Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

As a musical theater nerd, I was 100% on-board with this concept. There's a lot of positive buzz around the game, so I jumped into _Stray Gods_ with high expectations. Unfortunately, those expectations weren't met. _Stray Gods_ is the textbook definition of a "bad musical": weak melodies, forgettable lyrics, and awkward transitions. Most of the songs don't even have a proper musical structure -- the characters are just sing-speaking their lines over an instrumental track. It's a shame, because the underlying story is interesting. Now I'm left imagining what it would look like if a better songwriting team tried to tackle such a project.

The voice of Grace is outstanding. I love musicals in general and the songs do not disappoint. There are several duets and lots of solos that carry the story. The story flows smoothly and for me this is just the kind of novel/musical that makes me happy. Personally this is the best game I have right now. During a song you have timed choices of where you want the song to go. Usually 3 directions. This really affects the music and the song. It is pretty AMAZING! But if you don't find music interesting then this is not for you...

This is the first game I have ever played to have 0 redeeming qualities about it. I streamed the whole thing to a friend already intending to laugh at it because it wasn't my thing and we both knew it, but good god this was an exercise in absolute misery. The plot makes no sense if you think about for even a second (or don't think about it at all! it contradicts itself within minutes of stating things so it hardly matters). The actual game is nothing more than a visual slideshow of atrocious character design clinging to life with little-to-no animation. Calling this an RPG is bordering on false advertising with how little gameplay there is here, it's a visual novel through and through with basically no choices to be made save for minor romantic options, and the entire game is so obscenely overpriced that I feel blessed to have gotten this for free instead of wasting 30 dollars on this trash. The actual execution of this game's art is somewhat pleasing to the eye, I guess, but I hate how every single character looks and the 3D models are so low-poly that they distract from the otherwise-pleasing comic-book style that I was actually kind of getting into. Audio mixing is atrocious. Songs are nothing but exposition dialogue or painful quips strung together by actors who can't sing. The only tolerable character gets revealed to be a massive liar near the end solely due to a factor out of his control and he's treated as badly for it as a character everyone has hated on throughout the game with no explanation and an actual fucking monster who tries to eat you. Avoid this with every fibre of your being if you can. Do not get this game on sale, do not get it for free. Do not play this game and waste 6 hours of your precious life on this utter garbage. Go read Bullfinch's Mythology instead. Or go outside and sing to some birds. I don't know. Just do anything other than play this game.

I use to play Visual Novel because it is usually relaxing, This one has been emotional rollercoaster, I have been happy and feel joy at the begging that it moved to sadness and ended with anger. It is not good emotion to end a journey. But I have not been able to put it down till the end so it was enticing.