No Straight Roads is a game I waited ages for and ended up with very mixed opinions. It's solely held up by its music, characters, and presentation. Its gameplay is horrifically unpolished and boring. Luckily, its merits are still good enough to put it above mediocrity.

Gameplay:
No Straight Roads is a music-based action game centered around fighting bosses. The player can switch between the main protagonists Zuke and Mayday who each play slightly different. Zuke is agile and can attack faster. Mayday is more about offense and can do greater damage. Their controls never feel quite right and attacking can feel really clunky, especially with Zuke. Attacks never feel like the do that much damage either and can drag out fights for ages. Both characters can be upgraded with points obtained from completing boss fights and are pretty useful for the most part. Each character can also be equipped with small buffs using items found in the hub world. These item are temporary for whatever reason despite the fact that they can easily be grabbed again at any time. It turns them into a nuisance and I stopped bothering with them eventually. Dying is also annoying. Each character has their own healthbar and once one runs out, it's game over. This problem is luckily mitigated by the overpowered "continue" button on normal mode but on harder difficulties it is a bigger issue. Characters can be switched between at any time otherwise so having it be instantly game over if one dies is just pointless.

Before I get to the boss battles, I should talk about the sections leading up to them. The hub world is quite nice. It's well designed and there's plenty to explore and look at. It's one of the nicer aspects of the gameplay. The great presentation really gets to shine through in the hub. However, probably the worst parts of the game are the "levels" that need to be played through in order to reach a boss fight. They are repetitive, boring, and frustrating. It is essentially just fighting waves upon waves of mundane enemies through bland areas that serve no purpose. Occasionally these parts have platforming but it is never exciting and the controls don't help. They feel like they were added in to fill space. Thankfully, there is so reason to play through them again so they only need to be suffered through once.

Another thing worth mentioning are the rap battle mini games with Zuke's brother. Only one round is mandatory to complete the game and it is pretty good. The song is fun and the challenge is fair, but it does drag on for longer than it should. However, the second round is awful. It is way, way, way, way, way too difficult. This would be alright if the song wasn't around 8 minutes long. I haven't completed it, and probably never will. These mini games only seem to exist to give some extra characterization to Zuke and his brother so I'm probably not missing out on much.

Now for the boss battles. There is six in the game. Each one is very unique with its own theme and musical style. The battles are very lively and intense. However, this is ruined by the previously mentioned dragging that these fights do. The bosses are all absolute damage sponges and they each take a ridiculously long time to get through. Weirdly enough, the harder difficulties actually improve the game and sometimes make it easier just because they give the player more things to hit the bosses with. Attacks and strategies are generally well telegraphed until the last two battles. The battle with Eve is ridiculous. There is too much going on and damage is coming from all different angles with little time to react. The final boss is also a nightmare. She takes absolute ages to defeat. I can't count the number of times I died fighting her. The methods and attack patterns were also very vague and repetitive. It was essentially a culmination of everything wrong with the gameplay turned up to the highest degree.

The co-op in this game isn't worth it. I played it a good deal with my sister. There was tons of bugs. The game froze several times and controls suddenly stopped. We fought with the game up until the Eve fight where it just refused to work. Don't play co-op.

Story and characters:
This is where No Straight Roads shines. Its characters are memorable, unique, compelling, and wholly lovable. At least the main characters are, anyways. The supporting cast is kind of meh. They really just exist to fill the world. Back on track, the game's fantastic cutscenes really help bring the characters to life and the interactions that take place inside the boss battles show so much personality. Their designs are really great on top of it. There's plenty of lore behind each main character. The villains all have their own profile entries to read up on, as well as other items that can be unlocked by fighting them on higher difficulties that give hints into their past lives.

The story the game follows isn't too complex but still engaging. A city powered by music has been overtaken with EDM for years. Mayday and Zuke work together to gather an army of fans to bring back rock n' roll. Without spoiling too much, the game tells a story that pays respect to both genres. The ending is pretty stupid and sort of drops the ball but it's still okay. The characters themselves definitely do more of the heavy-lifting than the plot does.

Music and visuals:
The music is obviously the best thing about the game. The boss battle tracks are all superb. Replaying a fight allows the player to select between a specifically EDM or rock rendition of the music along with the default. It's very awesome that there was that much effort put into it. The soundtrack is absolutely worth giving a listen to.

