As a fan of animated musical feature films, People of Note immediately got my attention when it was first unveiled late last year. The fact that it was also a turn-based RPG sealed the deal that it was a game I needed, but as I went through its mostly charming 20-hour journey, I felt like I had more moments of frustration than enjoyment.
In People of Note, you play as pop diva Cadence, who dreams of performing under the lights. Unfortunately, for reasons not exclusive to her talent, her performance in the Noteworthy Song Contest is not up to snuff, and she decides to travel across the world of Note to locales that specialize in very distinct types of music with the hopes of coming back with not only a more varied sound, but a band that’s truly n’sync.
Okay, that was a terrible pun, and funnily enough, this game is actually full of puns, both terrible and excellent. From the dialog to the names of items to certain scenarios that happen in the story, People of Note‘s narrative, albeit obvious, has immense charm and humor. This, combined with an intriguing combat system and design structure, provided real motivation to see the story through, and every bit of motivation was necessary because the sheer challenge of it all really wore out its welcome.
People of Note’s visual style is mostly awesome, and they have some pretty cool puzzles to boot.
If you’re a fan of any type of music and appreciate the medium, you’ll feel right at home in the world of Note. Whether it’s Cadence’s hometown of Chordia, with a penchant for pop, the rocking city of Durandis, the rainy beat drops of the EDM city Lumina, or the head-bobbing rap in Pyre, seeing (and hearing) the musically based cultures in each of these towns really makes this indie game’s world-building special. As you’d probably expect, each of these cities also features a character that eventually joins your party and really makes the combat system music to your ears.
The turn-based battle system in People of Note is simpler than it lets on. The main things to keep in mind are that every turn is called a stanza, and your characters can take actions in any order you please. Sometimes you’ll have one more action than you have characters in your party, and it’s in these moments that the combat really opens up your sense of fighting freely. Almost every offensive attack and ability in the game is tied to some sort of rhythm-based quicktime event, and the game will tell you as you press each button whether you’ve timed your presses perfect, great, good, okay, and then the more negative ones. Obviously, the better your timing is, the more damage you’ll inflict on your enemies.
Unfortunately, as far as defense, there’s really nothing you can do except watch your characters get hit, and oftentimes, they’ll get hit hard. The worst part is there are no missed attacks (which, I guess, is good when you’re the one delivering the blows). All you can really do is use abilities that’ll reduce the amount of damage you’ll take, and making matters worse is the fact that while you do have offensive QTEs, there’s nothing you can do on defense. This made the early game, when you only have two characters, really brutal. The middle and later parts of the game don’t get that much easier either, even with a full band of four. In many ways, the main way things get more difficult is the fact that every boss has an inordinate amount of HP, which makes sense, but as every stanza passes, they get more and more aggressive. I found myself healing way more than I was attacking, which made for an incredibly frustrating experience against more difficult enemies.
The Elite Beat Agents-feel to the battle systems made them feel fun, as long as you weren’t in an overly drawn out boss battle.
This is where the game sort of reached a crossroads for me. The “beauty” of these extremely difficult bouts is that you don’t actually have to go through them. If you want, you can totally skip any battle you want, including bosses, and you’ll get the experience points and trophy that come along with it. If you really want to, you can just go through the game and skip every fight, but where’s the fun in that?
The other aspect that’ll draw People of Note‘s attention is its puzzles. Every area in the game has a puzzling section that’ll usually be your key to fighting each place’s big boss, but the degree of difficulty of these puzzles fluctuates in ways that I also found frustrating. Puzzles range from instances requiring your comprehension skills to environment-based puzzles that utilize skills you learn from ability stones in various levels or dungeons. One such skill is forte, which allows Cadence to unleash a musical force that’ll make things move.
It really bugged me that more puzzles than I’d like to admit stumped me to the point of anger and frustration, especially as someone who wants the Golden Sun series to come back, because in some ways, People of Note might be the closest thing I have. I particularly had trouble in the Choral Reef, manipulating how high the geysers would push the platforms so Cadence could hop on.
It has its rough edges in how you keep inventory, but the Songstone system in People of Note rivals that of Final Fantasy VII’s Materia system. It’s that good.
Since this review is being published on the day the game comes out, I couldn’t look things up even if I wanted to. Some of my peers in the industry also told me they took way more time than they wanted solving some of the game’s puzzles and also ended up skipping them entirely just because they could. Again, like the battles, where’s the fun in that?
So that brings up the question. Outside of the difficulty and sense of accomplishment you’ll get when overcoming these challenges, what will actually motivate people to see the game through? While I don’t think this story was anything special, again, I enjoyed the world that I was in–the colors, the culture, a lot of the dialogue. Despite how frustrating the game is, People of Note has some irresistible charm to it, and I didn’t even mention the actual musical performances.
The performances were what captured my attention during the game’s reveal in the first place, and they’re definitely what kept my eyes glued to the game. Almost every big story beat in the campaign will lead to some sort of overproduced music video that really gives off K-Pop Demon Hunter vibes, especially when it comes to the performances done by the K-Pop folks in Chordia. But once you mix in the likes of rock, rap, EDM, and other forms of music with that pop, it’s all just well done. The songs are so catchy and well-written that I wanna go back and look up those music videos right now.
