Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical | Review in 3 Minutes
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- čas přidán 8. 08. 2023
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Elise Avery reviews Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, developed by Summerfall Studios.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/19...
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One of the most stacked (but celebrity-free) voice casts ever in a game. Im beyond excited to play.
Troy baker?
I get what you mean, celebrity free in terms of movie stars or mainstream celebrities. But VERY stacked if you are into the world of voice actors, people often seen in games or roleplaying shows. Which means this is definitely a great crossover of the two. And also musicals ofc.
Troy Baker and Laura Bailey is celebrities at this point
also Austin Wintory as the music director. his name alone sold me the game.
Just beat it. Besides the saving issue that’s been going around and the sound mixing being wonky at times, it’s great. The story really got to me in the second act, and the third was so emotionally intense I might have to take a break and go back to Baldur’s gate before I replay for some alternate paths.
I thought this was going to be a Michael Jackson joke at first.
This is probably as well as a game like this can work. The balance between game and song as its issues, but more game would make the songs unworkable and more song would just make this a CYOA singalong. The arbritrary constraints of clicky mystery games and the arbitrary constraints of musicals support each other better than expected.
This feels very much inspired by The Wicked/The Divine.
I'm glad I'm.not the only one who thought of that =D
they've definitely cited inspiration from it in the art style
Oh my God that's exactly what I was thinking as soon As I heard the premise.
Yes it definitely follows similar art style and character design. There are also elements of the Fable Telltale series in construction of the exploration and some choice mechanics, as well as lighting and tone from that game and comic series. Those comic series were both heavily inspired narratively and in tone by The Sandman series. And all in turn seem to draw from some narrative framing from Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality novels. It’s in good company.
I wouldn't be surprised if the creators of TWATD sued the video game creators.
As someone that watches Critical Role, the actual play, the voice cast of this feels both familiar and interesting. It also doesn't help that they advertised for it with glowing recommendations from the members that were part of the cast.
I worked on it and i recommend it 100% one of my top 3 QA project i had to work on
I've been anticipating this for a while and im soooo glad to see generally positive reviews!
It’s a unique experience. Character voice and motivations are great thanks to David Gaider’s and Austin Wintory’s writing and the stellar voice cast. Khary Paton as Pan is so sly and mercurial. Laura Bailey anchors the main character and the variations beautifully. Everyone so far has been awesome at portraying these larger than life and mortal figures.
Wasn’t sure how the musical elements would pan out with choices, but it works with the more evocative lyrics and the placement of decision points at musical transitions. It can be beneficial to stick with one tone if you just want to explore one mood or lyrical voice, but so far playing to what Grace might feel from moment to moment, in response to your view of her personality or the other singers, has felt more organic.
It’s well worth playing.
@@matthewsnow-zj1cu yeah I've just finished it. I think there's some little issues with the story structure and the central mystery but it didn't ruin my experience whatsoever, and I absolutely loved it! Will likely be replaying, and I really hope others come out with similar games
@@jackiecozzie4803 I can definitely see some of the less than smooth transitions between story beats and scenes, based on the order of choices to do certain things. None of it was immersion breaking enough in a first play through to stop the great momentum from the characters, presentation and music, so I just went with those. Overall, after having completed the story today was very impressed with how they were able to weave so much into a such an engaging experience. Glad you enjoyed it too. Would definitely play a sequel or expansion.
Was thinking about this one, and your video really helped; thanks for taking the time!
I was advertised meaningful choices and music. I got that. I've been very happy. (full disclosure, I helped crowdfund the game per my name in the credits lol).
Also, as a huge Dragon Age fan, considering who started this studio... yeah, I was in.
Okay, this seems really cool. I'm going to check it out.
Really interesting concept. I hadn't heard of this, but I'm definitely going to check it out now. Thanks for the review!
Hell yeah, Laura Bailey is a treasure
This does seem like an interesting visual novel
I just finished this game. It's amazing! So amazing with stylization and voice acting
It sounds really interesting.
This sounds kinda amazing!
Now this sounds cool!
Can someone tell me if you can disable the time limited choices thingy ?
I hate this kind of gameplay with passion. It ruined so many great games for me.
Yes you can.
Singing to convince people to help would make hire a lawyer a lot easier.
I played the demo but found that visually things jumped around a lot and were disorienting. Also, the way that musical numbers can change tone based on your choice is jarring. I was a theater kid who did musicals and the singing in this game was great but structurally was not enjoyable as a narritive game.
The visuals worked for me but I can see what you're saying. people do be teleporting across the screen.
As for the tone changes, some songs handle it better than others. There were a few songs where the switches felt jarring to me, but most of them worked well, although I can only speak to the choices I made during the game and the few songs I replayed a second time.
I think people's mileage will vary on how well the musical parts mesh for them, and whether the occasional bad transition will throw them out of the experience. The overall narrative structure and emotions of the story are good, and I think most people would probably notice the transitions but be alright with them.
seems kind of interesting actually
Nice
Could the escapist decide whether or not you want a return of shorter games? In every podcast and cold take you lord shorter games but when a 3MR roles around its back to "OnLY SIx HoURs"..
Almost like it's a company where multiple people work with different opinions.
When I say something is only 6 hours, that's not really a criticism, it's there so that audience members who hate short games can stay away.
I didn't say "the game is only 6 hours and should have been longer, longer games are better and this game is worse for being short" I literally said "the game is only 6 hours but those hours are amazing" which is what I say about every short game I like. I think games should be as long as suits them and hate when games are overly padded. If you watch my other reviews, you'll see me criticize games for being overly long and repetitive more often than I call them short and undeveloped, and I'd argue Stray Gods isn't either. It's a good length. I left wanting more instead of being bored.
There seems to be no way to phrase this nuance into one or two sentences that everyone will understand.
@@Elisenaps Maybe instead of "*only* six hours" use a positive adjective like: "svelte" or "packed": "At a svelte/packed six hours, this game avoids padding and pointless repetition, leaving me wanting more instead of being bored." Thanks for the review!
Feel kind of bad because it chose the wrong time to come out with so many great fantasy IPs coming out around it. I like seeing game designers trying something experimental, but this is a game I can't really recommend to most of my gamer friends even if I'm having a lot of fun.
Looks gay
Oh God no
Oh God, yes
So it is just a visual novel. Disappointed.
No thanks! i’ll stick to my Hollow Knight!
Okay pick me