The visuals are pretty good. The presentation is excellent with both 3D and 2D animated cutscenes that look great. The cartoony art style is really solid with fantastic character designs as mentioned previously. Some of the UI could have used some work, though. The upgrade menu is cluttered and confusing with everything being portrayed in white outlines. The HUD is very boring and sometimes hard to read. It's not a major issue but it is worth noting.

Conclusion:
No Straight Roads is a game with unforgettable characters and awesome music but an unfortunate lack of good game design. If the positive aspects sound appealing at all then I'd recommend getting the game on sale for a major discount. If you can push through the bad gameplay for the roughly 5 hour duration then it'll manage to be a worthwhile experience.

I really love this game!
Art and designs are some of my favorites from lately, music is incredible, the characters are likeable and interesting. I really, really enjoyed my time in the world of NSR.

Sadly, this game REALLY falls off in the gameplay department. It has neat ideas and it has all the pieces to make a good action game, but doesn't manage to make anything work. Combat feels pretty stiff, parrying can sometimes feel unresponsive (or sometimes telegraph but just not execute), the normal enemies are awful.
Having the rhythm play a part in the combat is a neat idea, but doesn't really work since all the chaos just feels like sensory overload. Stickers don't really feel like they have an impact. A lot of mods feel useless and don't really do anything interesting.

Bosses, one of the highlights of the game, also have a ton of problems. While they are mostly good at the start, the execution starts to nosedive after the third boss. The ideas are definitely there, but it fails to make a functional boss fight. I just wish the Approach sections (which are very obtuse and uninteresting) were scrapped to enhance the bosses.

Another big problem I have is that there is a very clear lack of testing. Co-op has a ton of bugs and the camera is AWFUL!!! Tons of things in the game were very clearly no though out for the co-op mode.

No Straight Roads is a really entertaining game with a lot of heart behind it. Every little thing about it shows how much the dev team loved the project. I just wish I could give it a 4.5, but the unpolished gameplay is something that I can't just turn a blind eye to.

Still, for a first game, this is REALLY good. I'm really looking forward to more games from this team. This was a really enjoyable experience, one of the most charming games I've played!

No Straight Roads is a fantastic game bursting with charm and personality. There's great music, gorgeous artwork and fun characters around every corner and that's only scratching the surface of the great things this game has to offer.

Not everything's perfect, but there's so much soul here that you can't help but have your heart taken by the game. For sure a must play, then a must "listen to the soundtrack on repeat for the next 4 months" kinda game.


(Note: One thing that originally let the game down for me was the combat system, which although it had its cool moments, it felt like I was required to hit tank for too much of the game.
I somehow... missed the entire upgrade system and suffered through the game without any of the helpful buffs which also add a lot of variety to brawling/bosses? Not sure HOW I let this happen but I feel I can't really discredit this part of the game when I flat-out played it wrong.)

Effervescent and intoxicating. No Straight Roads has some of the most lovingly-crafted visuals I've ever seen, clearly inspired by the likes of Psychonauts era Double Fine, while still making it their own. Wonderful character animations that make fantastic use of 2D animation principles, even with large and boisterous 3D models. Hard not to be a little touched by the Malay influences they managed to squeeze in, like the dikir barat rap battle set to the backdrop of a wayang kulit puppet show.

Where the game really drops the ball for me is the combat - a somewhat basic hack-and-slash action title that teaches the player to dodge attacks in tune with the beat, only to forget about and even contradict that tip for the overwhelming majority of the game, is uniquely frustrating.
No Straight Roads is thoroughly convinced that it is a rhythm game, and even uses the harsh scoring system of titles like IIDX and Pop'n' that judges your performance post-battle and awards upgrade points accordingly. The problem is that attacks are barely choreographed, you receive hits from offscreen and by enemies that all look functionally identical yet have disparate attack patterns. You're very likely to scrape a few C ranks on your first playthrough, through little fault of your own.

Despite my frustrations with the gameplay, I enjoyed the title immensely. No Straight Roads feels like a labour of love, there isn't a lick of cynicism or irony to be found, and instead devotes itself to sharing its passion for its influences in the most bombastic way it could.

