The first review I'm ever writing on Steam. Mild spoiler warnings but nothing too telling.

This game was a phenomenon - I highly recommend it to both my friends who may see this review and the general consensus.

The game follows a (briefly) un-named Bard, who loves to sing. Turns out that whilst a lot of people are against this lifestyle of singing your way to victory, it pulls him a long way through a very colourful and deep journey to save the world - because he wants to, not because he was chosen to.

The appeal of the game is in its bright visuals and booming soundtrack. The game ties in the music wheel into practically every moment. You can sing during cutscenes to change your dialogue box's colour - you can sing whilst running. You can sing whilst running AND dancing! You can sing whilst hugging people, you can sing before the camera even pans down to show that you're singing!
The game is split into acts - seven of them - and each act has its own songwheel which has its own colours and notes.
Whilst Wandersong is mainly about positivity, inclusiveness and forgiveness, it actually doesn't solely explore those tones. After a while you'll come to realise that from the dialogue and certain events, the game can actually be very real and very brutal and points - brutal used in the sense of the game's world.

The story is cohesive and plays out well - although I personally found the best parts of the story to be dealing with individual characters rather than the 'I gotta save the world!' attitude it pulls you in for the ride with. I had some gripes with two of the main characters (the Bard being one of them) but they didn't put me off enough at all, and only came about because of a few scenes.

The gameplay is solid, smooth and most of all - forgiving. The game may give you a little bit of a fiddly time at some points but no matter where you mess up, the game doesn't halter your progress, it just lets you give it another go and move on with things, which is nice. This game isn't here to kick your butt and destroy your soul, rather make you a nice cup of tea and talk about things. The platforming and puzzles never get too out of whack - I only found myself stumped or frustrated for a minute or so every time I got stuck. The puzzles are very satisfying and make sense, there's no cryptic aspect about any of them but with some you may need to use a tinsy bit of thought.

The soundtrack is absolutely stunning. There are sombre moments, explosive moments, quiet moments, exciting moments and the backing track in every single one of this moments is appropriate. Some of my favourite tracks include the song in The Crater and the Mermaid's song - it was really funny to me how much low bass the Mermaid's song has, but in the end it sort of fit. You'll know what I mean if you keep this in mind if you come to play the game. The soundtrack can change depending on what note you're singing, what part of the current map you're in, or what characters are in the current situation and how they're feeling. Each character does have a theme that gets changed a little depending on the situation - it's brilliant sound design perfect for a Bard-based story.
Not to mention the game always tries to 'fill in' the music for you. Even if you're not a musical genius, performing a song in the game can sound good even if you're really sloppy, as the game's soundtrack loops at perfect moments and polishes off any choppy notes you play when you're required to perform.

You may be disappointed with this game if you're expecting a story that 'makes sense'. The story breaks its own rules over and over but also bangs the nail into the coffin in terms of adventure. This is a magical journey that is huge and feels expansive and you feel like you're in over your head for a bardlet at times, and that's how it's meant to make you feel. Each area is unique but not in a way that you'd expect. The towns still feel like man-made habitable areas. There's no floating islands or underwater cities or cliché thematic to each town. A town is still a town where people live and interact - the areas are not trying to amaze you with the weird and wonderful things they can be, they're just what they are and whether you love them or hate them they're at least somewhat memorable.

The game is also fairly long - it definitely warrants its price tag. It's not too expensive but not cheap by any means, but with the care and passion put into it it's one-hundred-percent deserving of £15 / $20.

My faults with this game come from the side-story and side-characters. You have to interact with so many that they sort of blend in and only the prime side-characters of each act are memorable. The dialogue is very well-thought out and there's a LOT of it, so you can miss a lot, each character does feel like they have a 'personality' instead of being machine-like NPC filler, and even those that are filler admit to it. The problem is there's not much to do outside of platforming, puzzles and talking to NPCs and a lot of the NPCs don't really do anything for you except give you fluff for the current Act or situation. There's a very minute amount of dialogue that may change the game (for example the tourist in Mohabumi) but maybe that's okay because the story of the game doesn't directly involve those characters, they just help you along.

Please, give it a try. If you don't like it, that's fine but it's hard not to like this game unless you're a person who hates happiness, and if so - that's okay too. Even the game isn't all about happiness ALL the time.