Ever since the indie game development scene exploded 10 years ago I’ve seen quite a few projects that were not simply amazing but also easily rivaling games made on a much higher budget by much bigger teams. Quite a few games, however, felt like their budget, being fun and serviceable, yet ultimately rough, unrefined, clunky and often forgettable. There’s been a share of absolute stinkers too, of course, which either never had any passion put behind them or that passion was simply not enough to make the game any good. Wandersong doesn’t fit any of these. It’s a deeply flawed and unrefined game that has so much passion and heart put into it that it’s anything but forgettable.
The main character – a little bard – doesn’t have anything obviously exceptional about him. Right from the start he’s told that he is not a hero, he’s not part of any prophecies, his destiny isn’t a notable one. The world is ending, but he’s sure as hell not the one who can do anything about it. Except he cares. About the world, about every living creature in it, about the music he performs, about every little silly thing and he’s not about to sit down and let the world end. So, when given a tiniest slice of hope, he sets on a quest to prevent the end of everything, while befriending everyone and everything he meets along the way with his naive simple charm and optimism.
This simple idea could easily fall apart, become either too preachy, too sweet or too fake in execution. Yet Wandersong actually manages to pull it off with almost consistently great writing. Whatever emotions the game tries to evoke, it does it almost effortlessly. And all of the major characters are given a lot of time to evolve and develop, via both optional and mandatory dialogue. There are countless nice little world reactions to your actions with callbacks later on, which give everything you do just enough weight to start believing in this game world and its inhabitants. And I was totally not expecting just how insanely varied the game will turn out to be, with each story act having very different “gimmicks” and ideas and many events expanding the narrative and selling its positive message.
Which… is kind of a problem as well. This game doesn’t really seem to understand what pacing is, often times. There are sections that go for so long that it’s easy to start thinking that you’re doing something completely wrong. A lot of more puzzle-platforming sections are tedious and unfun and often quite quickly outstaying their welcome. And the game has so many characters for each act, all of whom have tons of things to say, that it gets overwhelming and for no real reason too – vast majority of the characters don’t actually say anything interesting beyond what can already be drawn from their looks or the first interaction. Yet, some of them are far interesting and might even get their own little hidden side-stories you can participate, which, of course, can motivate you to talk to everyone all the time. Which is overwhelming, pace killing and, as mentioned, often completely unfun in the end.
All of that is so frustrating specifically because of how strong the main story beats of the game are. It sometimes felt like I was playing a… what’s a good comparison… a workprint of a movie, with most if not all shot scenes in. Before the editor cuts it down to the final cut, that (hopefully) removes anything that kills the pacing or is unnecessary for the final product. Wandersong has lots of that – things that could be cut down or sometimes removed completely and the game would only get better as a result. So, here’s hoping the developers will revisit it for some revised version later on… Also, despite being so focused on music as a central theme, I’m surprised at how bland and forgettable the music in this game was. Perhaps, some of that was to give players the ability to make melodies on the go (since you can sing and dance most of the time), but still, I was hoping for at least one track to stand out as something great.
Just like its main character, Wandersong tries so hard to be amazing, has so much heart, that it succeeds. Despite being weirdly paced, rough, often frustrating game. I can’t love it as much as I love the games I consider my favorites, yet I admire and like it for all it does and all it tries to do. If you’re feeling especially cynical, but feel like you need a change, this game could work wonders if you let it. And if you just want to experience a hopeful adventure about making friends, believing in others and loving the world and life, I can’t think of any other game that does it this well.