Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

A murder mystery musical, with Greek Gods in modern times.

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a unique combination of stunning hand-drawn visuals, a branching narrative and a beautiful soundtrack that evolves with your in-game choices.
Set in a world where ancient Greek gods live among us, you play as Grace, an aspiring musician who becomes embroiled in the divine after inheriting the power of a Muse. When accused of murder, you have seven days to clear your name by delving into the complex, emotionally charged world of the Greek Pantheon. Along the way, you’ll engage in branching dialogues, make pivotal decisions, and shape the very songs that underscore the story.

I’m amazed this isn’t in the AdventureGamers database, because to me, it’s definitely an adventure game. It plays like a visual novel where your dialogue decisions change the way the story (and its songs!) progress. It’s a beautifully hand-illustrated game, with a visual style that’s somewhat reminiscent of The Last Express, and the soundtrack is an absolute marvel of musical innovation.

Composed by Austin Wintory (of Journey, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate and The Banner Saga fame), the soundtrack is a living, breathing entity that reflects your choices.
You get your pick of three core personality traits early in the game – Charming (Green), Kickass (Red) and Clever (Blue) – and every decision you make influences not only the story but also the tone, lyrics, and even the style of the songs. It’s like a playable Broadway show where you’re the director, and the cast includes top notch voice acting talents like Laura Bailey, Troy Baker, Janina Gavankar, Ashley Johnson, Khary Payton, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Erika Ishii, Felicia Day and Anthony Rapp.

For the D&D enthusiasts among you: yes, that list contains quite a few ‘Critical Role’ cast members!
I didn’t know half of them could even sing, let alone as good as they do in this game.

While the story is branching, I would like to point out that it is mostly character-driven, and any decisions you make in the game will affect the character interactions and the songs a LOT more than they will the plot. Plotwise, the decisions matter about as much as they do in a Telltale game. In that regard, despite being a murder mystery, there’s actually very little investigating going on.
The strength of this game lies in the music, the writing and the quality of the voice work.

In-game decisions that matter are always taken during songs, and although your chosen character trait may suggest a preference for a certain ‘path’ in the songs, the traits really only make a difference in the non-song dialogue. During the musical numbers, all options are open, and I would recommend going into this game “blind” and picking what feels right on a first playthrough. In-song choices have a timer, but it’s not only generous, it can also be disabled entirely. Waiting too long would make the music stop, though.

Sadly, while there are a number of top quality standout songs, not *every* musical number manages to hit its mark, and some even feel a tad disjointed, depending on the direction you chose for them. Then again, they really tried something truly ambitious here, so it’s not really a surprise that they didn’t nail everything perfectly.

That said, after finishing the game, I immediately wanted to play it again to see how my decisions changed the character interactions, but above all: how they changed the songs. I wound up going through the game three times!
As for length, I’d reckon a first playthrough would take around 6 hours, while replays would be around 5 hours (as the in-game journal becomes less important on a revisit).

Now, for me, the game and its story packed an emotional punch. But frankly, that was to be expected: I cry easily with movies, and as I’ve gotten older, music has become more emotionally triggering as well. I also consider video games to be more immersive than movies – you’re not just watching things happen to a character, you essentially *ARE* that character, which only increases the impact. It’s no wonder that a video game centred around musical numbers would affect me greatly.

It also doesn’t help that I took an immediate liking to the main character, Grace. After all, I have a thing for young protagonists who are feeling somewhat ‘lost’ in life, lacking a bit of purpose or direction, and not being afraid to express that. Heck, I named my daughter after such character!
Several of the themes in the game are known to hit me hard as well (PTSD, survivor’s guilt, regret, sacrifice, etc.), so it’s safe to say that I couldn’t help but shed a few tears during this game. One of the songs even has the ability to render me into a blubbering mess, even after several playthroughs, and even while listening to it on Spotify (without the in-game visuals to go with it).

Speaking of Spotify, the game has not one but four soundtracks on it. A “Pantheon” version which contains all the non-musical numbers as well, and where I assume the musical numbers are in the game makers’ “canon” versions. And then there are “Red”, “Green” and “Blue” versions of the musical numbers, that focus on their likewise-coloured decisions – as a way to explore most of the variations in the songs…