FARISHTAAAAA

Man, you really feel powerful in this game as you're belting out your verses. I swear, everytime Grace's eyes glow bright and the walls close in I can feel that adrenaline of mine pumping as I'm ready to perform the lit-est diss track to ever come out of a white girl's mouth.

Alright, that doesn't mean that this game is perfect though. Lets go through the flaws before we tackle the pros.

The songs aren't that good. Okay- they're fine? They're like- doable? But- really- sometimes you can make for some awkward rhythm as you're picking your choices. And- I get it. The choose your own adventure format- especially as a song- it's tough to write and sing for. Songwriting is just hard, man. This was a difficult game to make, I can tell.

(Still could've been better though.)

Honestly though- that's my only complaint. Everything else is just great. Yeah- the gameplay isn't anything remarkable. But the point is the choose your adventure. I don't expect Grace to whip around town in a motorcycle and have a grand theft auto style car chase. (Though that would be very sexy of her, we can all admit.)

The mystery is satisfying enough in my opinion and, to be honest, it's almost less about the mystery and more about helping this dysfunctional family through the power of song! (...And therapy.)

I love these characters. Each and every one. And I think I love Grace the most. You just really root for her- and want to see her succeed. And that makes a great protagonist to play aside.

Also- this game has, like, so much replay value. It's awesome. Give it a try, it's a fun- and occasionally really funny- time.

I am on my second playthrough of this game and I love it.

It just has some major audio issues which is a shame due to the nature of it. In my opinion Freddie and Pans audio are immersion breaking/jarringly too quiet or way too loud at points where I am constntly changing the volume.

I was playing this and got my spouse who was in and out of the room hooked. We accidentally played it until like 5am.

you're telling me there's a freaking musical choice based game with the story about greek gods and such and expect me NOT to play it? jokes on you, i played it over two times (two and a half, because i realized the third romance i decided to pursue wasn't as interesting to me and it wasn't adding anything to the story whatsoever) and then found myself singing along to a bunch of songs from it, especially the one apollo sang about calliope when we were asking him to help us, troy baker has such a nice singing voice and so many of his parts just kept getting stuck in my head, and then my favorite one of the bunch, which was the one with medusa, "look into me" part was so damn catchy

it wasn't perfect and it has some sound mixing issues, the story is predictable, and it's not worth to play over two times in my opinion. like, only if you want to experiment with the songs and how can they be altered, that would probably be the best reason to want to replay it then, but if you want to explore all the romance choices, i don't think it's really worth it, which is unfortunate because that's the thing i was excited about but got so disappointed, i still had a lot of fun though!

J'ai hésité entre 3.5 et 4 étoiles, et je me suis dit que j'allais être sympa et mettre 4 parce que Pan existe. Le jeu est bon, j'ai beaucoup apprécié le côté comédie musicale (que j'ai trouvé bien amené !), visuellement c'est beau, le scénario est bien, mais ce n'est bien évidemment pas parfait. Le scénario est parfois un peu.. simple, mais les personnages ont tous un très bon design et sont bien écrits (Pan!! Perséphone!!). Le gros problème du jeu, c'est le mixage (gros problème surtout quand on est un jeu basé sur la musique...). Les persos crient sans raison ou chuchotent, ce qui n'est pas très très agréable. Aussi, les "ruptures" dans les musiques sont parfois brutales lorsqu'on change trop de personnalité/couleur en faisant nos choix, ce qui donne parfois un résultat un peu spécial. Sinon, c'est un jeu qui vaut le détour, et que j'ai beaucoup apprécié malgré ses défauts. Apollon est un loser.

A pesar de sus fallos, me gana el high concept. O sea, una mezcla de visual novel y aventura conversacional rolerilla en un contexto musical detectivesco con dioses es algo que me gana fuerte. También es que hay unos nombres especiales, que si guión del pavo de Dragon Age, música del mozo de Journey (hay temazos), reparto de voces entre quienes están Laura Bailey y Troy Baker, etc.

Eso sí, técnicamente no me voy a quejar que básicamente sea un cómic interactivo, pero toca un poco las narices que el volumen de los diálogos no esté bien ecualizado o que a veces los subs vayan descoordinados o no se hayan traducido. Son fallitos menores pero molestan una mijita.

