Songs of Skydale Reviews

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Songs of Skydale is an open world RPG/adventure game with retro style graphics. The game is located in quite generic fantasy world called Kingdom of Skydale filled with people who need your help. The story of the main quest is fairly typical. It involves mostly war and politics as themes. Nothing too brilliant here but the story of the main quest is good enough. Side quests are quite simple: speak with NPCs, do something (e.g. kill some enemies) and get a reward. Rewards are mostly money, but sometimes the player will get also items. Instead of having classes or skill trees, the game has various skills that can be opened with skill points. Most of the skills are passive. There are lots of options for different builds (melee, range, critical hit etc.). Some builds are clearly better than other ones so it’s better to think where to put skill points. The item system is somewhat similar with many MOBA games. The player has 9 active slots where the items can be assigned. There are no restrictions so if the player wants, there can be nine same swords in nine active slots. This is not the most realistic way to handle items but it is working well with the skills because it gives the player even more possibilities to make builds. The combat is my favorite part of the game. Compared to other pixel art action-RPGs, it’s very fast. The player can run and attack at the same time and so can enemies. When the player learns how the combat works and how to use skills, the fighting will become very satisfying. However, first fights against enemies can be quite difficult, especially if you earlier just randomly picked some skills. I have had lots of fun with Songs of Skydale and for the price, the game has fair amount of content. There are still some bugs but the devs are fixing them regularly. I can recommend Songs of Skydale for the people who like retro style adventure games and especially for those who prefer little bit more challenge.

The controls cannot be remapped and make it impossible to play for me (left handed). edit: fixed in April 2021. Keys can now be completely remapped. I can now recommend this fun game!

It starts out fun, but after you clear the first area, it becomes a walking simulator to find the next map.

Songs of Skydale is a great game for anyone who likes to play retro style RPGs. Pros - Unique art style - Great soundtrack - Large open word - Fun quests - Combat - Lots of items and skills - Well polished for being early access game Neutral - The gameplay is sometimes quite punishing - No quick save Cons - Enemy pathfinding could be better