Hi there, I'm here to gatekeep Crypt of the Necrodancer.

After obtaining 31 out of the game's 61 achievements, with several characters left to beat and multiple major challenges ahead mocking me like Sisyphus's boulder, I've come to some important thoughts regarding this game and its ability to keep people playing it in the first place. Although I find the game greatly enjoyable, I will outline 3 major points for why this game may turn off most players from even beating the first part of the story.

1. Necrodancer feels like an old roguelite with some newer coats of paint

If you've played other rogue-like/lites, playing Necrodancer for a few hours will make you immediately aware that the game is essentially the last of the "old" rogue-lites like the first Binding of Isaac, Spleunky, and Rogue Legacy. While these other games have received sequels that built upon their initial mechanics, Necrodancer has been steadily added to over the years with some spinoffs like Cadence of Hyrule and the upcoming Rift of the Necrodancer. Notably, Necrodancer's story, random map generation, and interlocking systems pale in comparison to newer roguelites like Hades or Enter the Gungeon, despite a veneer of meta-progression that has become the standard for today's roguelites.

Contributing to this feeling is the rather bland aesthetic and atmosphere of Necrodancer. Even games released around the same time like Binding of Isaac and FTL are iconic for their grimy and isolated atmospheres respectively, but Necrodancer has what is initially a generic fantasy art style that transitioned to something more anime inspired over the course of 2 DLCs (now Hatsune Miku is even in the game). Noticeable consequences of Necrodancer's inconsistent and blander art style is the contrast between character art of the original set of characters and newer DLCs, the re-skinning of Cadence's character model for all of the characters, and the clutter of different modes and training rooms on the game's main menu.

2. Necrodancer's gameplay is as wide as a puddle, but as deep as the Mariana trench

Necrodancer's rhythm mechanic is so important, that if you remove it (as the character Bard and "no beat mode" do), the game becomes a very stripped down turn-based dungeon crawler, ironically becoming closer to its progenitor rogue-like games than the many other rogue-lites that followed it. By putting a time-limit on each "turn" of a classic roguelike by setting it to a beat, Necrodancer has turned what would otherwise be a simple game into one with an extremely high mechanical skill ceiling. Luckily for Necrodancer, this is the last time Danny Baranowsky composed a worthwhile soundtrack for a game, so the songs (and multiple guest remix soundtracks!) don't let the rhythm mechanics get old.

So, where exactly does all the mechanical skill come from beyond staying on-beat? For Necrodancer, this is from a mix of recognizing enemy patterns, the difficulty of numerous characters, and the superhuman endurance needed for many of the game's later challenges and achievements. Enemy movements and attack patterns are the main "knowledge" component of getting better at Necrodancer, which is made difficult by the lack of telegraphing for many enemy attacks (You have a single beat to react to a red dragon's infinite range fireball!) and the randomness element of throwing a dozen of these ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in a cramped room while trying to stay on tempo. Its as if the spirit of Terrence Fletcher from Whiplash has come to throw a virtual chair at you for being out of tune with the single black skeleton that just took 2 out of your 3 starting hearts on the first floor of the dungeon.

3. Necrodancer has a Calvinist approach to player retention. You were either pre-selected to enjoy this game, or are guaranteed to go to hell.

Taking one look at the Necrodancer global achievements has made most people realize something is pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up about how this game designs its main set of challenges. There is a completion rate of ~45% to 8% for beating the game with the STARTING CHARACTER (Zones 1-4) and most other achievements hover around 1% or less, with the achievement for actually completing the main story (Aria All-Zones) being 0.6%. What the hell went wrong along the way that made the majority of players not even beat the game with Cadence? Is Necrodancer just the Steam equivalent of a DDR machine where you have the average person playing 3 songs and leaving or the Asian college kid grinding out full clears on the highest difficulty?

I'm not sure if the game changed gears when it was being developed through early access or what, but the overall escalation in difficulty from Cadence to Aria (and several of the unlockable side characters) is pretty absurd. You go from Cadence, with no unique abilities, to Melody, with a unique weapon you have to use, and finally Aria, who expects you to beat each zone (12 or 15 total levels) in reverse with the worst weapon in the game without missing a beat or getting hit (Dont worry, you get an item that lets you make only one of these mistakes for the whole run). To put this ♥♥♥♥ into perspective, the average rhythm game dares you to full clear a 2-5 minute song to say you truly mastered it on your selected difficulty. Necrodancer asks you to full clear the entire soundtrack in one go if you even want to see the ending of the story. Its no wonder that this game is played by a stable population of a few hundred dedicated challenge grinders, and a transient population of people getting scared off by the high skill floor required to succeed.

4. Conclusion
Knowing myself, I'll keep grinding this game for many hours to come, as the rhythm mechanics and challenge are incredibly fun for me. But if this level of difficulty doesn't appeal to you, then your 15+ dollars are probably better spent on other roguelikes with more respect for the time needed to beat them. I haven't even mentioned the characters that make you re-learn entire mechanics like needing to avoid gold (Monk), playing the game at double tempo (Bolt), or doing both of those things at the same time while being locked to the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ weapon and not missing a beat (Coda, the ultimate challenge and "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥" by the developers). Lets not even get to achievements that want you to finish the game with all characters in a row, or one character 10 times in a row. Needless to say, Necrodancer asks of its players more than any other game I've seen to say they've 100%'d it or mastered its mechanics. If you can handle that and dont just want to refund this game before the 2 hour refund window, start rolling that boulder up the hill.

Veri fun, fav roguelike by far even if some of the characters/challenges are a bit unfun/unfair (like aria, and I say that as someone who's completed all except zone 5 individually with her)

Gotta respect the devs for adding coda but at the same time i hate them for it
My ass is never gonna finish my 100% ;-;

This game changes you. Take that either as a positive or a negative.