New Release Review:
Stray Gods is an enjoyable visual novel/RPG, however, it will take some effort to ‌be engaged. One must go through the slow pacing of the beginning, but in doing so, it will reward them with a much more enjoyable experience in the second half. Songs in the second half are memorable and even allow the voice actors to show off their incredible singing on top of their phenomenal acting. The game has endless replayability thanks to the branching gameplay that allows for different story beats and music. The game is very simple and is an open experience for everyone to play. Technical issues such as bad audio mixing and input lag are largely present, however, waiting a few patches should resolve these problems. As a former theater student, this game was a nice little trip back to the musical world, however it will not be for everyone. If you love musicals and the stacked voice cast, you must play this game. If you are skeptical about the game, I would recommend waiting for a sale. Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical may have some faults, but it has more strengths that help it stick out in its genre and I would be interested in a sequel. I give Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical a 7/10!

Perhaps the purest form of art imitating other forms of art. This is a video game that is in love with musical theater and seeks to emulate musical theater. At the same time, Stray Gods can only ever exist as a video game, as the core idea of an interactive musical can't work in a non-interactive medium. There is no way that a stage adaptation could fully incorporate the idea of a "player" whose choices directly impact the sound, lyrics, emotional texture, and in some cases genre of song while the song is being performed. Similarly, because almost every song is necessarily framed around a clash between two or more characters, there is purposefully very little room for other staples of the medium, like character songs, ensemble showstoppers, entr'actes, and the like.

It is an imperfect game representing an imperfect musical and it is through those imperfections that its beauty shines. This is a project that clearly had a lot of love going into it from everyone working on it, from the writers, to the musicians, to the vocal talent, to the artists, that love and passion is clearly on display in every moment of this game.

It is not without flaws. There is a bug that has been known to wipe saves that they haven't managed to get a handle on, some of the sound leveling could have been more finely tuned, and perhaps most importantly, there is one scene whose premise and execution is....very very very on the 'tasteless' side (Aphrodite's Party), but overall this is a unique experience that anyone with more than a passing interest in musical theater should not miss.

Also don't ask me to explain how but Anthony Rapp as Orpheus is typecasting.

A really cool idea that is woefully oversold by its marketing blurbs. This game really needed more time in development, feels like some executive told them to wrap it up and they had to shove it out as is.

To be honest, I forgot to log this sooner and didn't take notes but a month on and I can hardly remember anything about this which doesn't instil confidence that there is much substance worth fishing for in subsequent playthroughs.

Some of the voice acting is pretty good with established talent probably costing most of the budget. The artwork is pretty static and feels kind of unfinished in places. It's not up to the standard of modern visual novels that's for sure.

The character designs range from good to painfully 2015 western comic industry levels of shite. Stock tumblr-era characters like annoyingly punchable friend with fedora who only talks about food, angry black girl who everyone has to tiptoe around, punchably smug fat chick in a wheelchair... Was there one with vitiligo? It was probably in there somewhere let's be fucking honest. Tired and outdated stuff like an issue of Squirrel Girl or something.

On the other hand, the main character is pretty cool - I like her design, you have some control so you can avoid having her say the cringe dialogue choices... Can't fucking remember her name though. Pan was also a pretty cool character, but is let down by the writing. He's set up as a mysterious trickster but it doesn't go fucking anywhere. I completed his romance tree as he was the only one with charisma but even then it was a bit stilted and didn't really add much to the narrative.
Uhh... Troy Baker was there? Wet blanket character IIRC.

The plot itself is like a murder mystery sort of thing where the culprit is obvious from the first five minutes of the game.
Greek gods in modern day, it's been done before and it's largely a bit shit here. Similar sort of gimmick to The Wolf Among Us, but with less thought put into the lore and more into diversity checklists.
There didn't seem to be too many branching paths although I have seen there are different endings in the trophy list. I can't imagine that they change a whole lot. I think there was some sequel bait in there so have to keep the variables in control for that.

In terms of the actual roleplaying in this so-called Roleplaying Musical - it's really basic and not what I would call roleplaying personally. There are a few character traits that you can pick between and they unlock different dialogue options but it's all swings and roundabouts and didn't seem like it made her so much of a different character to make a difference.

This leads to the songs which generally seem to have a couple of outcomes and you can twist things to your advantage by choosing different lyrics. The marketing acted like this was hugely in-depth but again it didn't seem that different. I replayed the first couple after accidentally deleting my save (unclear menuing - mark that down as a negative) and you might hear a few different verses. I will give it the benefit of the doubt and play it again at some point just to see, but if it involves sucking off the annoying characters to go down the branching paths I think I enjoyed this the most I ever will on the first runthrough.

