"Rythm game" is a partial misnomer for most "rhythm games", but A Musical Story is truly deserving of the title.
It's an interactive 70s psych concept album with beautiful art, and that's enough for me.
I think rhythm games are an underexplored genre -- I blame this largely on Guitar Hero's introduction and then popularization of many genre conventions that newer titles can't seem to shake.
Guitar hero (and many others) gamify music by asking you to hit the correct inputs as they pass under a line (or using some other visual indicator). However, this often emphasizes input complexity rather than any sense of actual rhythm. You could have no grasp of the beat at all, and the visual indicators would still carry you through the experience.
Put another way: guitar hero and rock band are far more interested in your fret hand than your pick hand.
This is interesting, and maybe a little sad, because we call these "rhythm games", yet rhythm is the aspect of music they emphasize least.
There are rhythm games that buck this trend - "Rhythm Heaven" and "Osu!" come to mind immediately. Yet these are really exceptions to the rule.
Rhytmn games also tend to be random assemblages of music rather than cohesive albums. This is a little disappointing for multiple reasons. For one, something like a leitmotif in a rhythm game is far more impactful than in a non-interactive medium, because you get a direct mechanical reward for identifying the repeated phrase. For two, albums are cool, and tying the arc of an album to a mechanical arc is doubly cool.
There are, again, exceptions here: the 2019 game "Sayonara Wild Hearts" advertises itself firstly as a Pop Album and secondly as a video game; Guitar Hero 6's story mode includes a full playthrough of 2112; Ape Out's integration of gameplay and soundtrack along with the album motif is very cool.
All of this is to say: if you, like me, have ever thought "I wish there was a stripped-back rhythmn game that challenged me to play interesting and unconvential rhythmns a la Rhythmn Heaven, while playing through a bespoke album with gorgeous visuals a la Sayonara Wild Hearts", then you should play a Musical Story. The story is also pretty alright, I suppose.
You could argue that not loving the story is a pretty sever condemnation for a game whose title is literally "A Musical Story", but I don't think it's a huge deal. I can't think of a concept album that's revered for it's narrative twists and turns, but folks love them anyway.
I'm not trying to say that A Musical Story is the best rhythm game ever, or even that it's a "Great" game.
But it's at least very good, and it's not quite like anything else I've played. That's all I really want from a game anymore.
It's an interactive 70s psych concept album with beautiful art, and that's enough for me.
I think rhythm games are an underexplored genre -- I blame this largely on Guitar Hero's introduction and then popularization of many genre conventions that newer titles can't seem to shake.
Guitar hero (and many others) gamify music by asking you to hit the correct inputs as they pass under a line (or using some other visual indicator). However, this often emphasizes input complexity rather than any sense of actual rhythm. You could have no grasp of the beat at all, and the visual indicators would still carry you through the experience.
Put another way: guitar hero and rock band are far more interested in your fret hand than your pick hand.
This is interesting, and maybe a little sad, because we call these "rhythm games", yet rhythm is the aspect of music they emphasize least.
There are rhythm games that buck this trend - "Rhythm Heaven" and "Osu!" come to mind immediately. Yet these are really exceptions to the rule.
Rhytmn games also tend to be random assemblages of music rather than cohesive albums. This is a little disappointing for multiple reasons. For one, something like a leitmotif in a rhythm game is far more impactful than in a non-interactive medium, because you get a direct mechanical reward for identifying the repeated phrase. For two, albums are cool, and tying the arc of an album to a mechanical arc is doubly cool.
There are, again, exceptions here: the 2019 game "Sayonara Wild Hearts" advertises itself firstly as a Pop Album and secondly as a video game; Guitar Hero 6's story mode includes a full playthrough of 2112; Ape Out's integration of gameplay and soundtrack along with the album motif is very cool.
All of this is to say: if you, like me, have ever thought "I wish there was a stripped-back rhythmn game that challenged me to play interesting and unconvential rhythmns a la Rhythmn Heaven, while playing through a bespoke album with gorgeous visuals a la Sayonara Wild Hearts", then you should play a Musical Story. The story is also pretty alright, I suppose.
You could argue that not loving the story is a pretty sever condemnation for a game whose title is literally "A Musical Story", but I don't think it's a huge deal. I can't think of a concept album that's revered for it's narrative twists and turns, but folks love them anyway.
I'm not trying to say that A Musical Story is the best rhythm game ever, or even that it's a "Great" game.
But it's at least very good, and it's not quite like anything else I've played. That's all I really want from a game anymore.