Crypt of the Necrodancer

Crypt of the Necrodancer

A roguelike rhythm game.

Overview

Crypt of the Necrodancer brilliantly combines two genres, the roguelike and the rhythm game tied together with a weak story. To beat the game you must clear four zones each with three levels. After the fourth zone, you fight a boss to win. You start with two characters unlocked but there are about 10 in total. In that respect it's a roguelite. You don't level up or have stats. You do pick up items that can have a large impact. Levels are randomly generated and populated with monsters and loot. Each level even has an awesome Shopkeeper.

But wait, there's more. Each level plays a unique song and you can only move on the beat (although it's very forgiving). This is in stark contrast to a typical roguelike where you can spend minutes or hours pondering a single move. Because of this, Necrodancer feels more like an action game.

Comparision to Other Games

Difficult! This game is quite unique. But I'll give it a shot.

Rogue/Nethack/Crawl/Adom

Necrodancer is nothing like the original Rogue games. It doesn't have the depth and the gameplay is very different. It shares randomly generated content, a theme of dungeon exploration with levels, and multiple classes to play.

Dance Dance Revolution

The rhythm aspects are very much like DDR. However, DDR is more about precise timing and hitting the required direction. Crypt of the Necrodancer is more forgiving about timing, and generally you have a choice what direction to go. The big difference is that Necrodancer often requires complex tactical thinking while following the beat. Some monsters have patterns that make them easy to kill, but trying to handle multiple threats gets intense. You can play Crypt of the Necrodancer using a dance pad. Look it up on YouTube, it looks amazing.

Realm of the Mad Overlord

This shares the same level of roguelike. Overlord has more content and more character development, but they are both pretty lite. Overlord is a bullet-hell game where Necrodancer is rhythm.

My Reaction

I loved Crypt of the Necrodancer. I enjoy roguelikes and some rhythm games and it pairs the genres really well. I'm probably done with it now after 53 hours of play. Some of the characters and game modes are far beyond my skill.

Should You Buy It?

If you are patient like me you wait for sales. I think I bought it 75% off for $5. Totally worth it.