This game is pretty amazing and very underappreciated.

It's essentially a puzzle game with a large focus on narrative. The visuals are very cute, the controls are smooth enough and the audio is INCREDIBLE.

The narrative reminds me a lot of Undertale, where you travel through different locations meeting all kinds of people with different personalities and quirks, with an overall message of making friends.

The relationship of the two main characters is especially endearing and wholesome, especially since the player is watching it all blossom.

The game has a twist which is frankly genius and so well made.

My only complaint is with some puzzles which can get a little awkward with the singing controls and some sections which I think were a tad too long/slow-paced.

Overall, it's clear that this game had a LOT of heart and love poured into it by the developers. It's a very polished and thoughtful experience that will fill you with emotions.
Also, there is a DEDICATED DANCE BUTTON, with 7 DIFFERENT DANCES!!!

Wandersong... Wandersong... Truly you are a treasure.


TL;DR PLAY WANDERSONG ITS GOOD
(I have more hours on switch than I do on here-- YEAH I BOUGHT IT LIKE 3 TIMES)

I remember seeing the kickstarter for this eons ago. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it at the time and it passed like many of the other boosted games that came tumbling down my timeline.

Later on, some friends of mine suggested I play it back when it first came out.
Sadly, I got given some of the worst out of context info to do so . It was only a song linked to me but, it deterred me since I didn't really know the context. I was a stickler for spoilers and misinterpreted the song Entirely.
I ended up not playing until around January or so.

God I was a fool for not playing earlier.

This game is FANTASTIC in so many ways.
It's simple yet effective. The colors are delicious, the storytelling is charming, the mechanics are relatively straight-forward and easy to understand once you grasp what it wants you to do.
Best of all? This game made me feel. It made me learn-- both about myself and the world I participate in.

I was hitting a pretty dark place mentally when Wandersong came into my life. It hit a lot of sore spots then kissed the wounds to bandage them up. It said to me... "you're not as big and important as those other guys.. but that's ok. We all make a difference in our own way."

It saved my mental state and helped me meet the love of my life. I've never been happier since getting into this game. Nothing has done that for me in such a long long time... Thank you Wandersong.

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When chapter 4 kicked in-- The ending to 3 sending it off... that part in particular I think is where this game truly hooked me. The twist that seemed so obvious after it came through shot me across the room and seeing a character actually get UPSET adnd WOUNDED by it.
Losing themselves briefly... and the core thing that they try to represent with themselves? That's wonderful story-telling right there. Showing that a character has weakness and illustrating it through their own hometown was so moving... and getting to see the opposite side of that coin come to fruition in later chapters with Miriam--your friendly witch companion-- and her own rooted troubles with self identity and placement in the world as well.

This game is just... It's phenomenal. It comes off as a cheesy platformer-- and it is!! It certainly is! Cheese is a-plenty! But.. it's a good cheese. You can really read,, hear, and feel the heart put into this game and the commentary really sells it afterwards. Reading about Greg's own struggles in making the game from the ground up really made me experience Wandersong in an even brighter light than I already did-- that's amazing!

Please. Please Wandersong. Tell your friends, too!

Very cute and charming, was shocked at how genuine this game felt in terms of its themes and writing as I tend to bounce off hard when it comes to "quirky and twee" indie games but this felt like distilled hope in a precious little bottle and im happy I stuck with it all the way to the end this time (the playtime is so long because I shelved it for a year the first time and restarted it for this playthrough). The moment-to-moment gameplay itself ranged from middling to frustrating when the game decided it didn't feel like just being a rhythm game and there are bugs galore and easy to run into--nothing game breaking on my end but hard to ignore. Great experience, play it for yourself!

Got this game on Game Pass and, after beating it, had to come here and purchase it right away just to support its creators.

I need to tell here, in this review, how Wandersong saved me in an awful period of my life (both personally and as a creator). It might seem that I'm exaggerating, but I assure I'm not, it is a warm, wholesome experience that is so painfully overlooked. We need more games like this.

Going back a bit, after the first team I worked in released our first game, we got a few emails of fans thanking us for things such as localizing the game into their own language. It was no life-changing situation, but I always wondered what could drive someone to personally write to a creator out of gratitude. Oh well, now I can finally relate.

So after some real bad experience as a developer I was stuck with the first mediocre job I could find since I was drowning in months of no income, and then a global pandemic hit and I lost that job and was forced to be locked up at home for months. Yay!

At that point, I lost my strength. I could barely get myself out of bed, I didn't want to talk to anybody, I didn't have the willingness to do anything and once the lockdown ended I was so apathetic that I didn't even want to go out for a walk. I stopped reading, watching movies and specially playing games. I saw myself as a complete gamedev failure that couldn't do more than a couple of games, and hated this industry so much for making things that hard for small independent creators.

And then came Wandersong.

A friend, trying to help me a bit, gifted me a Game Pass subscription and heavily recommended me this game. I was reluctant to get back to gaming but after a few weeks of back and forth he got me to start Wandersong. Thank goodness I did.

This game healed me, big time. Everything in it was so powerful that it got me out from the dark pit I was in and reminded me that there was still light shining outside. I think it was its extreme positive aura that changed my perception of my own reality. At first it was its visuals, then it was its goofy characters, then its music (I freaking LOVE A Shell in the Pit's soundtrack!!!), and then I was finally ready and open for what was about to come afterwards in the game.

