Wandersong

Wandersong

released on Sep 27, 2018

Wandersong

released on Sep 27, 2018

Wandersong takes you on a whimsical, musical journey across the globe. Eons ago, the goddess Eya put the universe into motion with her music--now, as she does every epoch or so, she's going to sing a new song and reset existence. You play as a lowly bard tasked with finding the pieces of a mysterious melody called the Earthsong, which is said to be able to preserve the planet. Use your singing to help characters, solve puzzles, and save the world!


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LOVE THIS GAME <3 it made me cry. im so so so so in love with this game. there are a few small changes i would make but they do not change the fact that this game is so so so so very dear to me

was slightly fun in the beginning but the more I played the more the game felt so slow, and I was just moving from one point to another. I also felt that the music wheel felt weird to use on PC.

In comparison to other games where you are meant to help people/NPCs to progress the story, I felt barely any satisfaction helping people in this game.

Queria gostar desse jogo, a música é bem legal e a mecânica é interessante, mas acho que simplesmente não clicou :/

Acontece, ainda assim acho que tem coisas que podem despertar o interesse das pessoas no jogo.

Would love to play this game, but the resolution constantly changes itself, even with auto-adjust off. I also could not jump high enough to leave the starting area of the game, which has been a known bug since 2018. The fixes I tried did not work, and I do not want to bother with entering the scene select just to work around it since it just ruins the game for me.

Wandersong is a cute little game I had recommended to me ages ago, but I can't really remember the why or how of that happening. All I know is that at some point I bought it for my Switch, tried it out for a few hours, and then bounced off of it. It's been languishing up until now, and I finally finished it yesterday. It took me about 8 hours to complete the English version of the game all in one sitting.

Wandersong is a story about a bard. You have a dream one night about being tested as the hero who will save the world... and fail. You fail horribly, and the guardian spirit of the world informs you in no uncertain terms of this. The world has a destined hero, and it is soooo not you. However, the bard does learn of something called the Earthsong, something that could theoretically save the world, but it's never been successfully done. Undeterred, the bard sets out on a quest with his new companion Miriam the witch to try and save the world in a universe that is DEFINITELY about to end.

You travel to all sorts of different locales: an archipelago full of singing and coffee-loving pirates, a city under the thumb of an oppressive toy factory, and a freezing mountain on the edge of the world. All while reality slowly begins to crumble around you and the actual destined hero harries you at every turn, given that you're on two conflicting quests. Wandersong is a story about hope and the relationships between people. The story takes a while to get going, but once it does it really had me hooked (I'd say it starts getting good a couple hours in at Act 3). The dialogue is silly, but balances seriousness with that well. It eases you into the characters of Miriam and the bard with the silliness, and gets to how they function as people beyond that. I was delightfully surprised by the writing in this game, and it at times feels like a VN despite being more a puzzle platformer with a large focus on its story.

The actual gameplay loop of Wandersong is a puzzle platformer, but ultimately not a terribly challenging one, although it certainly has more tricky parts that I would've predicted it had. You can walk around and jump, but what the game really flexes its puzzles with is your ability to sing (you ARE a bard, after all). By pushing the right stick in the 8 cardinal directions, each one sings a different note, and the game uses this mechanic for all manner of puzzles. Puzzles rarely repeat outside of the singing parts, and the game does a great job at pacing puzzles so they go on long enough to feel satisfying but not so long that they feel overly repetitive. They're a great framework for the story to take place in, and they add a lot of character to the bard, as you can basically sing whenever you want, and you also choose dialogue options in conversations by selecting a direction on the little color wheel that appears to help you select notes. You can even hold L to start dancing whenever you want. It has no bearing on the gameplay, but there's a secret new dance to discover in each area of the game, and it's good silly fun to just start dabbing during a cutscene X3

The presentation of the game is super fun. It almost has a paper-craft style to it with how everything is constructed out of shapes. The world is bright, colorful, and full of personality, from the backgrounds to even side characters. The music is also really good, often reacting dynamically to how you're playing the game or what your bard is singing. Nothing particularly MP3-worthy, but it does a great job at making the overall theme of music come alive as well as setting the mood for scenes very well, especially the bard's singing parts.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. There are a lot of indie puzzle platformers out there, I won't deny that, but this is easily one of the most memorable I've ever played. With a strong presentation and a solid story, it's definitely one of my favorite games I've played this year.

