Directly following Square Enix releasing Final Fantasy XV after its 10-year development hell there were several interviews with the game’s former director. Among them came the revelation that after the Hugh Jackman-led musical adaptation Les Misérables hit theaters in 2012 there was a brief period where Tetsuya Nomura considered turning the game into a musical. This idea was later scrapped because Final Fantasy can apparently be anything except a musical.
This might sound like an odd pairing in theory but it was coming from the guy that dabbled in it the concept once before back in Kingdom Hearts II. Final Fantasy can be a lot of things, just not a musical. It’s not, however, like the idea of blending roleplaying with a musical has died, and in 2023 we see a game touting the two genres in Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical. Which, while it doesn’t reinvent the wheel it offers a compelling case for games like it. Keeping in theme with musical theater it dreams the impossible dream, and for the most part succeeds.
The Playbill
It feels almost like cheating to point out at the beginning that the cast of the game is pretty much who you would expect to anchor a narrative-driven experience like that. Laura Bailey stars as Grace, the last of the muses when the former dies in her arms. Since the game is anchored by her she participates in all of the musical numbers. Joining her is, of course, Troy Baker as Apollo who aids her along the way. Rounding out the Last of Us alum is Ashley Johnson as Calliope who is a much smaller role but still performed ably. The cast is rounded out with performances by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Erika Ishii, Kahry Paton, Janina Gavankar, and others, all getting their moments to shine in the script.
The music, the backbone of Stray Gods, was composed by Austin Wintery. Audiences might know him as the composer of thatgamecompany’s Journey, or Giant Squid’s Abzû to name a few. It can be safely stated that Stray Gods will be a very strong inclusion in his portfolio. The other important name attached here is David Gaider, who previously served as the lead writer for Dragon Age.
All of this talent combined to create vibrant characters that offer a compelling journey into a modern society with Greek Gods hiding among us, but not without some flaws. Quiet character moments tend to hit a high the music does not and in a musical that might be an issue. The music is never ‘bad’ mind you but experiencing the character through arguments and dialog felt more compelling than anything I learned about them in the music, and in traditional musicals, you expect a song or two to be a character study of things they can’t find the words for instead of a summation of things you had just learned. This felt more of the case, even in songs that really hooked me.
Another issue with the performance isn’t even on them. The game seemed to have some issues with sound mixing that will… Hopefully, be fixed. Ashley Johnsons’ Calliopy constantly sounded muffled in some conversations, with Grace in particular often coming through audibly loud compared to other dialogs of hers. These issues extend to several characters but these examples felt the most glaring.
The Show Must Go On
The game plays more like a traditional Visual Novel with light roleplaying elements throughout. The closest game, for comparison’s sake that I can think of, is VTM: Coteries of New York. This being the case the game is still fully animated with a beautiful mix of 2D Animation, and some 3D environmental effects. It is also fully voice-acted, the mix of both does keep the experience engaging for its roughly 8 hours experience.
The player is given three archetypes that they can play into early on which actually diversifies the conversations more than I was expecting. Similar to the background options in Cyberpunk 2077, they are peppered into dialog every so often, giving the player a unique option for their version of Grace. You can see where all of them (even the ones you didn’t pick) fall into the conversations, which creates some replayability. More importantly, they came at interesting moments feel that you have stepped into this role
The musical experience woven into Stray Gods is part of the game’s narrative, as opposed to characters just breaking out into song. Grace being a muse, her character can make people sing their innermost feelings. In the buildup to MOST of her songs, she is given the ability to talk to most characters to get a pretty good handle on the important feelings before going into the song itself. While this makes sense in context, it undercuts the spontaneousness you feel in that of a film or Broadway production.
Each song plays out with a multitude of choices in them. There is a heft to your decision-making, with one song in particular concerning the life or death of another character, but they are easy enough to get the result you want. By talking to characters prior you learn who wants what, why, and what you can do to affect that end. Then you can see pretty spelled-out options in the song to direct where your characters’ lines will take it. Unlike other games that give you a brief summation of the dialog choice that does quite match up with the result they match up here but you are treated to a much longer song set to a melody.
Austin Wintery once again delivers a beautiful soundtrack but it’s the lyrics where the music more often falls short. The line ‘lost girl’ appears across multiple songs early on, and is the literal chorus to the first one. It may be just two words but its overuse is a partial problem of the repetition in some songs. Thankfully it does pick up, the lyric battle against Medusa, and the rock opera in Hades being two of the standouts for me.
Verdict
Maybe it’s because I had finally sat down to watch Tick Tick… Boom the night prior to Stray Gods: A Roleplaying Musical but there was a lack of oomph that the game was missing. Even now as I work through my second playthrough none of the songs has the quality of a standout piece that players will sing in the shower on the way to work. They’re fun to experience, but not the next Seasons, Let It Go, or Do You Hear The People Sing to name a few of the pantheons of musicals that came before.
This almost doesn’t matter though. The game is Unique, creative, and beautiful, with a great cast of characters. Its worst sin is failing to perfect a genre that there really isn’t anything to compare it too in. As a Roleplaying Musical, it is an imperfect yet fun game. As a first step for a crazy idea, it did everything it needed to. Now Nomura, about that Final Fantasy musical…
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Reviewed for PlayStation 5: Also Available On PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, PC
Developer: Summerfall Studio
Publisher: Humble Games
Release Date: August 10th, 2023
A Roleplaying musical where the player assumes the role of Grace who uses new powers as a muse to solve a murder among the Greek Gods.
Pros:
Beautiful Artwork
Talented Cast
Fun musical numbers
Interesting narrative
Cons:
Lackluster lyrics
Audio editing issues
Short Story
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Stray Gods: A Roleplaying Musical
