- Publisher: Humble Games
- Release Date: Aug 10, 2023
- Also On: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Oct 2, 2023Stray Gods: A Roleplaying Musical offers an enjoyable murder mystery visual novel musical. This is down to the themes and the twist on Greek mythology. The addition of being a musical and the options for the player to change the outcomes of the songs through personality options helps make Stray Gods: A Roleplaying Musical bring a unique experience to video games. It leans more towards being an interactive story than a video game, and maybe any follow-ups can balance this to make it more of a video game. Still, that is not to put a damper on Stray Gods: A Roleplaying Musical, because what is here is a compelling piece of entertainment that I was fully engaged with the 5+ hours it lasted. A new sub-genre has been created with Stray Gods: A Roleplaying Musical, and with anything new, this can mean future iterations can only get better and that excites me seeing how the blend of music and story-driven adventure games could become, because Stray Gods: A Roleplaying Musical is a one-off experience I would like to become involved with again.
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Aug 9, 2023Stray Gods’ musical murder mystery is definitely worth a playthrough or two. You can tell when playing it that it’s been a labor of love from a team that appreciates musical theater, complete with unique artistic choices, crafted songs that shift based on your choices, and characters loaded with emotional angst. The gods are grappling with how they fit into the modern world and with life’s traumas, just as many of us (and I imagine the writers) are. But the overall predictability of the story and of these well-known Greek myths limit how replayable Stray Gods ultimately feels.
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Aug 9, 2023Stray Gods might be a well-written, narrative-driven murder mystery that drags us to Olympus and back again, but it fails to deliver anything remotely close to an earworm after hours of forgettable melodies. Though Bailey and Baker do enough to earn their flowers, the production itself does little to land Stray Gods a place among the musical pantheon.
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Aug 30, 2023There 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.
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Edge MagazineAug 10, 2023It sounds as if the cast are having more fun than we are. [Issue#388, p.122]
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Aug 9, 2023Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a bit of a mixed bag for me. On one hand it has interesting and compelling characters and plenty of dialogue options to explore, but on the other hand, it isn't the most immersive or engaging game.
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Aug 9, 2023A fascinating but flawed experimental musical game that fails to live up to some heavenly potential.
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Aug 9, 2023Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical has a sharp eye for aesthetics and a kind heart but its ambitious concept buckles under uneven implementation and a lacklustre sound.
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Aug 13, 2023Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is an interesting but imperfect experiment. What is more, the Nintendo Switch version is, at the time of writing, plagued by technical problems and bugs that can even prevent the conclusion of the game. The exceptional cast of voice actors, writers and musicians can not revive a product that is poorly amalgamated in its various components, and that is not always able to find original ideas in trite premises. There remains an excellent visual characterization of the characters, combined with some insights that would have shone strongly in a stronger and cohesive context. Try it again, Grace!
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Aug 9, 2023If Stray Gods had been a Broadway musical, it would have been the second show I walked out of.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
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Aug 18, 2023I’m enamored by Stray Gods’ writing and art, but the thing that makes it unique is the worst part about it. Whenever I was enjoying the writing, acting, or art, the music would kick in and I’d mutter “oh, okay, here we go again” until it was time to pick my choices and direct the song one way or another. It’s such a cool idea, but the foundation is so shaky that I sometimes wish it was just a standard adventure game so its best parts could shine through. It wouldn’t have been as eye-catching or original without its gimmick, but it would’ve been a better game.
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Aug 9, 2023Stray Gods is ambitious in its goals, and while the road Summerfall and co. take to reach them is rough and uneven, I won’t be forgetting Grace’s tale anytime soon. It’s a clever format, and the unfulfilled potential makes me excited for future attempts to meld games and theater.
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Aug 9, 2023A few gripes aside, then, the 'roleplaying musical' concept has proven itself a winner here, and if Summerfall ever want to give us an encore – once more, with even more feeling? – a sequel would be wholly welcome. Plus, isn't it nice to hear those Last Of Us actors harmonising for a change, instead of pretending to kill each other?
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 23
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Mixed: 9 out of 23
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Negative: 0 out of 23
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Sep 1, 2023
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Aug 22, 2023
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Aug 21, 2023