Although music has always been a part of video games, a video game musical has never been a popular idea. Besides the occasional musical number, few have made musical performances part of their identity. However, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical has now implemented the concept wonderfully into a weird but beautiful game experience. It’s one that even those who aren’t fans of musicals should try.
What Is Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical?
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, as the title suggests, is a roleplaying musical game, developed by Summerfall Studios. Players assume the role of Grace, a college dropout, who is accused of murdering a muse. The musical mainly consists of proving your innocence to the remainder of the Greek Mythology pantheon, using newly acquired, Muse-esque powers. With the popularity of Greek Mythology in gaming, many players should feel right at home with Stray Gods. Many of the usual Gods and Goddesses, including Athena, Apollo, Persephone, and Aphrodite are present. Fans of games like Hades may want to check this new musical experience out as well.
Stray Gods Combines Musical Theater With Visual Novel Gameplay
Gameplay for Stray Gods captures the musical aesthetic excellently, creating a wholly unique experience. Stray Gods features tons of different dialogue choices, thereby letting the player choose Grace’s lyrics. By choosing different lyrics, players can change the course of the musical number and the story as a whole. Though it’s called an RPG, Stray Gods is more of an interactive visual novel than anything else. Most of the time, players will be sitting and watching the wonderful musical experiences rather than having a direct impact on the story. However, the musical segments are engaging enough to make up for the lack of direct gameplay. Though this may seem a bit weird for some, it’s an entertaining journey that is worth a try.
One of the main draws of Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, is the wonderful voice acting. Of course, a musical video game will need a strong vocal cast, and this one exceeds all expectations. This includes Khary Payton as Pan, Ashley Johnson as Calliope, Felicia Day as Athena, Troy Baker as Apollo, and Laura Bailey as the protagonist, Grace. Based on these characters alone, it’s safe to say that the musical has an amazingly talented cast. Additionally, it’s great to have the opportunity to hear some of these popular voice actors show off their singing chops. Everyone in the game has a terrific voice and wonderful personal style that make each musical number incredibly fun to listen to. To some, hearing popular voice actors in this new context may also sound weird but if you give it a chance, Stray Gods provides a great experience overall.
Stray Gods Has Some Issues but Is Great Overall
Stray Gods isn’t completely without its problems, though they don’t get in this strange roleplaying game‘s way too much. Some players have reported some audio desync issues where the text doesn’t line up with what is being sung. Others have reported that the audio mixing is off in some songs as well. Thankfully, these problems are not impossible to fix and should be handled quickly in updates. Still, some have found the lack of gameplay to be a bit off-putting, though as far as visual novels are concerned, Stray Gods is an extremely strong example of the genre.
Between the gameplay and story, Stray Gods makes for one of the most unique gaming experiences in recent memory. Steam describes the title as, “A musical for video game lovers, and a video game for musical lovers.” This phrase perfectly sums up the audience that should check out Stray Gods. Overall, trying Stray Gods may be a step out of many players’ usual gaming comfort zones. However, between the story, voice acting, music, art, and writing, this musical experience is something that players won’t forget for a long time. Hopefully, Stray Gods will go on to gain the recognition and popularity it deserves, leading to more weird musical experiences like it.
