Crypt of the NecroDancer: Nintendo Switch Edition (NSP, XCI) ROM + v4.1.0-b5138 Update

Crypt of the NecroDancer: Nintendo Switch Edition is a roguelike rhythm game by Brace Yourself Games. The game takes fundamental elements of a roguelike dungeon exploration game and adds a beat-matching rhythm game set to an original soundtrack written by Danny Baranowsky.

The player’s actions are most effective when moving the character set to the beat of the current song and are impaired when they miss a beat, so it is necessary to learn the rhythmic patterns that the various creatures follow.  The mixed-genre game includes the ability to import custom music, and the option to use a dance pad instead of traditional controllers or the keyboard.

The game was released for Linux, OS X, and Windows in April 2015, being co-published by Klei Entertainment, for the PlayStation 4 and Vita in February 2016, for the Xbox One in February 2017, and for Nintendo Switch in February 2018. Crypt of the NecroDancer Pocket Edition, developed for iOS, was released in June 2016.  A crossover title, Cadence of Hyrule, featuring music and elements from The Legend of Zelda, was released in June 2019 for the Nintendo Switch.

A spin-off game, Rift of the NecroDancer, is set to release in early 2024.  A hardcore, award-winning rhythm-based dungeon crawler. Survive, slay the NecroDancer, reclaim your heart – or be enslaved by the beat forever! Move on rhythm in random dungeons, fight dancing skeletons, zombies, dragons, and grooves to Danny Baranowsky’s soundtrack! Play co-op with a friend!

GAMEPLAY

Crypt of the NecroDancer is a top-down 2D roguelike rhythm game in which the player controls one of a selection of characters to explore several levels of an underground dungeon that are procedurally generated, similar to roguelike games. Players can manipulate their characters by using either a dance pad, a keyboard, or a gamepad. Unlike traditional roguelikes, the player can only have their character move or attack if they act on the beat of the music. Enemies drop coins when killed, and killing successive enemies without taking damage or missing a beat increases a coin-scoring multiplier.

Failure to match the beat does not directly harm the character in most situations but does reset the scoring multiplier and may cause the character to be harmed by a nearby monster if they are in their attack path. The character can also be harmed by moving into a monster’s path. When the character’s health meter empties, the game is over. Monsters move according to predetermined patterns that the player must learn to attack and avoid damage; skeletons, for example, target the player directly, but only move and attack on every other beat.

Crypt of the NecroDancer screenshot of the 0.244alpha version showing Cadence, a playable character (middle) next to two blue slimes (left), a titanium broadsword (right) as well as some dropped gold coins. As the player explores, they will collect new weapons, armor, usable items, and treasure; the player’s inventory is automatically managed by the game. Defeating monsters yields several coins that can be used to purchase items from shops within the dungeon. Some diamonds are used for purchasing permanent enhancements to the character’s abilities in the game’s lobby.

The dungeon is divided into four zones of four levels each. The first three levels of each zone require the player to find the exit and defeat a mini-boss to unlock it; the fourth level is a larger boss character that must be defeated to progress further.  Also, the player is limited to the length of the song to complete the level; when the song ends, they are automatically sent to the next level through a trapdoor, possibly landing them close to powerful enemies. The player returns to the game’s lobby area after dying or optionally at any time, losing any items, gold, or other equipment, though retaining any diamonds they have found.

The lobby features shops where the player can spend those diamonds for permanent upgrades before restarting the game or, if they have completed any zones, accessing the next available zone. The player can also access other game modes, such as “All Zones Mode” in which the player must make their way through the entire crypt without dying. The player initially has access to the main character, Cadence, but new characters with different modes of play also become available as the player completes certain goals: for example, the monk character receives one free item in each shop but immediately dies if he touches gold.

Special trainers and other beneficial non-player characters can be rescued from certain zones, and once rescued, will provide services to the player from the main lobby, such as letting the player train against enemies and bosses, or providing items that the player can buy with diamonds and use on their next journey into the crypt. The songs in the game’s soundtracks are ordered in ascending tempo across zones and levels, making deeper levels more challenging than earlier ones. The user additionally can set custom music for each of the game’s levels.

PLOT

In the main game, the player controls Cadence, the daughter of a famed treasure hunter who has gone missing. In searching for him, she falls into a crypt controlled by the NecroDancer, who steals Cadence’s heart and forces her to challenge his minions to retrieve it. She is forced to fight through the crypt’s dungeon with her actions tied to the beat of the music and her heart, to stay alive and defeat the NecroDancer. Near the heart of the crypt, Cadence finds one of the NecroDancer’s minions named “Dead Ringer”. She defeats him, revealing that it was her missing father, and frees him from the NecroDancer’s control, allowing him to help her defeat the NecroDancer. They take the NecroDancer’s magical golden Lute and use it to kill him, and then use its power to resurrect Cadence’s dead mother, Melody. However, they discover that the lute is cursed; Melody must keep playing it forever to sustain her life, but the lute will gradually consume her humanity just as it did to the NecroDancer. Melody enters the crypt in search of answers and a way to break the curse of the lute.

When Melody reaches the end of the crypt, she uses the Golden Lute to resurrect the NecroDancer and find answers, but he attacks and Melody defeats him.  The NecroDancer tries to flee but is cast into a crevice by Aria (Melody’s mother) who was lying in a coffin with a dagger in her chest and is brought back to life by the Lute. Aria reveals that she knows how to break the curse of the lute, but was betrayed by the NecroDancer and left for dead. Intending to finish what she started, she begins her ascent out of the crypt in search of a shrine that will destroy the lute once and for all. When Aria reaches the shrine, she is attacked by the lute itself, which mutates into a large monster in an attempt to save itself from destruction. After defeating the lute’s monster form, Aria sacrifices her life to destroy the cursed instrument, returning Melody to full life and allowing her to return to her family, who later buried Aria together.