Blending together two genre's of the game industry isn't always something easy to do, let alone a compatible option in most cases, but here is Akupara Games to show that almost any two genre's can be mixed! Their title The Metronomicon: Slay The Dance Floor was originally launched on Steam back in 2016 and is now bring brought to the console!
Metronomicon blends together the music game genre with the elements from an RPG! At first I couldn't imagine these two going together well, but it turns out to be one of my favorite games that I have played so far! Here's the console launch day trailer:
Story
With a silly story, it features a team that graduated from dance academy and is off to fight the rave's that keep sprouting up. With the rave's comes new music and new monsters! While you may make some friends along the way, it will take the effort of them all to put an end to the monsters reign of terror and fight them on their own floor; the dance floor that is!
Gameplay
Each character will have their own move sets and specialties, just like an RPG. You have the medic, the sorceress, the beast, the brute, and a few other characters that have a range of moves that can do elemental damage, stunning, healing, or some other ability.
When you are doing a battle, you have to land a sequence of notes in order to place an attack, using one character at a time. Although the moves are adjustable, they let you pick which attack you want to do from the three options you have. Highlighting a section with blue to signify attack "a" to red being attack "b" and to yellow as attack "c," each one is different and knowing your characters will be key to your success!
The enemies do fight back and can place some hard hits! Not to mention the fact that if you don't kill one, more will just join them to increase the amount of attacks your team must endure!
During most of the songs, the goal is simply to survive till the end of the song. Obviously this is different for side quests since they have a specific goal given to you, but the hardest of the song fights lies with the boss battles. Bosses must be killed before the song ends or else the battle is considered lost, which can be more trouble than imagined thanks to when they jump out and send in some troops as substitutes for sections of the fight. I think they did a great job at how they set it up and it even makes sense!
There are some variables that come in to play during the battles as well. There is what they call "meteor attack," which is basically when you aren't hitting a full combo for the sake of doing an attack but because the arrows are all damaging if they are missed! Some heavy creatures can do this as well as the bosses. Then there are times where a giant rock will be thrown at a character and if you are mid-arrow stream then you better drop the combo and switch the character you are using or else they are going to take a heavy hit!
They are also bringing an endless mode option, but even before this there is the arena which will have challenges for you to complete in order to earn some more street cred, which you use to upgrade your menu options with even more options!
Graphics
Each area has their own design, which is pretty cool, and the enemies have a good variety of creatures and costumes. All of the characters, including the monsters, dance during the battle and their attacks are in the form of a dance move, which is rather amusing. While nothing looks outstanding or eye catching, this is a good subtle mix to have with a game where you will need to focus on which move to use next and the stream of arrows that constantly rain down the track!
Sounds
Of course not every song on the playlist is going to fit everyone's preference, but the variety of styles can easily bring a favorite or two choices for each player. There are also sound effects for the different elemental attacks and when you take damage, but majority of your focus will be on the songs which have a good mix and rhythm to it majority of the time.
Replayability
There is always room to improve your score and skill along with more features to unlock! Then there are the side quests, the arena, and the upcoming endless mode to look forward to. Plenty of reasons to return to this game and put another playlist together!
What Could Be Better
I would of loved a versus mode with other players. While there is co-op to work with a friend, it would be cool to go head to head and prove who is the better fighting team and music player! Or even a chance to be the boss and fight your friend who is the team trying to defeat you and end your party.
Final Verdict
The game is a lot of fun and easily addictive! From the moment I started playing it, I caught myself constantly promising "one more song," but it was never just one more song! I thoroughly enjoyed this mix of genre and would love to see the music genre have an influence or mix with an even wider variety of game styles! Truly an innovative title worth the hours of game play I can guarantee any music gamer will put in to it!
