Time to Beat (Sorta): 14 Hours
Released in 2015, Crypt of the
NecroDancer, was a game that had always seemed too strange, too
unusual to play. But after discovering that Klei Entertainment was
even tangentially involved in its publication, it became clear this
was a game worth a spin.
Crypt of the NecroDancer is a
member of the rare and peculiar genre, the Rhythm game. Members of
this category employ notes, beats, and tempo as their main mechanics.
While small compared to other genres, like FPS or RPGs, the
collection of Rhythm games are astonishingly diverse. I first
encountered this quirky class in the influential PaRappa the
Rapper on my friend's PlayStation in 1997. Other popular members
of the club include the Guitar Hero series (along with its
imitators), and Dance Dance Revolution.
While a broad concept connects these
titles, they mange to implement their mechanic as to seem very
distinct each other. While developers were able to differentiate
their games, the success in the Rhythm genre remained limited. As a
result,
these twenty games are probably the only few worth playing,
except for die hard fans of the genre.
But even among this limited collection
of games, Crypt of the NecroDancer steals the spotlight. It
combines multiple influences, emerging as a dungeon-crawling
rogue-like, where the player controls Cadence, a young girl in search
of her father, Dorian, and mother, Melody. Divided into four
Dungeons, with three Levels apiece, Cadence must move with the beat,
picking up weapons, spells, armor, and torches, while defeating
monsters like skeletons, bats, dragons, and minotaurs.
The main mechanic is the beat, and the
compulsion to move in time with it. NecroDancer insures
acceptance of its rule with a carrot and a stick. The benefit
to the beat: killing monster's raises one's gold modifier. Every
monster drops gold when Cadence kills it. Each monster's base gold
drop is multiplied by the her current modifier. Killing a monster
increases the gold multiplier by one. Receiving damage, or missing a
beat, resets the gold modifier. The penalty is worse. When Cadence
misses a beat, she hesitates, but the monsters don't. Each stutter
allows the monsters to encroach.
In these Dungeons, Cadence searches for
the stairs to the next Level. NecroDancer offers considerable
freedom in her ability to explore. Each Level has a shop, where a
singing man sells three items for gold. Cadence can delve through
walls to discover secrets or carve a direct path. The crypts contain
prizes like treasure chests, traps, and Diamonds. While gold is used
in a dungeon and lost upon death, Diamonds are spent in the lobby.
They are used to unlock powerful items which appear in future
Dungeons. Or Cadence can spend them to unlock training sessions,
access improved equipment, or activate RPG like upgrades, such as
more health.
To unlock the stairs and escape to the
next Level, Cadence needs to kill the Level boss, one of the stronger
foes, like a Dragon, Banshee, Crypt, or Ogre. The player also
advances to the next Level of the Dungeon if the song ends. One
assumes there must be a penalty for this unusual method of
advancement, but it went unnoticed (probably lost health). After
beating three Levels in a Dungeon, Cadence challenges a Boss. Two of
the Bosses were easy, while King Konga (difficult because the beat
changes as his company dances the conga), and Dead Ringer (more on
him later) are more challenging.
Beating a Boss unlocks the next Dungeon
and additional characters, who play the game with different abilities
and restrictions. The player can access the new Dungeons and
Characters from the lobby. Each Dungeon feels significantly
different, with their unique variety of enemies and different songs.
While the songs assigned for each of
the three Levels of the four Dungeons are worthy (as one would hope
for a rhythm game), the developers highlighted the option for the
player to substitute any of their songs into the game. There are
limitations. Crypt of the NecroDancer only works with MP3s,
and players may have music other files like M4A or WMA. Fortunately
iTunes
includes a feature which makes it fairly
painless to change either of these into MP3s. The process for
inputting an MP3 is easy. In NecroDancer one has only to
click ESC, scroll to Custom Music, and then to the level or boss they
want to replace. Players don't have to move any music files to a
particular folder. All they must do is find the music they want,
whether it resides in their regular Music Folder or elsewhere.