'Wandersong' ofrece una visión vitalista a los problemas mundanos de nuestra vida, de la mano de un bardo al que le cuesta mucho quedarse con la boca cerrada un rato (ni bajo el agua). Pero la importancia de esta obra no es la cualidad de cantar bien o mal (o hacer imposible la existencia a nuestra bruja compañera de viajes), es el estímulo que llama a cada uno de nosotros a expresar cómo somos y dejar atrás los miedos, apoyados con el poder de la música como medio de expresión. El mero hecho de usar el stick derecho para tocar notas con el bardo en cualquier momento/escena de la partida ya es un triunfo en sí. Una llamada a liberar tus ansias metomentodo y embellecer/marronear un momento dulce de la partida de la manera menos conveniente. O ponerse a bailar en un momento comprometido de la narrativa. La música es vida, expresar sentimientos nos hace libres, abrirse en canal no nos hace menos persona que otra, todos tenemos un espacio en el mundo.

Aunque pueda resultar empalagoso por instantes, la narrativa propuesta por Greg Lobanov propone muchos conflictos internos y soluciones agridulces que harán que la perspectiva que tengamos del viaje cambie notablemente. Porque es muy fácil decirle a alguien que se anime o "piensa en positivo", pero tener la determinación para seguir adelante no es fácil sin plantarles cara a los problemas y elaborar una convicción clara sobre qué hacer frente a ellos. Desde su exageradamente simple mentalidad optimista, el bardo es el vehículo necesario para conectar el mundo de 'Wandersong' y llenarlo de vida. Y quizá a raíz de esa pureza que hallamos en todas las personas y criaturas del viaje, esa pequeña cosa que les hace especiales a cada una de ellas, el clamor atronador que se produce en el estallido final se vive más intensamente de lo esperado. Cierto es que buena parte del juego viene conducido por historias secundarias, habitualmente desconectadas de la narrativa principal, que pueden resultar un peñazo por la lentitud en la que suelen desarrollarse (o los infinitos diálogos profundizando en los sentimientos de cada personaje); pero prefiero quedarme con el aspecto más noble del mensaje del universo de Lobanov. He aprendido a perdonar su holgura y verborrea pasional, y apreciarla en la medida que es, de donde y quién viene.

El núcleo jugable está plagado de usos creativos y formas de emplear al bardo como instrumento, pero en ningún momento posee una profundidad muy allá. Sin quitarle mérito a su enorme creatividad, en muchos momentos se sabe incómodo de jugar, especialmente en algunas secciones plataformeras donde las físicas de los actores no actúan como se espera de ellos. Visto en perspectiva, acometer cualquier ejercicio musical de 'Wandersong' es parecido a loquefuesequehicieses jugando a 'Wii Music'. Tenemos que seguir unas notas y patrones rítmicos determinados, pero el diseño sonoro del juego suele adaptarse a lo que hacemos, de modo que nada parece tener sentido y todo lo que hacemos está bien... salvo que no suena demasiado bien. Es raro y puede resultar cargante en muchos momentos de la partida, pero también tiene su intríngulis, si se me entiende. Es una cosa... especial. Algo así.

Pero en definitiva, creo que las ~12h invertidas en 'Wandersong' han sido muy satisfactorias al final. Personalmente no obstante, creo que le he fallado un poco por no acercarme al juego con la mejor predisposición posible. Ha llevado mes y pico para terminar la aventura por la desidia que me producían los diálogos y lo que se enrollan las viñetas secundarias. Pero detrás del juego hay mucho corazón, mucha ternura y una actitud frente a la vida demasiado bonita como para dejarla aparcada en una biblioteca (inexistente en realidad) de Steam. 'Wandersong' merece una oportunidad.