Bardbarian
If you picked up Bardbarian today, you might be tempted to think of it as an ingenious crossover between Vampire Survivors and Plants Vs Zombies. You have your main character, who by spending a resource of musical notes, can surround himself with three other characters—to start with: archers, brawlers and mages—who fire off abilities on timers. You then have enemies that attack from the far right of an arena, attempting to destroy a town’s crystal on the far left.
So while you’re not in lanes, you have to prevent enemies from reaching the left of the screen, while also dodging their attacks, and all the time spending resources on boosting your gang’s attacks and recruiting new teammates should others fall. Then, gold gathered in each attempt can be spent to improve your units, the town’s defenses, and your hero’s core abilities.
Except, Bardbarian came out in 2014. Just seven years before Vampire Survivors. It’s extraordinary that such a splendid, solid game should have faded into obscurity, not least when it put in place almost all the ingredients for 2022’s format phenomenon.
It’s interesting to note that, if anything, Bardbarian has slightly too much going on. It’s Vampire Survivors’ stripped down approach that, I suspect, is so vital to its enormous success. (Although it would be remiss not to mention the Android’s Magic Survival at this point, given it came out before, and VS has so much in common with it.) But if you’re interested in a game that genuinely feels like an evolution of the concept, despite releasing so many years before, this is well worth grabbing.
