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Stray Gods - A Broadway Style Musical Murder Mystery

2K View2023-08-14

Hey folks, thanks for tapping and tuning in as I dive headlong into Summerfall Studios' recently released Visual Novel, Stray Gods - A Musical RPG. And they're not kidding on that front- so bear with me.

An Inspired Investigation

Stray Gods tells the story of Grace, whose mundane life as a would-be singer is abruptly de-railed due to a chance encounter with Calliope, The Last Muse. Last, because the old Greek Pantheons are real, and not -quite- as immortal as previously rumoured. A trend which continues to hold true, given Callope's blood winds up literally (but not figuratively) on Graces' hands.

Stranger still, she finds herself the impromptu inheritor of Callipe's Divine essence, taking up her mantle as muse, even as she finds herself introduced to the Grecian Mythos as the sole suspect in a murder case.

Something which leaves her with a single week to prove her innocence, lest she find herself summarily executed. Thankfully, though Grace has no leads, and very few friends - she does have one tool at her disposal. The muses' ability to inspire song, to cause those present to sing what's in their heart of hearts.

Now, as far as narrative quirks go, I found this fascinating- since it provides a beautifully integrated reason for the game's Broadway stylings. That said, the part that really struck me is, much in the same manner as the game's normal dialogue choices, you can make (timed) choices over the course of the song, drastically guiding what's said, the tone of the scene, and even the visuals.

It's a really neat detail to toy around with, really. At least, on the surface. In practice, there are some notable failings insofar as player agency when it comes to the story - and that's largely the fact that, while you can make choices, the central events during the route ultimately stay the same regardless of that choice, serving primarily to change up which character you'll have the opportunity to woo, or confer with.

Really, the biggest change that everything builds towards, is different epilogues to the entire ordeal.

Two Left Feet

But what does this mean about the actual act of playing? Well, as a visual novel, I did expect something fairly simple out of the gate, and that is what I ultimately got. While there are timed dialogue choices, you can disable those which don't occur within the context of a song, which means you're able to take your time and consider what choice you want to take.

In my case, this generally meant picking every question marked dialogue choice, since these provide a lot more context for the characters and events surrounding them. They also don't advance the conversation forward, so there's literally no downside to seeing all of them.

Other than that, the most notable options you can pick are character traits. Charming, Clever, or Kickass - you're given the choice of one at the start of the game, and another a bit past the midway point, all of which able unique ways of progressing forward through a conversation. These are -interesting-, but, again, the changes they made often didn't feel that significant, since they didn't really deviate the route, so much as a distant outcome. The most notable one I can think of, really, involves a chair- and is very strictly reserved for the Kickass Route.

Dancing To Your Own Tune

Even still, I did find myself going through the game again, because even though I did find myself running largely through the same scenarios, there were still entirely new song variants to encounter - and I am not exaggerating when I say these are an immense treat.

The voice acting is quite good as well, if -this- particular menace is any indicator.

Pan is -perfect-. And also, weirdly exempt from the sometimes odd audio balancing that crops up, where it feels like lines were recorded at different volumes, or a voice actor stepped back or towards a microphone mid-line.

As for the visuals, well- I generally found them to be appealing. The overall attempts at bringing modern variants of these characters to life were a lot of fun. Hermes for instance has some pretty good nods towards their traditional appearance baked right in. (They're just generally fun representation, at large).

Really, the only nitpick I have here, is that while there are some neat animated setpieces, the characters themselves feel very still, and there are definite moments where sometimes talking, and the character's mouth is closed.

Swan Song
Still, that's incredibly minor- so let's actually dive headlong into the finale, and on the whole? I did enjoy the overall innovations that Stray Gods brings. It's just a fascinating title, and not something I'd had the pleasure of encountering before. And, given that the music was at the very core of the experience, I do have to iterate, that it's this element that had me going through the game a second time.

Though, I should also emphasize that it is -specifically- this element, as it was this second playthrough that really highlighted the game's flaws. Or perhaps, 'flaw'. Simply put, you essentially can't -fail-. And I think that small detail -does- matter, since the game essentially verges on the cusp of feeling linear. There -are- choices you can make that overall change the final chunk of the game, but, much of the journey forward will still feel similar. Enough so that I got into the habit of skipping forward through the dialogue whenever I recognized that I was re-treading old ground.

(The only downside to this being that there is no log, so you can't actually check back on earlier lines, in case you accidentally skipped something you hadn't seen, or wanted to refer to something said earlier).

Ultimately, I'd have to say that I definitely considered this game a solid HIT, a title that I think definitely stands on its own merit, and provides a decent amount of content. That said, future replies definitely feel less substantial, and I'll admit that a lot of my excitement started to wear away by that point.

P.S. For those who may be concerned about the save issues- The devs were actually -super- on the ball here, and had it patched within a day or so.