Crypt of the NecroDancer

Played this game for 1 hour and got so into the beat I accidentally ruined my NoFap streak.
This game is dangerous. Not safe for work. Not safe for life.
Every beat hits like a stroke.
Every enemy kill feels like delayed release.
Game made me question if I need therapy or just a metronome kink.
My meat is no longer mine.
It belongs to Danny Baranowsky.
10/10, I’d goon to Cadence again

I bought the game for Miku.
Turns out it's an extreme rythm based rougelike.
I didn't know what I was signing up for but even then the game has multiple settings for absolute noobs like me who don't want to get good at the game but just jam to the music, which I really appreciate. Came for Miku, got Miku, I'm satisfied, cool rougelike too btw.

This game is too hard for me, but it doesn't matter. I love moving to the feel of the rhythm, and how every failure feels earned. Oh, and the music rocks.

This one is certainly a bang for your buck.
The idea behind the gameplay is simple. It won't take long to get the hang of the rhythm element, and needing to dance around each enemy's predictable pattern is punishing but fair, and very fun.

The difficulty is highly adjustable, with one character allowing you to completely ignore the rhythm, moving at your own pace, and plenty of characters that increase the difficulty to the point where the challenge can be as great as you could possibly wish.

I personally have only scraped the surface of this game, but would still highly recommend it to those who want a challenging roguelike (seriously the game is just Rogue but if it was good and a rhythm game). with a banger OST.

And if it's of interest, you can play this game with one hand, as it only uses the arrow keys, which is nice.

I suck BAD at this game but it's so frickin' cool. If you have no rhythm or tactical skills you're boned. Super rewarding to win levels and sick music to boot.

I've put hundreds of hours into this game, it's tons of fun with a simple to learn, hard to master gameplay loop. Definitely recommend.

hard game in both senses

This is yet another game that I purchased many years ago to play with friends, but ended up finding it to be too challenging, so it stayed unplayed in my library for many years. I decided to pick it up again recently though, and once I put in the time to learn the game, I found that it was actually pretty fun, despite it's fairly high difficulty.

There isn't much for story content in this game (which seems to be fairly common for games in the roguelike genre), so if you're searching for narrative content, you might be disappointed. This game does reward you with a short cutscene every time you complete a zone with one of the main characters (Cadence, Melody, and Aria), and these cutscenes are well done, but made me wish that there was more of a focus on narrative, as they're pretty brief. The character and enemy design is neat too, and I love the way music was incorporated directly into the design of many of the enemies.

The gameplay is very entertaining though, at least once you get over the initial learning curve. The game throws you into various dungeons full of enemies, where you and the enemies all move on the beats of the music. This means you'll need a good reaction time to make sure you're staying on beat and reacting to the enemies around you, but also means you'll need a good memory to remember exactly how each enemy moves, how much health they have, and what patterns you need to use to defeat them. This makes the game pretty challenging to learn, and it can be a bit frustrating early on when you're forced to die repeatedly to learn how every enemy behaves. There is an area where you can practice against enemies you've already defeated, but it would be nice if the game had a place that just explained what each enemy did rather than forcing you to learn it through trial and error. Most enemies also telegraph when they're about to move or change behaviour, but there are a few that don't, which can also be a bit frustrating, as you're sometimes forced to guess what will happen next. The game does gets easier as you unlock the various weapons and items, especially when you unlock the ability to purchase starting weapons and items, and once you eventually learn the patterns to each enemy, it is quite fun, but it can be a bit of a slog to get there.

I should also mention that this game does support online multiplayer and has mod support, but only if you purchase the SYNCHRONY DLC. I'm really not a fan of the decision to lock this functionality behind additional paid content, and I feel like this should have been included in the base game.

The game looks great with a nice pixelated art style, the music is fantastic, and I didn't encounter any bugs while playing through the game on my Steam Deck or on PC.

TL;DR This is a fun, rhythm-based roguelike, with a neat (albeit brief) story, cool enemy design, fun gameplay, great visuals, and excellent music. It's quite difficult though, has a steep learning curve, and online multiplayer and mod support is locked behind a DLC, which is unfortunate. Despite this, if you're a fan of rhythm games or roguelikes and are looking for a challenge, I'd recommend picking this game up.

I'm not good at rhythm games, but this one is a gem. I love being able to upload songs I have to the game. It's a nice way to get myself grounded and focused on something if I'm feeling overwhelmed.

Incredible soundtrack, captivating gameplay, and it always has you returning for more. Who knew you could integrate rythm into a dungeon crawler so well?

Even After recently buying this game a few months ago I'm still Fighting to the Beat!

If you enjoy Epic Music, Rythem-based combat, and the occasional Difficulty Then you'll love this Game!

I Also Recommend the DLCs if you can afford them.

I'm certain you'll have fun fighting to the beat while listening Music so good It Wakes the Dead.

9/10

Taught me how to get away with murder. 10/10

Game wasn't for me sadly but its a great game and I understand why people love it.

