A Fusion of Factions
What happens when you cross a roguelite with a city builder? This isn’t the setup to a weird joke, but the question that Lynked: Banner of the Spark seeks to answer.
In it, you play as a human in a world dominated by robots, with evil bots, called Combots, seeking to dominate it while you and the “Unibots” fight for peace. The game opens with a short cinematic sequence that sets up the premise for the world and then thrusts the player character into a prison break sequence. This functions as the tutorial on the combat and movement systems.
The Combat-Centric Loop
Lynked: Banner of the Spark revolves around completing main and side missions. These missions are broken down into several areas which are filled with enemies, traps, and chests that contain upgrades and weapons to use throughout the mission. As the difficulty scales up, these areas will contain more bosses and stronger enemies that will test your abilities. It is also possible to increase the difficulty of each mission, which makes stronger enemies appear in greater numbers, but also increases the mission rewards.
Main missions will progress the storyline, which sees you and your Unibot companions attacking Combat outposts and defeating their strongest forces. There are also side missions which allow the player to rescue more Unibots and completely specific missions requests for companions.
Building a Haven
After the initial prison break, you find yourself at your base camp, a remote area that is safe from the evil bots that are trying to conquer the world. It is here where the second major mechanic of the game is introduced: building a town for all the bots you rescue to live in. This includes placing specialty buildings, decorating, farming, fishing, and decorating your own home.
This is where the bots from the various missions take refuge, and beyond just building up a town for them to live in, this is where they can be interacted with. There are a ton of systems at play in the towns too. Unibots that are rescued as part of main story missions will have a specialized building that can be placed around town, and these act as shops for various resources, weapon upgrades, cosmetics, and more. Interacting with the Unibot that owns the building will start various missions that can expand store offerings and improve your relationship with them.
Recruiting and Relationship Building
Increasing your relationship levels gives points which can be used to upgrade combat abilities to make each mission a little bit easier.
On the other hand, Unibots that are rescued in side missions can sometimes be recruited to join you in combat. This gives you allies during the mission, each with their own abilities and benefits. These bots also have a relationship level that can be increased to improve their combat capabilities. Talking to them, giving them gifts, and even cooking their requested meals will improve their relationship and make them even stronger for your next run.
These systems all work together to give the combat a bit more variety than it seems at first. There are also different weapon types and special abilities and mods that can be unlocked and upgraded by improving relationships.
But at the end of each mission, you find yourself back at your town. Here is where all the colourful bots come together. It doesn’t take long for the specialty buildings to start filling up the space, and there are plenty of cosmetic items available. This includes materials for parks, home decorations, plants for growing, and more. This allows the town to be highly personalised to the player’s wishes.
There are also resource nodes, trees, and even fish to collect which can be used to craft more decorations, or sold at the town store for extra money. In all, there is a lot of content to explore and engage with throughout the game.
Pacing and Progression
The main criticism I have is in the pacing of the story and gameplay progression. While every main mission does progress the story slightly, Lynked: Banner of the Spark is a departure from other roguelites in the sense that every mission is meant to be completed without a ton of replaying. This is in contrast to other roguelites where the difficulty is typically higher and actually completing a run in its entirety is supposed to happen in incremental steps over the course of multiple playthroughs.
This isn’t inherently negative, but in other games, progressing to an area with a new theme is a result of playing well on a run. In Lynked, this progression is tied to completing a certain number of defined missions. This means the combat is more accessible, but also that the skill ceiling is much lower, which hurts the replayability compared to games like Enter the Gungeon and Hades where progression is tied directly to playing better the next time.
Again, this system can work, and for the most part it does, but it takes a while before new zones are unlocked which is when the enemies and art direction make significant changes. There is a certain amount of repetition that is required before this progression happens, and that’s the main struggle of the system.
Lynked: Banner of the Spark also suffers from some more minor “issues”, which I put in quotes because it’s fairly subjective. But the art style, while by no means bad, feels a bit generic which makes it hard for the game to stand out in a genre market that is completely saturated. Which is a shame because Lynked: Banner of the Spark is doing something unique with the genre that isn’t really seen in other games. The name itself also doesn’t lend itself well to describing anything about the game, which makes it easier for it to fall to the wayside.
A Unique Blend That’s Worth Trying
These are both easily overlooked once you start playing the game, but it may be offputting, or just not engaging enough for players that are trying to decide whether the game is worth trying.
My point is that those shouldn’t be things that deter players from trying it out if anything that’s been described in this review sounds appealing. Lynked: Banner of the Spark is not a perfect game by any means, but it is juggling a lot of systems that come together to make a unique experience. Combat is fairly simple, but it offers a decent challenge that can be customized for players looking for more of a challenge. However, there is a fully built out town management system that is also satisfying to engage with.
And both of these are connected by mechanics that rewards the player for interacting and taking advantage of both of them. It’s a great idea that may be lacking in some areas but still manages to lead to a satisfying experience.
Important Links
Roguelite Action Meets Cozy Life Sim in Lynked: Banner of the Spark – https://www.thexboxhub.com/roguelite-action-meets-cozy-life-sim-in-lynked-banner-of-the-spark/
Buy Lynked from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/lynked-banner-of-the-spark/9p07zx96dtp6
There’s a Complete Bundle if you want it – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/lynked-banner-of-the-spark-complete-bundle/9NMXPM9W3RJW/0010