Clicking the file will import it into NecroDancer with a
warning (Song may take a minute or two), but the process only
required a few seconds. A note of caution. Picking a song with a
slow beat is a serious mistake, because it inhibits movement and may
lead to unintended drowsiness. Faster songs are more enjoyable, but
too fast creates problems as well. Monsters move to the beat, so
faster songs won't help Cadence to outmaneuver her enemies. In the
14 hours I spent with NecroDancer, I only replaced one song,
not because the process was too arduous, but because the included
music was sufficient and suitable for the setting.
Before addressing the final Bosses, a
spot more strategy. NecroDancer includes a number of shops,
which are unlocked in the lobby by finding their proprietor in the
Dungeons and freeing them from their cage. Some shop keepers are
critical, while others are useless. The most valuable requires
finding the Glass Key in Dungeon 2 to free the Diamond Dealer. At
his (her, its?) shop Cadence can spend Diamonds to purchase items.
When Cadence begins a new Dungeon she has those items equipped.
Instead of just a pathetic dagger, Cadence can begin with leather
armor, a spear, and a chicken leg. For the 3rd and 4th
Dungeon, I needed to find a ranged weapon, like a bow (or even a
spear or long sword) quickly or I'd take too much damage to have a
change at beating the boss. Note: I don't claim to be any good at
NecroDancer. I'm not certain I could have beaten the 4th
Dungeon if it wasn't for the three items provided by the Diamond
Dealer. But the third Dungeon, bosses aside, was the most
frustrating. Each Level included a fire and an ice zone, both
sharing the same song but with a slightly different rhythm.
Transitioning from one element to the other always disturbed my
balance.
Finally, the final Boss(es). At the
conclusion of the 4th Dungeon, Cadence fights the final Boss,
Dead Ringer. Spoilers ahead, not about the story, but the tactics.
If you want to discover how to defeat him yourself, skip ahead to the
“In, Conclusion” paragraph. Cadence defeated the three previous
bosses by hitting them, just as she had done for all the monsters.
But Dead Ringer was invulnerable to damage, but he was not alone in
his chamber. There were four Bells in the room. If Cadence, or Dead
Ringer, hit any of them, it transformed into a tough monster (Dragon,
Minotaur, etc..). There is a method to destroy the bells without
releasing a monster but let's not spoil it.
Dead Ringer is invincible when there
are bells. He remains invulnerable when they are all gone. I began
to consider other alternatives. Did I have to defeat all the
monsters first? No. Meanwhile, Dead Ringer is the deadliest of all
the Bosses and Monsters, displaying an incredible speed, and a deadly
dash attack. After a half dozen attempts trying to beat this
Abomination, which required a few dozen trials through the dastardly
4th Dungeon, I looked up the solution. After the bells
vanish, a small object appears, and it had escaped my notice. Even
if I'd seen it, I might not have put 2 and 2 together (and made half
time). Even with this new knowledge, the battle with Dead Ringer
remained a deadly jig. With his bell rung, I sighed in relief, until
the final final boss, the NecroDancer challenged Cadence to a
dueling dance off.
I lost to him, and I thought, wouldn't
it be great if I didn't have to fight through the 4th
Dungeon and Dead Ringer again. But I did, a dozen or so times, until
I successfully arrived back at the NecroDancer's concert (I said I
wasn't good at this game).
This might have damped the experience,
but the final battle incorporated a wicked mechanic which I wish the
Developers had introduced earlier. And the NecroDancer
wasn't as difficult as Dead Ringer. I beat him on the second try.
There is more to explore in the Crypt. To
to fully beat the game one must use the other characters, unlocked by
defeating Dungeons and the NecroDancer, but I'm bowing out now.
In conclusion, Crypt of the
NecroDancer is an inventive rhythm, dungeon-crawling, rogue-like.
The story is bare bones, but the music and visual effects are
compelling. It contains a whole host of unlocks, from weapons, to
upgrades, spells, dungeons, and characters. It is quick, it is fun,
it is tough, and it is weird, but worth a spin on the dance floor.
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