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.
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.