The Metronomicon Review – Sweet Blend of Music & Role-Playing With Fantastic Results

The Metronomicon Review

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to preview The Metronomicon at PAX West and to quote that preview, this was a game that I could not stop thinking about. Thrilled with the chance to take on the review for this game, I strapped myself in, grabbed my guitar hero guitar and my game pad and got right to work.

The Metronomicon follows the recent graduates of the “Neon Shield” with the Grand Master giving his final speech to his former students. Having studied the Metronomicon and mastering the Dancing Arts, Clark, Violet, Gwen and Wade set off to travel the world to put an end to the mysterious creatures, their loud music and their unsightly and terrifying ravings and party crashing.

At the beginning of each round, players will be introduced to their four playable characters, which you can swap out later on for different characters dependent on need, each available spell as well as the the track pad that has been made familiar to us by Dance Dance Revolution. To initiate your players attacks, you’ll have to first complete each wave of notes successfully to cast that characters level one spell, attack or buff. Need to cast Gwen’s level 2 Taunt? You’ll have to successfully clear 2 waves of notes before toggling to the next character to activate it. Need to finish off the water based monster that’s just joined in the jam? Successfully clearing three waves will activate Violet’s level 3 lightning will do the trick. You can use the WASD or the arrows keys to hit the moving notes and using left and right shift, you can then toggle to the next character. If you’d prefer to use a controller, plug it in before the game starts to calibrate it’s settings. Feeling daring? The Metronomicon is also able to support guitar hero guitars and even a dance pad!

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“One of the best things that The Metronomicon has to offer is the amount of side quests and extras that you can do.” 

Along with your primary attack, your team also has a set of secondary abilities that will activate whether or not the specified character is currently dancing. Some secondary abilities require a certain amount of waves to be executed and more powerful ones will require those beats be completed in a row.

On the other side of the screen where the enemies are, it will display a life bar that is colored to a specific element. For example a green health bar indicates an earth element and by playing strategically, you can use a fire based attack or magic to take his health down further. However if using an attack with the same element, it will do less damage. Playing to your opponents weakness’ and allowing your team members to aid each other with healing spells, buffs and strong attacks is a great way to incorporate the strategic element of the game giving it much more depth than your standard rhythm game.

One of the best things that The Metronomicon has to offer is the amount of side quests and extras that you can do. By entering the Arena players will get to choose from different leagues to complete a variety of challenges which will earn them cool swag  that their party can equip to enhance their dancing. Head on over to the Work Shop where you can spend your hardly earned street cred towards developments for your school such as the DJ room.

With a silly story line and wacky characters you can only assume that the art style itself has to be just as vibrant and fun. Which it is! The graphics were bright and vivid and almost everything was dancing along to a beat. Were the character designs unique? Not exactly as it was designed for that characters specific role, tank, healer, mage etc, however they did add a very groovy flair to each character.

With a story mode that has over  50 playable tracks, you can bet that this game has an amazing sound track which will have you dancing as you’re playing along. The music itself are officially licensed tracks with a few original tunes, a particular favorite of mine being Jimmy Urine (Mindless Self Indulgence). Those lucky enough to pre-order the game on Steam will be receiving a digital sound track containing all 13 instrumental tracks from behind the game to keep the party going.

As a Rhythm RPG, the team at Puuba wanted to keep the strategic elements of a good role playing game but to also speed it up. The Metronomicon offers fun characters, a solid and wacky story line, strategic elements and some really great tunes. And with the colorful and fun character design, this is a game that should be dancing into everyone’s homes.

**A PC review code was provided by the publisher**