A music-themed RPG that positively hits the notes, each excessive and low.
From Writer Annapurna Interactive comes turn-based RPG Folks of Word, which dials up the amount to 11 with its musical theme, wordplay, and rating. As protagonist Cadence, who aspires to deliver her pop music to the world, you need to journey the world of Word to deliver a band collectively from totally different musical genres to assist Cadence finally take middle stage. Throughout quite a lot of environments and cities, Cadence and her crew struggle not solely to understand her goals but in addition to make sure that Word’s peace and music survive. I simply want I had a greater sense of who the dangerous guys are.
The story and voiced dialogue, together with full music video-style performances, begin gradual however rise nearer to a crescendo as the journey progresses. I wasn’t bought on the heavy purple and neon theming of the sport’s first chapter, however the coloration palette shifts with every new setting, which imbues the world with extra life than the pretty flavorless NPCs handle to supply. Because the solid grows, I had hoped to see extra emotional beats amongst them, however solely a handful ended up sticking with me. One pair I did get pleasure from was that of your first major accomplice, Fret, and his previous buddy-turned-nemesis Freq (or Quincy, get it?). The second main space of the sport, a desert panorama, sees Cadence seeking to recruit somebody with a special taste of music in comparison with her pop stylings, and after some convincing, rocker Fret joins the group. The primary shared goal for the pair is to root out the difficulty afflicting Fret’s dwelling, which ends up in a confrontation with Freq and a charged stroll down reminiscence lane for the pair of guitarists.
My impressions had been extra pronounced for the dungeons, fight, and development. Folks of Word largely performs the identical beat all through its runtime in the case of its plot line, with a metropolis go to, key character encounter, after which a dungeon dive because the order of operations. Acquainted button and swap puzzles supply some mild brainteasing along with a handful of out-of-combat talents. One of many extra fascinating psychological exams is puzzle battles that require you to get rid of all enemies inside a set variety of turns; these basically require perfection and thus a mastery of your social gathering members strikes and the fight system itself.
The turn-based battles contain various neat quirks that make use of musical workers, together with time signature, stanzas, and bars, which signify turns and could be manipulated by your social gathering and the opposition. My comparatively lapsed data of musical composition put me at a little bit of a deficit; Folks of Word throws lots at you in brief order, and I did discover myself perusing the tutorials from the menu as a manner of attempting to determine what was holding me again. Thankfully, if and if you do lose to one of many damage-sponge bosses, you possibly can rapidly grind a number of ranges on your social gathering with the beneficiant EXP awarded and the flexibility to summon a random encounter on the press of a button.
Sadly, although there are timed button presses for assaults and particular assaults and all the musical presentation parts, the fight drags. Apart from highly effective mash-up strikes that develop into out there as soon as a pair of characters have their meter stuffed up, it simply takes too lengthy to do the way in which an excessive amount of injury wanted to safe victory. Profitable a struggle feels extra prefer it will depend on your stats/degree and having the perfect gear than it does efficient technique and choice making. The dearth of timed protection is an odd omission, and the way in which that sure rounds profit some social gathering members over others looks like an pointless complication. There are some genuinely good concepts across the battle system, however the finish result’s extra of a cacophony than a symphony.
Though it might ring a bell with those that actually love its theme and aesthetic, Folks of Word performs it a bit extra monotone than I had hoped. The few excessive notes aren’t capable of totally compensate for the protected storytelling and narrative design, and the fight waffles an excessive amount of between tedious and novel. That mentioned, I could not assist however really feel taken by the sport’s dedication to being a music-themed journey; fixed puns and shake-ups to the fight mechanics gave me a real sense of pleasure. There wasn’t sufficient momentum, nevertheless, to maintain these optimistic vibes, and I used to be left wanting to only roll credit in double time quite than slowing down the beat and soaking all of it in.
