Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is one-of-a-kind in the best way, excelling on all fronts — narrative and musical. It's a must-play for lovers of theatre, Greek mythology, and story-rich experiences.

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a dazzlingly executed take on familiar stories that breathes new life into old legends. There’s very little gameplay to speak of, but it’s an emotional story and a must-play for musical theater fans and those who are invested in Greek mythology.

Ultimately… if you like the Tell Tale style choose your own adventure games and don’t mind a theme of music/singing/classical mythology in a modern world… then grab a copy. If you are a huge musical theatre fan then, no question… grab a copy. For the rest of us who can take or leave musicals… maybe have a closer look at some gameplay footage first before deciding if it’s something you want to immerse yourself in.

If you love video games and musicals, then you should march to the beat of Stray Gods to immerse yourself in this canorous world filled with mystical elements. Even players who want something different in choice-based games can change the tune through the unique lyric mechanics. I could definitely see more musicals within the industry in the future, and maybe games like Stray Gods and Hi-Fi Rush could help open the door a bit more.

There is nothing like Stray Gods at all. The daunting task of creating an entire interactive musical is an admirable one. Even if the songs were mostly a miss for me, I’d like to see it tried again...After all, you’ll find some of the most engaging characters around since Gaider’s previous stint at BioWare, and a worthwhile story in this sleeper hit. I know I have my eyes on Summerfall Studios moving forward.

There is something amazing at the center of Stray Gods, but with the glaring technical issues, it’s hard to recommend it if you want to play a game without yeeting your PC out the window. It is incredibly unoptimized, draining the battery on my Steam Deck in less than two hours, and making the system almost too hot to handle. Even with the great art and the amazing characters and story, the musical aspect isn’t strong enough which is a major distraction when this is the game’s main selling point. I hope that someone tries this style of game again, it could truly be something incredible.

If Stray Gods had been a Broadway musical, it would have been the second show I walked out of.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Stray Gods is is a successful prototype, even if the odd cog goes twang now and then. Stray Gods bills itself as a role playing musical. This might be a bit misleading to the more avid gamer. It is a musical, of that there can be no doubt, but some of us have a very specific collection of gameplay systems and tropes in mind when they hear the word role playing, and Stray Gods doesn’t quite manage to meet these expectations. You do play a role, that’s for sure, specifically the role of Grace, a charming college dropout and singing talent, who feels a bit lost at the moment, but will be pushed into a world of hidden gods, intrigue and music about 15 minutes in. The problem with the role play tag is that you don’t really get to tell the game who Grace is, it’s more like you can mix a certain flavor of protagonist into her, and then you make about 5 crucial decisions during the course of the story, and that’s it. Here’s how this works: During the many musical numbers (this is a musical, remember), occasionally the Bioware Dialogue Wheel(TM) pops up and allows you to choose the emotional direction the song will take. Unfortunately, at quite a few junctions the label and the color of the choice do a poor job telegraphing the consequences of the choice. Most paths through the game are worth taking, so the damage from unintended consequences is small, but still irksome at times. That is all the gameplay there is. Sure, there are a few dialog trees to climb, and a few choices outside of the songs exist as well, but at its core Stray Gods is interactive fiction, which means it mostly has to rely on the art and the story to mine engagement from the player. The art is strong. The character designs are very charming, nary a dud among them. Grace especially leaps from the still images, charisma and energy dripping from every crease of her leather jacket. The environments, though, are nothing to write home about: Sparse on details and color, they evoke the feeling of a set without committing fully to that vibe. But of most importance for a musical must surely be the cast, and here Stray Gods scores quite a few points. The main cast performs admirably. Honorable mentions go to Troy Baker and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, but for me, Stray Gods is the Laura Bailey show. She carries the game with so much warmth and spunk and verve that the occasional bit player with less than great voice work is completely eclipsed. The story, unfortunately, wobbles a bit at times. It starts strong and finds a satisfying ending, but a few parts in the middle sag a bit, a few story beats loose with twists I can’t quite relate to and setups that can’t quite land the pay-off. As for the script: The dialog is sharp and witty, and all songs are at least inoffensive, with a few absolute bangers strewn in-between. Fortunately I was so invested in Grace’s story that the occasional story weakness failed to stop me. Stray Gods is a fascinating prototype for a new genre: It has quite a few warts and falls short of its full potential, but it is something new and fresh, unique and captivating. Fans of musical theater should not miss this, everybody else still can probably have fun with this game. TLDR: If the tag line “The first interactive musical” sounds intriguing to you, you will have a good time.

Stray Gods is an enjoyable visual novel/RPG, however, it will take some effort to ‌be engaged. One must go through the slow pacing of the beginning, but in doing so, it will reward them with a much more enjoyable experience in the second half. Songs in the second half are memorable and even allow the voice actors to show off their incredible singing on top of their phenomenal acting. The game has endless replayability thanks to the branching gameplay that allows for different story beats and music. The game is very simple and is an open experience for everyone to play. Technical issues such as bad audio mixing and input lag are largely present, however, waiting a few patches should resolve these problems. As a former theater student, this game was a nice little trip back to the musical world, however it will not be for everyone. If you love musicals and the stacked voice cast, you must play this game. If you are skeptical about the game, I would recommend waiting for a sale. Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical may have some faults, but it has more strengths that help it stick out in its genre and I would be interested in a sequel. I give Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical a 7/10!

The game has an interesting story: Greek gods live in modern day and when they die, another human can "inherit" their memories and powers becoming the new god (or muse), and this is what happened to the protagonist, who was accused of killing the greek god who she inherited her powers from and has to prove her innocence within one week. The protagonist's powers as a muse is to make people talk in a musical way, which is the core of the game. So what are the problems? - The musicals are meh, none of them are captivating, neither the lyrics nor the music. You won't even care to listen to them after the game is finished. - "Millennial writing" as the story can be a mess and the ending is cheap and very predictable. - For an artistic game, the art is very average and 95% of it are STILL IMAGES. "The wolf among us" had far better art style and fully animated. - They did Aphrodite bad (because diversity) and who did they choose to be her "replacement" in case she dies? A disabled fat ethnic woman. Yes, it's this humiliating. - The ending was so lazy made, they didn't bother to do any animation or visually show us what happened to the greek gods at the end. Just a conversation explaining what happened, as if the game was done in a rush and had to finish it because they were out of budget. - The cringy "stolen land" statement in the credits. I don't mind woke games if they're at least good. This one isn't at all and was only focusing on ticking boxes as how today's shows and games. Just read a summary of the game or watch a gameplay video if you are so interested.

The worst musical i've ever experienced. Just as bad as Glee or HSM. The singing is horrendous. The lyrics are laughably cheesy and honestly I'm hoping it is Ai. The fact people think this is good shows how doomed we are as a society for music in the future. AVOID AT ALL COST. Save your money, save your time, and save your ear drums.