The songs themselves... erm, can't remember any of them sorry lol. I guess none of them really had an impact. There was an absolutely hideous one with a fat minotaur who can't sing which might be the joke but it most resolutely fucking ain't when you're eight minutes deep and want to rip your ears off.

I mean, I like the idea of some of them. Convincing Troy Baker to spill his guts by picking weasel lyrics, teaming up with Pan to tell Fedora to fuck off... Taking selfies with Medusa to beat her with her reflection was a cool moment to be fair. You can probably cut the one where you have to convince the suicidal bitch not to kill herself or else you'll be stuck with the smug cunt replacement for the rest of the game hahaha.

It said that the game was inspired by Once More, With Feeling, the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That much is clear, but it's nowhere fucking close to as good as Buffy. In your dreams mate.

Buffy nails every lyric being perfect dialogue for each of the characters and each song furthering the narrative of the episode as well as being a culmination for a lot of ongoing plot-threads and character arcs throughout the season. Each song is memorable and emblematic of the characters and their dynamics. The humour, subtext and drama is expertly woven into the songs in a way that makes the episode really well-written regardless of the musical gimmick. In my opinion, it is probably a contender for best musical ever made due to how much care went into making every aspect of it relevant instead of just banging out a couple of cheap cover songs like the fucking Flash musical. Remember there was a Flash musical? Of course ya fucking don't.

As for Stray Gods, ya know, I guess they thought of trying to go for it. It's more effort than Flash but the music just ain't so good. For a musical I want way fucking better, let's just say that.

It got a bit glitchy with some scenes playing out of order as well. There's a map where you can choose where to go and it has a calendar system like Persona, except it doesn't work almost like the game is unfinished and shockingly short as well.

I want it to be good more than it is because it's a cool fucking idea. At the end of the day, it's a cheapo visual novel, a really fucking short one with not much substance. With Telltale dialogue choices passed off for roleplaying.

It truly pains me to say this, but this game isn't good. I am such a huge fan of Austin Wintory's work but this is an unfortunate outlier. I've been a musical theater actor for six years at this point and am studying it in college, and the direction of this musical is fundamentally wrong. They fail to diegetically tune the songs, the transitions between dialogue and music are rather sloppy, and don't even get me started on the lyrics. It shows that none of the composers have musical theater experience. Also the color choice system kinda sucks. I wish the game would tell you that you can only choose one of the three colors and that you lose access to role-playing choices pertaining to the other two colors permanently for the entire runtime of the game. Banking on replayability is not a good plan.

The idea of a roleplaying musical is so good that I was willing to forgive a lot here. The songs themselves are mostly forgettable and the roleplaying aspects are underdeveloped, but strictly as a choose-your-own-adventure story very much in the style of The Wolf Among Us I found this a pretty cool and breezy few hours.

Pan— styled here as a classic noir hustler— was my fave side character by several country miles, though your well-dressed bestie Freddie is fun too. Apollo and Persephone both a total snooze by comparison.

I still have some branches I want to explore, but after finishing four playthroughs, I can say that I'm pleased to add another game based on Greek mythology to my list of favourites!

Stray Gods is a charming murder mystery with a cast of lovely characters that resolve their conflicts through music. The cast is phenomenal, and many of the tracks have been on repeat since I heard them for the first time - queen among them, "You and I"!

There are some audio issues and a few mandatory story developments that feel odd depending on some choices you make, but all in all, this is a fantastic experience.

Mesmo sendo uma pessoa que sempre odiou qualquer coisa relacionada a teatro e musicais, decidi encarar Stray Gods com uma sensação de liberdade e positivismo, afinal a ideia é interessante e em uma comunidade estagnada no meio de um sistema dominado por roguelikes, soulslike e mundo aberto, qual mal faria gastar algumas horas em algo diferente?

Ao iniciar a campanha, os belos visuais apresentados chamam muito a atenção por não terem aquela poluição característica ou o clichê suficiente para afirmar que já vimos tal coisa em algum lugar. Contudo, o tema central com deuses gregos não torna a experiência tão fora do padrão e isso pode causar uma certa sensação apática nos primeiros 30 minutos.

