These are just thoughts and notes I wrote down as I played/in between play sessions. They're not the be all end all of my opinions, just the raw, unfiltered version of them
First and foremost, I have to say that I’m not a music snob. I took Music Theory and that’s about it. I like a lot of different genres of music, and I love spoken word music. That being said, I think Stray Gods isn’t great, the music especially isn’t my favorite.
-Audio Mixing can be pretty bad at times. I don’t know what went wrong there. It could just be something I noticed because I have higher-end headphones, but regardless, the issues were present and were quite noticeable. There were also some visual bugs here and there, duplicate characters, screen flickering, and the Minotaur just wasn’t in half of his song. It’s clear he was supposed to be there but I guess the Sprite wasn’t loaded.
-The voice actors feel like they weren’t given great direction 100% of the time. I know the voice actors for this game, and they are good names (mainly Laura Bailey and Troy Baker), but they don’t really seem to put the talent to proper use, at least not always. That being said, Grace and Apollo are good, there are no problems with them. But some people like Eros, Hermes, Persephone, etc. often felt like they just got the first take and rolled with it.
-It is also very clear when someone is not a talented voice actor. Minor characters very obviously do not have VA to the caliber of the rest of the cast.
-Everyone feels like they’re afraid to yell, there’s a lack of emotion behind a lot of dialogue. It’s very clear when Hecate is met, especially with the weird little voice filter.
-The voices often clash too much and don’t harmonize very well, making the music harto listen to at times. They went for voice actors instead of musical actors, which I feel is very, VERY clear here, and it certainly wouldn’t have been my choice given it’s supposed to be a musical. There’s a lack of OOMPH behind lyrics that are obviously supposed to have an impact because the actors don’t seem like they have proper vocal training. There are moments in a song where they really SHINE, usually just a line or two at a time, but it’s still there and I have to give credit where it’s due. Hecate and Orpheus have the best voices I think, but they don’t let them fully doesn’t play to their strengths. Orpheus especially very clearly has an actual musical background.
-The rhythm is super off. There’s a lot of talk-singing that just doesn’t sound like it goes with the flow, off-kilter deliveries. There are a lot of artists I listen to that go against the rhythm and have very talky-singy moments (Everybody’s Worried about Owen, and especially The Narcissist Cookbook), but they usually go with the rhythm, and if not it is very clearly intentional listening to the lyrics, it’s meant to bring forth attention to what words the singer is saying. Stray Gods does not utilize it like that. It uses it as if it’s a sort of “style”, not as a deliberate choice to call attention to specific moments. It’s done because that’s the only way they can get the lyrics to work with the music, and it still doesn’t work with the music. The first Persephone song is most guilty of this. At least, it’s the one I noticed the most.
-The people who made the music have a super mega hard-on for two people singing over each other. And to be fair, I tend to like that in music, it adds some extra oomph to the track when used properly. To reiterate, when it is used properly. But once again, the voices clash far too much. Sometimes it’s the point, I’ll give it that, but it’s most definitely not always the point.
-The music overall isn’t memorable, but when it is, it’s not a compliment. The instrumentals usually are pretty good tho.
-The writing is mondo garbage 70% of the time. A lot of sigh-inducing moments where they were obviously trying to be funny/clever, the line-to-line dialogue is wack too, there are just random shifts sometimes that come out of nowhere. Everything feels so stilted/forced In terms of dialogue, rarely do things feel natural.
-The choices feel weird. I’d often feel that there was not a piece of dialogue I wanted to choose. I felt like I was just settling on a choice, especially in the songs, so I opted to mostly go with the Blue Options. And even then, I felt the dialogue choice didn’t do a great job of reflecting what Grace says, quite often I found myself going “Hold on, that’s not what I wanted her to say.”. The choices also felt like they lacked impact but in two completely separate ways. First and foremost, the most literal sense. Too many choices felt meaningless. And second, I felt like I was making more or less uninformed decisions. Sometimes it made sense, Grace didn’t know any better than I did, and that’s okay, like with Freddie and Pan. But not every time was like that.
-Because of the choice-based nature of the story, there are jarring transitions between dialogue, and I found it very noticeable.
-The story is okay? The way people flip on a dime after a song or a choice feels super jarring (Persephone, Apollo, etc.). Sometimes the flow is proper, but that reeeaaallllyyyy felt like it was the outlier. The story felt pretty obvious. I wanted to like a lot of the characters but felt they didn’t get fleshed out enough, and/or flipped too much on a dime because I sang a song.
-A lot of the character's character felt like it relied a little too much on the fact that they are known Gods. However they don’t do enough to make their own takes on these well-known Gods unique, distinct, or interesting in any meaningful way despite their circumstances. It’s like they chose a God, and assigned them a single trait. Either one they’re known for or one that goes against the grain, one that’s unusual or extreme for them. The characters feel kind of backloaded. There are no real secrets to the characters. They beg the question just to tell you the answer instantly, barring the main mystery of course, and Persephone’s connection to Calliope. There’s no real inherent intrigue to the characters. Apollo on the whole is a bit of an exception, he’s interesting and feels more like a meaningful unique take, but I can’t really say I loved his character.
-The Grace part of the Aphrodite song was actually really good. Then it falls generally off again. Probably the best song, it’s overall like a 6/10
-The Minotaur song was supposed to be played for laughs but that’s just how all of the songs sound lol
-The Orpheus song starts off great when he sings, when the others sing it bogs it down lol. And then the flow takes a nosedive.
-Confronting Athena actually has a good track, probably the best one? It has a really strong start to it, and they do a good job not just making the music exposition that is sung to you, like most of the songs.