I really enjoyed playing through such a white game. So pure. So honest. I didn't even know about Wandersong or the reasons behind its creation, and yet I could immediately connect with the person behind it. The way everything was built, written and shown made me feel excited, emotional. Happy. It felt like a gift, somehow. I loved how it talks about the power of being yourself, and how you can actually make an impact in the world not by force, but by just believing in you and your own strenghts. It made me reflect on my own path and ideals, on my projects and aspirations. It made me think about friends, about home, and made me want to again keep fighting for what I believe in. There's still good in this world and we need to protect it.

Then, the game got even better as it progressed with the plot and character development. The dynamics between the Bard and Miriam, and specially her journey of self-discovery and self-appreciation, really hit me. That short conversation scene at The Crater, man. I needed that, those words, to start producing my own change of heart about myself and how I saw things.

And to top all that I was in constant awe due to the endless stream of creativity Wandersong displayed. The gameplay design was always on point and every new Act came with its own terrific gameplay ideas, I can't believe how many different and unique mechanics I encountered during my playthrough. Also, Greg Lobanov came up with one of the bestest implementations of the concept of Achievements I've seen to date, really good narrative choice to use them to show how the Bard is perceived as unnecessary in the story that even the trophies are achieved by someone else and not the player. Also, dedicated dance button FTW.

This work inspired me to keep creating, and that's the beauty of it. It reminded me of the power of videogames, this is what this medium can really achieve and I want to be part of that in my own way. I can only dream of being able to create something this impactful someday, but I will at least try.

That's why, thanks to this game, I got the determination to assemble a new team and we are already working on a small project. Wandersong got me again into game development and I will forever be grateful to this precious little gem. Now that things are starting to roll again I felt that this was the right time to finally make up my mind and write this full review. You made an impact in someone's life with your work Greg, please never forget that.


Wandersong is special. Thank you for it.

(pls read my PS if you are a fellow trans person who is worried abt a scene another reviewer described as transphobic)
quite literally my most favorite game of all time. i think this games story genuinely has the power to change peoples outlook on life and their opinion of themselves for the better; and it is a story that needs to be told now more than ever. a powerful tale of friendship, hope, love, music, discovering your worth and the worth of even the smallest things, and why its worth it to keep trying and keep fighting for a better future and world even though its hard and feels damn near impossible. be prepared for some serious soul cleansing crying. if you are reading this, please play wandersong.
PS as a trans person, i personally did not interpret the scene another reviewer referred to as transphobic to be transphobic at all, i actually interpreted it the exact opposite way and was left very impressed with the trans representation in this game. however i can understand why people might be made uncomfortable by this scene. i think it is down to the individual as to whether or not this scene is bothers you.

CWs for Wandersong: familial death, body horror

Wandersong is an earnest adventure-platformer. The game is packed to the brim with RPG homage and stapled to the dinkiest toy keyboard you've ever played with. The meta-narrative move to have the player characters discuss being or not being The Hero isn't really interesting to me when it's being on the nose or working through homage. The same thought, however, is really phenomenal when characters are dancing and bouncing off one another in this kind of comics and theater kind of mode. It's quiet and somber and kind of strange when you realize things do and don't revolve around you.

The best way to describe Wandersong's gameplay is that it's like an RPG without battles. The obstacles that the player has to overcome mostly consist of figuring out how to progress, usually by talking to townspeople in order to trigger some sequence of events. Does this mean there's nothing to the gameplay? Pretty much. This isn't a dealbreaker, as there are some dialogue-focused games that I do enjoy, but Wandersong is not one of them. The reason for this is because the dialogue is not good. There's been a recent epidemic of certain indie games all having the same brand of terrible writing- every character speaks like a teenager on the Internet. You know exactly what I'm talking about- lowercase letters, being overly "wholesome," usage of quirky language like "heck." It's all lazy, and it's all in an effort to create artificial charm and likeability that isn't really there. It's bearable in something like A Short Hike because of the gameplay around it, but when there's nothing to distract from it, like in Wandersong, it just gets really, really grating. Couple it with a boring meta-focused plot that wasn't clever the first dozen times it was done and it's almost painful.

Let's focus on the positives now- after all, that's what the game's main character would want. Although the puzzles are extremely easy, the way they're all integrated in with the singing mechanic in different ways is pretty well done. Likewise, certain wacky turns of events, like suddenly being in a non-linear platformer, or being trapped in a Majora's Mask-esque scenario, or sailing through the world map with a band of pirates, are pretty appealing and give you a reason to keep playing in spite of the dialogue. All in all, it should've fully been a rhythm game with some puzzle elements instead of just having occasional rhythm segments that are oddly impossible to fail.

Wandersong is very good and you should go out and play it. A lot of it is about what it is to be a hero and saving the world without hacking and slashing.

It has many great characters in it (having given up coffee, I especially liked the pirates). The music is delightful and the story line zips along nicely.

And you think it's shown you all that it can do mechanically and it comes up with something new.

There were some boss fights that I felt could be shorter and one or two points that I got a bit waylaid, but overall it's good.

And being able to do goofy dances and sing at inappropriate times was lovely.

I enjoyed this more than the hour or so I spent with Bard's Tale. Best barding game I've played to date (though maybe I should go replay The Bard's Tale (2004)).