Bought this thinking it was the other game but its still fun

its ike hit the thing on the beat and it makes the music

I loved the music so I thought I'd love the game, unfortunately I didn't like the core game mechanic. Some will like it, some wont. Probably try it first and return it if you don't like it

A really fun and unique experience. The game is divided into 5 level sections, which helps keep each play session short and manageable. This prevents the game from feeling too difficult or overly punishing after a death. It's a considerate and thoughtfully crafted design choice.

Concept good (orthogonal movement dungeon crawler).

Character where you're not constantly forced to stay in time with the music best, just play until you unlock them and then it turns into a really fun puzzle game (not a fan of time pressure).

Get!

The best rogue like game to ever do it

Dark souls is far easier than this game. I recommend it.

I wish I could get in to this game more. Probably a lot of fun, but closer to Zelda than Guitar Hero.

I never made it past zone 3, but it has Hatsune Miku (as a DLC), so 10/10

Very fun with friends, local or online (need the synchrony DLC), I had tons of fun and the music slaps

Fun Game once you get the hang of it.

game makes me shake my ass

It's really hard. I still have 5 achievements left to get. I'm expecting another 400 hours at least. But at least it's fun.

very fun unique game :)
happy 10 years!

Pain to move - Pain to play - Pain to force yourself to finish the game.
All the charm game offers goes downhill after a while.

For me this game is one of a kind. I totally would recommend getting the game and playing it because it is so good. The unique gameplay, the hundreds of music tracks in the game i just insane, the mods from the community, the great developers. All of that and even more make the game insanely good. I love the replayability in the game and the difficulty make the game even more exciting when you win. It can be a frustrating at times for some people when they lose or die in the game, but how can i be mad at a game like this when the music keeps me happy and makes you want to play more and more.

I will be continuing to play this game and all NecroDancer games for along time, because they are so addicting.

Also Happy 10th Birthday Crypt of the NecroDancer. I hope every game related to this franchise will be as successful and fun bringing as this one.

Genre-defining but still better to get it on sale. The majority of the game is pretty difficult, so be prepared for that. You can still be kind of casual if you don't mind not clearing all of it.

Edit: Should mention that the most important feature of this game is the MUSIC.

Randomness makes it a frustrating experience

good game it is cheap and fun for aslong as you want to play it

Its fun, but MY GOD is it challenging. XP

Good Game. Do recommend.

bought because i liked the rift demo, i suck at this but i can play as miku so its worth it

This game is incredibly difficult, which can lead to some high highs, but can also easily lead to frustration/burnout. If you can deal with the initial grind of learning all the items and enemy behavior, it can be a really rewarding experience, and all the different characters add a nice amount of variety in playstyles and challenges. Also plenty of item variety to keep things fresh. I've been playing on and off since 2017, but only recently have started trying to dive deeper into the game, and it's been a blast.

There's also a lot of detail and thought to make the game actually playable/readable, with pretty much every enemy having some tell on when they're about to move/attack. The difficulty comes from managing multiple enemies, all that move on different intervals and methods of attacking, while moving in time with the rhythm. The OST is also good, and they even give you the option to substitute the tracks for each level with your own if you want to.

If you like roguelikes and rhythm games, this is definitely something to look at, but the difficulty curve could be a turn off. If you're fine with difficulty though, I would 100% give it a shot. This game really is a labor of love, as they've been adding updates/DLC to the game all the way up to 2024, nearly 10 years after the game initially launched, though I think they're pretty much done with the game now.

Rogue, but fast!

I slaughtered entire deep blues' family and he went BLARRGGRR!

TLDR; For every enjoy-er of dungeon crawlers & difficult rhythm games, this is a must have. The disco floor is calling you. 9/10
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The Good

[ + ] movement/attacking/skills/item are all actions tied to the beat, bringing a refreshing take to both the dungeon crawler & rhythm genres in one go
[ + ] clever mix of the two genres; all movement is directly tied to the beat & a coin multiplier that have replaced a predetermined step chart and needing Perfect steps, the directional combat system replicates the standard arrows with multiple layers of unexpected complexity, everything has heavy emphasis on not getting hit/messing up your combo & the more you mess up, the harder it is to recover.
[ + ] DOPAMINE ~\(≧▽≦)/~
[ + ] multiple boss & mini-boss fights, with exclusives that give you motivation to venture out into All Zone clears
[ + ] the in-game pixel art is clean and well done
[ + ] wide variety of characters that each bring their own flavour to the table
[ + ] while it does require a DLC to access, has fully functional multiplayer (both PVP & co-op)
[ + ] in-game built in level editor, mod portal & custom rules
[ + ] digital gods be praised, there's a fully functional Save & Quit that lets you pick up a run from anywhere at anytime
[ + ] in-game option to stagger start when you un-pause that counts you in AND plays back 1-10 seconds of the track, allowing you to pick up the beat again once without having to attack your keyboard in panic
[ + ] absolutely stellar techno soundtrack(s)
[ + ] soundtrack not your thing? tired of hearing the same beats? no problem, game has its own built-in system for you to replace every single track with ease
[ + ] while it does require a DLC to access, mods are both fully supported and easy to do/control; large & relatively active mod community
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Worth Mentioning