First and foremost, I have to say that I’m not a music snob. I took Music Theory and that’s about it. I like a lot of different genres of music, and I love spoken word music. That being said, I think Stray Gods isn’t great, the music especially isn’t my favorite.
-Audio Mixing can be pretty bad at times. I don’t know what went wrong there. It could just be something I noticed because I have higher-end headphones, but regardless, the issues were present and were quite noticeable. There were also some visual bugs here and there, duplicate characters, screen flickering, and the Minotaur just wasn’t in half of his song. It’s clear he was supposed to be there but I guess the Sprite wasn’t loaded.
-The voice actors feel like they weren’t given great direction 100% of the time. I know the voice actors for this game, and they are good names (mainly Laura Bailey and Troy Baker), but they don’t really seem to put the talent to proper use, at least not always. That being said, Grace and Apollo are good, there are no problems with them. But some people like Eros, Hermes, Persephone, etc. often felt like they just got the first take and rolled with it.
-It is also very clear when someone is not a talented voice actor. Minor characters very obviously do not have VA to the caliber of the rest of the cast.
-Everyone feels like they’re afraid to yell, there’s a lack of emotion behind a lot of dialogue. It’s very clear when Hecate is met, especially with the weird little voice filter.
-The voices often clash too much and don’t harmonize very well, making the music harto listen to at times. They went for voice actors instead of musical actors, which I feel is very, VERY clear here, and it certainly wouldn’t have been my choice given it’s supposed to be a musical. There’s a lack of OOMPH behind lyrics that are obviously supposed to have an impact because the actors don’t seem like they have proper vocal training. There are moments in a song where they really SHINE, usually just a line or two at a time, but it’s still there and I have to give credit where it’s due. Hecate and Orpheus have the best voices I think, but they don’t let them fully doesn’t play to their strengths. Orpheus especially very clearly has an actual musical background.
-The rhythm is super off. There’s a lot of talk-singing that just doesn’t sound like it goes with the flow, off-kilter deliveries. There are a lot of artists I listen to that go against the rhythm and have very talky-singy moments (Everybody’s Worried about Owen, and especially The Narcissist Cookbook), but they usually go with the rhythm, and if not it is very clearly intentional listening to the lyrics, it’s meant to bring forth attention to what words the singer is saying. Stray Gods does not utilize it like that. It uses it as if it’s a sort of “style”, not as a deliberate choice to call attention to specific moments. It’s done because that’s the only way they can get the lyrics to work with the music, and it still doesn’t work with the music. The first Persephone song is most guilty of this. At least, it’s the one I noticed the most.
-The people who made the music have a super mega hard-on for two people singing over each other. And to be fair, I tend to like that in music, it adds some extra oomph to the track when used properly. To reiterate, when it is used properly. But once again, the voices clash far too much. Sometimes it’s the point, I’ll give it that, but it’s most definitely not always the point.
-The music overall isn’t memorable, but when it is, it’s not a compliment. The instrumentals usually are pretty good tho.
-The writing is mondo garbage 70% of the time. A lot of sigh-inducing moments where they were obviously trying to be funny/clever, the line-to-line dialogue is wack too, there are just random shifts sometimes that come out of nowhere. Everything feels so stilted/forced In terms of dialogue, rarely do things feel natural.
-The choices feel weird. I’d often feel that there was not a piece of dialogue I wanted to choose. I felt like I was just settling on a choice, especially in the songs, so I opted to mostly go with the Blue Options. And even then, I felt the dialogue choice didn’t do a great job of reflecting what Grace says, quite often I found myself going “Hold on, that’s not what I wanted her to say.”. The choices also felt like they lacked impact but in two completely separate ways. First and foremost, the most literal sense. Too many choices felt meaningless. And second, I felt like I was making more or less uninformed decisions. Sometimes it made sense, Grace didn’t know any better than I did, and that’s okay, like with Freddie and Pan. But not every time was like that.
-Because of the choice-based nature of the story, there are jarring transitions between dialogue, and I found it very noticeable.
-The story is okay? The way people flip on a dime after a song or a choice feels super jarring (Persephone, Apollo, etc.). Sometimes the flow is proper, but that reeeaaallllyyyy felt like it was the outlier. The story felt pretty obvious. I wanted to like a lot of the characters but felt they didn’t get fleshed out enough, and/or flipped too much on a dime because I sang a song.
-A lot of the character's character felt like it relied a little too much on the fact that they are known Gods. However they don’t do enough to make their own takes on these well-known Gods unique, distinct, or interesting in any meaningful way despite their circumstances. It’s like they chose a God, and assigned them a single trait. Either one they’re known for or one that goes against the grain, one that’s unusual or extreme for them. The characters feel kind of backloaded. There are no real secrets to the characters. They beg the question just to tell you the answer instantly, barring the main mystery of course, and Persephone’s connection to Calliope. There’s no real inherent intrigue to the characters. Apollo on the whole is a bit of an exception, he’s interesting and feels more like a meaningful unique take, but I can’t really say I loved his character.
-The Grace part of the Aphrodite song was actually really good. Then it falls generally off again. Probably the best song, it’s overall like a 6/10
-The Minotaur song was supposed to be played for laughs but that’s just how all of the songs sound lol
-The Orpheus song starts off great when he sings, when the others sing it bogs it down lol. And then the flow takes a nosedive.
-Confronting Athena actually has a good track, probably the best one? It has a really strong start to it, and they do a good job not just making the music exposition that is sung to you, like most of the songs.