Got half way through the game so far and I've been enjoying it

I will say that the game has some issues that I hope get fixed (the Sayu fight is a bit too difficult for a second boss so the difficulty spike could be discouraging for those who aren't versed in action games like this)

However the devs are very open to criticism and I have no doubts they'd fix issues like that and others in future updates to the game.

No Straight Roads is not for everyone and while that breaks my heart, I am happy to see it succeed and to resonate with a good 80% of players based on what I've seen via twitter and other social medias

I enjoyed what I played, hope to come back and complete it when I have time.

No Straight Roads is a delightfully ambitious game with some great visuals and an excellent soundtrack. Unfortunately the game's ideas feel held back primarily by its clunky gameplay (as both platforming and combat left a bit to be desired) and an underutilized hybridization of action and rhythm combat.

It's story, writing and voice acting also ranged from being charming to occasionally feeling a bit spotty. A microcosm of their charm and issues can be seen with how the character DK West is handled.

Overall the clear passion that shows from the developers when playing this game made it a unique experience and I'm excited to see what Metronomik has in store for the future.

i originally found this game just in the midst of looking up upcoming games a year ago and now i finally got to play it. all i can really say much about it is how as much as its flashy and shows off with the vibrant colors and plenty of great music it just felt not right, like the first thing that just stuck out to me a bit was the length of it all for being the game itself and a minor nitpick of mine which comes to the voice acting from the characters in where it at times comes off cringy or much like that one saturday morning cartoon you wish you didn't remember watching.

Amazing visual design and good music but unfortunately has unbearable boring combat, a sort of music based (but not really) brawling gameplay that doesn't resonate with what it tries to do, the over abundance of questionable tier dialogue also brings its cutscenes down, the hub world is completely dead/empty and lastly the protagonists are lacking in charm despite their well done design, they just don't feel that likeable as they are probably supposed to be.

FYI I also played the Encore Edition hoping that the game would have some of its gameplay mechanics remade/rebalanced, but literally nothing changed.

Uneven, but with a lot of good. It’s got some wonderful aesthetic sensibilities and an interesting art style that feels psychonauts inspired at times, but with its own bend.

All of the characters and levels are very interesting from at least a visual standpoint and sometimes from their characterization itself. The dialogue is borderline painful but the overall plot is pretty fun with some good moments.

The gameplay is also not totally perfect, feeling fairly clunky with some extraneous elements but largely feels good enough for its runtime.

Altogether while it has a lot of rough edges, it comes together pretty well, with enough variety to carry it home

A bangin' soundtrack, a killer setting, and a delicious visual style... Sounds like we've got a new indie favorite on our hands! All it needs to do is not have terrible, terrible gameplay that makes you clasp your forehead in frustration every time you get hit.

Ah dang it.

So, the game's main draw, as it boasts on its store page, is that it's a hack 'n' slash where the enemies all attack in time with the background music. The whole game's about musicians, so it's a fitting mechanic. However, it is not a mechanic that actually plays well in really any capacity.

Since the enemies attack in time with the music, all of your actions have to be out of time with the music in order to avoid them. It's pretty much the exact reverse of the satisfaction you get from playing a rhythm game. It's also not particularly helpful for knowing how to dodge incoming attacks since a) you've never heard the songs before and don't know when the notes are coming b) just because you know an attack is happening on a given note doesn't mean you know which attack or which part of the battlefield it's coming from and c) projectile attacks may be launched in time with the music but that's no guarantee they'll reach you in time with the music.

All in all, very unfun to actually play. Also I swear in the later levels the enemies just attack whenever and ignore the music entirely. Tie all that up with a deeply confused and unfocused story (are we rebelling against the EDM Empire because they only let people listen to EDM, because EDM doesn't power the city as well as Rock, or just because they're a bunch of snobby jerks? The answer seems to depend on which cutscene you're in at the moment) and what by all rights should be an instant classic becomes an instant clunker.