[ -/+ ] Zone runs are around 7 to 15 minutes each & an All Zone around 25 to 60 minutes.
[ -/+ ] I'd definitely describe this game as chaotic; there's a LOT of visual noise that can get extremely distracting/confusing
[ -/+ ] Don't let the "Roguelite" tag in there fool you; the majority of the game is Roguelike & fully expects nose to grindstone. There is a "regular" mode where you can go play just 1 of the 4/5 zones at a time, but the available permanent upgrades are very limited and both those and the items you can purchase for diamonds found in said mode do not effect/carry over the mode you'll be in most frequently (All Zone). Death does not progress you and you have to start from the beginning, at square zero, each time.
[ -/+ ] Accessing the practice areas for specific mini-bosses/bosses requires both seeing them first & diamonds (a currency earned from playing regular Zones), and that requires some hammering away.
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The Bad

[ - ] Steep learning curve with, outside of the tried and true nose to the grindstone, little ability to alleviate the burden even when inside a grace period
[ - ] RNGesus is a cruel mistress.
[ - ] Albeit not as difficult as two or three of the optional/DLC characters, one of the main story characters is extremely unforgiving.
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I thought I'd find this game really fun but it's utter pain.

Movement is tied to the beat which feels frustrating to play with, especially when you have to travel a far distance and there's nothing between you and your destination. Each floor has it's own single song so the music can get repetitive rather quickly if you're stuck on the first few floors.

There's permanent upgrades which is nice, but you can't carry your currency over between runs so you have to play harder floors to continue to unlock things. So if you suck like me, you'll hit a steep difficulty curve unless you can push through.

There's a coin multiplier (also sometimes tied to damage or defensive items) that falls off if you miss a single beat. So it seems like you're encouraged to move with every beat and never stop. But then it's incredibly hard to read enemy patterns or do things like read item descriptions.

Basically the game feels more stressful than fun. But I think it's a really unique gameplay concept, so if you're into difficult roguelites and rhythm-based games, it's definitely worth a try.

My Rating: 2/5

Such a gem, I slept on this game for so many years but after buying it I can confidently say it is one of the most fun games I have played in a long time. Would 100% recommend the game for anyone who enjoys music and a good challenge. Its online multiplayer added in synchrony is also implemented perfectly and seamlessly. For such a low price on sale, this game is an absolute must-buy.

It's probably one of a kind game where you combine a rhythm game with a dungeon crawler.
And that's a great idea!

You'll probably like Crypt of the Necrodancer if (but not only if!): You were a 80s/90s kid who played early PC games that used the four-directional numpad arrow keys for movement; and you appreciate rhythm games with great music.

This game is tough as hell, to the point where it can actually be quite frustrating. I could see this turning some people off. However, Crypt of the NecroDancer offers a unique experience and gameplay loop. I really can't say there is another game like it. If it's on sale for a few bucks ($2.99 as I wrote this.) You should give it a try. I wouldn't recommend it at full price unless you know what you are getting yourself in to.

just started but i can already say the gameplay is great and soundtrack is 10/10. the narrative sometimes feels a little forced in but i don't really mind since it doesn't seem to be a big focus.

Todo el juego te obligan a entender como funcionan los patrones de enemigos mientras estas tomando decisiones y le seguís el ritmo a la música, no es malo el juego, mi mayor problema es el NecroDancer con Cadence ya que todo el juego te enseña la mecánica principal ya enseñada, me fume a todos los enemigos me fume demasiada mugre en cada zona (desde caballos que te eliminan los pisos para que no veas nada - desde monos que te joden la vida y dragones que si aparecen con ciertos enemigos es GG salvo el verde) y cuando llegue a NecroDancer.... se sacan una mecánica inventada de la nada donde dice " 2 JUGADORES" y ya esta perdiste porque el juego te hace jugar como si fuese JACOB Y ESAU (por tirar un ejemplo) como si fuese Isaac y tenes que seguir el ritmo de la canción

Y aunque pueda practicar el jefe no cambia nada porque el juego se le canta que CADENCE tenga la misma vida, si llegaste con poca vida gg

La música es un 10/10


Tenia ganas del RIft of the NecroDancer pero seguramente tiene malas mecánicas también y aunque no le gane al mencionado final boss, siento que para mi complete el juego

It was really difficult at first but once you pass that barrier, you start to see how in-depth the game can be! One of the most unique rogue-likes I've played!

The negative reviews are mostly *I bought a skill-based rhythm game and I'm not good at it, so the game as a whole is a negative.*

It's an amazing game.

unplayable game impossible to play unfun do not buy it is not possible to play this game its fukkd up sdiitggn fkng sdhti tgmame

The music fucks. Also there's miku now so the music fucks even more for more people, think about that vocaloid fans. Game is really fun and doesn't stop being fun. There's so much to master but if you don't wanna do all that you can just play the story mode and have a good time

I want to love this game, but some details about it really prevent me from getting hooked on it