Not your Mother’s musical
I’ve never been a die-hard fan of musicals but I do have a few that I enjoy for various reasons. It’s something about all those people all randomly knowing the same song that throws me off, like did the whole town go rehearse this? Whatever it is, when I first saw People of Note I was intrigued by its rhythm elements and musical type story; and while not all of the notes hit with me, there is a lot to love about People of Note.
People of Note follows a young pop singer named Cadence. Cadence is sick of the same ole songs dominating and dreams of changing the world with her music and a new sound. Lucky for her there is a contest taking place which could help her dream come true but after being rejected at the audition, Cadence realizes she needs more to really stand out. There she sets out from Chordia to find talented musicians to form a band and create that brand new sound that will finally get her noticed. Of course, like most JRPG’s the story in Chordia spins out of control and the stakes are raised from a young artist just trying to make her mark into something much more. The problem though is that those stakes never seem to push the characters into any urgency, as they investigate rumors about powerful artifacts.
MSRP: $24.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $24.99
I didn’t hate the journey though, in fact developer Iridium Studios did an excellent job of world building here. There are villages based on different genres of music like rock, rap and more. Each of these towns are lovingly designed and each have a clear and distinct identity from one another. For those who are fans of puns, there is also lots of musical wordplay one of my favorites is the hidden enemies Weird Owls, they will ask the player a riddle that they will have to answer correctly in order to be rewarded with some consumables.
The combat in People of Note is both fun and disappointing at the same time. Mechanically speaking the system is great, offering lots of flexibility and customization options for players to try a wide range of strategies. It will take a while to learn the nuances of battles but once players get it down there is some powerful attacks that can be pulled off. The problems I have though are twofold, the first is with the menu system. It just feels awkwardly designed but the real problem is that for a game that is supposedly about rhythm there is a big lack of musicality in the gameplay presented here. As players use attacks and special moves they will have press another button, in what at first feels like the rhythm of the music. But actually, combat feels more akin to Paper Mario, where you press the buttons that pop up to empower the attack.
It feels so odd that none of the attacks are integrated into the background music. Instead, they all have their own musical riffs and sound effects, which at times clash with the banging song that is playing over the fight. There aren’t even any vocals that play over these tracks which feels odd with some of the genres. I’ve played quite a few games over the years that have done a great job with mixing rhythm style musical gameplay with some type of action. MetalHellsinger, Hi-Fi Rush, hell even Beat Saber all do a wonderful job at blending the soundtrack to the actions, it’s just such a shame that People of Note didn’t go that extra mile, especially since that is why I was excited to try it. I love when the music syncs up to the attacks and such, its just such a neat way to draw in the player and really have them just bopping in their seats to the beat of the music, and it really feels like a missed opportunity here.
Despite some hiccups here and there, People of Note deliver’s a rockin’ performance. There is a fun and engaging combat system here and a story that has no shortage of musical style puns. But I feel like the game is held back by the performance and rhythm aspects of its gameplay. I would have loved to see the attacks and abilities be more on beat with the background music. But despite those flaws People of Note delivers a solid game that has a lot of heart and soul.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