Okay sorry one final note: the rap battle sections suck. The music isn't even that good in those parts. WHEN YOU RAP YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO ACTUALLY RAP TO THE MUSIC GUYS NOT JUST SAY SHIT WHILE MUSIC IS GOING IN THE BACKGROUND

I really, really wanted to like this game. The general aesthetic is great, the music is fantastic, the characters are likable and the story is simple but good. It pains me to say that I found everything regarding the gameplay to be insufferable. The game has insane difficulty spikes, the levels are repetitive and the bosses felt like they weren't playtested (Eve's boss fight in particular was a nightmare, I didn't even know what was hitting me half the time). It's a huge bummer because we need games like this. I genuinely hope they give the IP another try without rushing it next time.

Booooy do I wish this game were better.

Let's start with what I liked. The characters are charming and fun, the story is solid and well executed (if somewhat predictable), the OST is great, and the art and visuals are also fantastic. I really loved the game's world, aesthetics and music. The visuals are particularly surprising to me, with a really well done style and great animations, much better than what I expected from the game honestly. The game is also fully voice acted, including the few NPCs around the city and while the voice acting is far from perfect, I thought it was great for the main characters and antagonists (except Yinu's voice but she was funny to hear).

However, all of those things are quickly screwed over by absolutely atrocious gameplay. Particularly in co-op, which seems to be a complete afterthought, despite the game having two protagonists from the get go. You would THINK it was primarily made as a co-op game, but the camera is abysmal and there's constant bugs and glitches related to co-op specifically.

Co-op issues aside, gameplay just does not feel very good. Bosses vary, some being pretty good (the first and final bosses, for example) and a couple being straight up garbage (Sayu and Eve have a clusterfuck of nonsense going on which LOOKS really cool but always made me feel every other hit I took was kinda bullshit). Only one boss truly stood out as actually great and that was Yinu, who is the game's peak but is just the third boss out of 6. I loved her fight, it plays the best and had my favorite song in the game. But Yinu aside, bosses are more or less carried by the spectacle of their fights, because the gameplay is not really good.

Shout out to a side boss called DK West, though, who has a different gameplay style altogether where you just avoid enemies in 3 lanes for a while. Those sections played well. I also have "DK WEST DK WEST, HE IS OUE MAN, HE IS THE BEST" drilled into my head.

I primarily played the game as Zuke while my co-op partner used Mayday, so I'll mostly talk about him. He feels like shit. His special attacks (mods) are nearly useless save for one, his combos are slower and clunkier than they should and his range sucks. May seems better, but I only played her during the finale because the game straight up made me play as her only and dropped co-op, making Zuke stand around doing nothing. Another sign od the game being a buggy mess and co-op being an afterthought. Zuke was available, he just couldn't move due to possibly a glitch, basically. One way or another, the timing for a lot of things doesn't really feel like it's based on music, hitting things feels like shit and sometimes it was hard to even know WHAT hit you and WHY, due to thing like such as shoddy hitboxes. The rhythm elements were hit or miss, with Yinu making the absolute best use of them, which is one reason why her fight was so enjoyable.

Oh yeah and before I forget, before most bosses there's an "approach" stage full of trash mobs. These fucking suck. The trash mobs are annoying as hell and the stages are repetitive at best. If it was up to me, I would have these cut entirely, because they just feel like an annoyance to get through.

All these gameplay flaws aside, the game is also just buggy and glitchy as fuck. Though the game ran at a solid 1080p60fps on my PC (as it should, the visuals have great style but I can't imagine them being taxing at all). But bugs and glitches were CONSTANT. Sometimes our characters got stuck unable to move besides dodging, P2 frequently had her character glitch out in the hub world in multiple varied ways, a boss fight had me fall through the ground and get stuck in their final phase and even the credits fucked up giving us a blank black screen until I paused and unpaused which somehow fixed. There's all that and many more big and small bugs and glitches, the game is an absolute technical mess and I don't know if it's even being worked on still but I hope it is. But hey, at least I didn't get stuck with the 1010 boss causing a guaranteed crash like I heard. In fact, 0 crashes.

So yeah. All in all, this is a game that would at the very least be a solid 4.5/5 if it JUST played well. Everything EXCEPT the actual gameplay was very enjoyable. But the shoddy gameplay and the constant bugs and glitches really fuck it up. It's actually sad. I can't state it enough, everything else was so enjoyable that it actually made me and my co-op partner "tough it out" through the awful gameplay, so it's sad that it is just such a pain to play most of the time. I sincerely hope the dev team get to fix this game up and make it live up to its potential or that their next game turns out better.