health refill of a random relic like what Shovel Knight Dig did recently. Don’t even get me started on some of the crazy gimmicks other playable characters have. Like dying when you touch gold. Crypt of The NecroDancer has a lot of bullsh*t thrown in between, but I don’t want you to come off thinking I hate it. I actually do like this game and my time with it was mostly enjoyable. I just lost the motivation to see the story through. What you have to do is tough, and it’s no wonder why there’s such a low clear rate for this game. I recommend it only for casual fun. In the end I am going to give Crypt of The NecroDancer a 7.5/10 for being okay.
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