Por não possuir jogabilidade focada em combate, Stray tenta destacar as escolhas dos jogadores e logo de início somos obrigados a escolher um caminho que, na teoria, causaria grandes mudanças na forma de jogar, porém os diálogos principais não possuem restrição, tornando a escolha inútil. Por um lado, isso é bastante positivo para pessoas como eu que curtem explorar ao máximo as opções, porém pelo outro o fator rejogabilidade acaba sofrendo com a falta de variedade e possibilidades.

Enquanto o enredo principal é simplista, os personagens de fundo e suas tramas não são, cada um possui motivações e interesses, o que torna a narrativa bem mais divertida, porém não são todos que se salvam e pelo menos metade (principalmente os homens) falham miseravelmente em serem diferentes, não fugindo dos repetitivos sistemas de personalidades.

Em relação a parte essencial, ou seja, as músicas eu não tenho reclamações, cada uma foi bem desenvolvida o suficiente para transmitir o essencial da cena e alguns momentos divertirem ou emocionarem em suas entonações, como disse no início, não tenho conhecimento nenhum em relação ao tema, então isso é tudo vindo de alguém que só deseja se divertir.

O mais legal da ideia do musical é que mesmo personagens secundários receberam o cuidado e conseguiram músicas tão memoráveis que superaram as principais. Sim, estou falando de você ‘Look into Me’.

Infelizmente o jogo não passou por uma boa otimização, então muitos diálogos possuem níveis diferentes e isso fica obrigando o jogador a ficar aumentando ou diminuindo o áudio. Além disso, problemas de legenda, velocidade entre diálogos e o sistema de salvamento foram encontrados.

Um outro ponto extremamente negativo, mas que não tem relação exata com o desenvolvimento foi a precificação, não sei ao certo o que a Humble possui na cabeça, mas R$100,00 em um jogo de 6 horas com poucas variações é realmente necessário?

Mesmo com a diversão garantida para um dia que só queremos relaxar, Stray Gods possui barreiras que justificam não recomendar em lançamento, talvez com uma promoção e otimização é justo, mas quem sabe quando isso vai mudar.

Stray Gods is a choice-based visual novel-esque adventure with a twist: in-game musicals! And they're good. Like, really good.

So, to start, let's go over the negatives, because there are a lot fewer of those than there are positives. To start, I think the story is a bit basic. I mean, it's definitely good, and compelling enough to have kept me going, but it was definitely one of the weaker elements of the game, which felt a bit weird for this type of game. I didn't think the mystery was particularly mysterious, and I think it might have been foreshadowed a bit too heavily. There's also some weird issues with the audio balancing, some lines are really quiet and others are really loud, seemingly unintentionally. It was never uncomfortable, but it was notable, and I was thankful for subtitles. And, of course, my absolute biggest criticism: I can't replay the songs. This one hurt! Even if it was only the versions I had actually chosen, that'd be fine! I want to hear them again, they're so freaking good!

Beyond that, the game's a little buggy. There were a few scenes where Grace's character art just kind of vanished for a few moments? It was a bit odd. The frame rate was also really wonky, occasionally running at my native refresh rate and sometimes locking at 30, but it wasn't really a big deal for this type of game. There was also one time where a line of dialogue got skipped over somehow. But that's about it for the issues.

Now for the positives... The art is great. Every character looked fantastic, almost every scene was incredibly pleasing to look at. The color shifts were done so well based on your choices during musicals, really emphasizing the type of music that Grace went for. The musicals are incredible. I was really shocked at how adaptive they felt, I expected minor changes at most based on your choices, but they actually seem to change a ton. It was a really nice surprise and makes me want to play through the game again almost immediately! It helps, of course, that almost all of them were just so damn good. It's really tough to pick a favorite!

Speaking of those characters - the characters are really well done in this game. I stepped away surprisingly happy with... All of their characterizations? It was incredible that there just simply wasn't a character I disliked. I couldn't even say that for some of my favorite games of all time! I loved the relationships that could form. And for what criticism I gave the story, it does really have its moments, in large part thanks to how good the characters were. My eyes welled up several times near the end; the emotional highs felt incredibly powerful.

I was initially debating between 4 and 4.5 for this, but the desire to immediately replay it and the strength of the emotional highs really made me inclined to go higher. It doesn't feel like a game for everyone, but damn if I didn't feel like they almost made the game with me in mind.