One of the last dungeons in People of Note really felt like an escape room, and it was one of the less frustrating collections of puzzles in the game.
But that also led to something frustrating.
Every dialog scene in the game is acted out by JPEGs of the characters with speech balloons. Given how visually outstanding the game is, it’s unfortunate we couldn’t get real cutscenes. The voice acting is great, and the musical performances are better, but the immersion absolutely disappears when it comes to these pivotal dialog scenes. I know this is an indie studio and you can only do so much, but it’s hard to really create a memorable experience when many aspects that make your game special end up only getting in the way.
Of course, as a game inspired by JRPGs, there are sidequests and other things to get involved in, and as someone who’s a sicko for the genre, I had to partake in my fair share of them. Not only was I met with the same sort of frustration I just talked about regarding battles, puzzles, and dialogue, but it also opened my eyes to other problems. Quality of life just really isn’t there. There’s no maps to guide you through any of the towns or dungeons you’re in, there’s no quick travel, and even when you’re on the world map which is actually a menu, you actually have to watch Cadence run from one side of the map to the other, which is extremely excruciating when you know that you’re just doing a quick fetch quest. It honestly feels like the 20 hours I spent on this game could really have been less than 15 if I didn’t spend most of my time traveling through cities I’ve already explored instead of pinpointing where I tried to go in the first place.
The EDM city looks so damn cool, and I don’t even like EDM.
I really liked People of Note, and I hope Iridium Studios can get a bigger budget for their next game because if they decide to stick with this kind of JRPG-inspired game in the future, it could be a real banger. This is a solid first try, but I think the difficulty of the puzzles and overly drawn-out boss battles will make people quit, even if you can skip almost anything remotely difficult. If I didn’t have to review this game, I would’ve abandoned it because I felt like the game didn’t respect my time.
But I’m glad I didn’t, because these are some of the best end credits you’ll ever experience in any medium.
As a fan of animated musical feature films, People of Note immediately got my attention when it was first unveiled late last year. The fact that it was also a turn-based RPG sealed the deal that it was a game I needed, but as I went through its mostly charming 20-hour journey, I felt like I had more moments of frustration than enjoyment.
As a fan of animated musical feature films, People of Note immediately got my attention when it was first unveiled late last year. The fact that it was also a turn-based RPG sealed the deal that it was a game I needed, but as I went through its mostly charming 20-hour journey, I felt like I had more moments of frustration than enjoyment.
In People of Note, you play as pop diva Cadence, who dreams of performing under the lights. Unfortunately, for reasons not exclusive to her talent, her performance in the Noteworthy Song Contest is not up to snuff, and she decides to travel across the world of Note to locales that specialize in very distinct types of music with the hopes of coming back with not only a more varied sound, but a band that’s truly n’sync.
Okay, that was a terrible pun, and funnily enough, this game is actually full of puns, both terrible and excellent. From the dialog to the names of items to certain scenarios that happen in the story, People of Note‘s narrative, albeit obvious, has immense charm and humor. This, combined with an intriguing combat system and design structure, provided real motivation to see the story through, and every bit of motivation was necessary because the sheer challenge of it all really wore out its welcome.
People of Note’s visual style is mostly awesome, and they have some pretty cool puzzles to boot.
If you’re a fan of any type of music and appreciate the medium, you’ll feel right at home in the world of Note. Whether it’s Cadence’s hometown of Chordia, with a penchant for pop, the rocking city of Durandis, the rainy beat drops of the EDM city Lumina, or the head-bobbing rap in Pyre, seeing (and hearing) the musically based cultures in each of these towns really makes this indie game’s world-building special. As you’d probably expect, each of these cities also features a character that eventually joins your party and really makes the combat system music to your ears.
The turn-based battle system in People of Note is simpler than it lets on. The main things to keep in mind are that every turn is called a stanza, and your characters can take actions in any order you please. Sometimes you’ll have one more action than you have characters in your party, and it’s in these moments that the combat really opens up your sense of fighting freely. Almost every offensive attack and ability in the game is tied to some sort of rhythm-based quicktime event, and the game will tell you as you press each button whether you’ve timed your presses perfect, great, good, okay, and then the more negative ones. Obviously, the better your timing is, the more damage you’ll inflict on your enemies.
Unfortunately, as far as defense, there’s really nothing you can do except watch your characters get hit, and oftentimes, they’ll get hit hard. The worst part is there are no missed attacks (which, I guess, is good when you’re the one delivering the blows). All you can really do is use abilities that’ll reduce the amount of damage you’ll take, and making matters worse is the fact that while you do have offensive QTEs, there’s nothing you can do on defense. This made the early game, when you only have two characters, really brutal. The middle and later parts of the game don’t get that much easier either, even with a full band of four. In many ways, the main way things get more difficult is the fact that every boss has an inordinate amount of HP, which makes sense, but as every stanza passes, they get more and more aggressive. I found myself healing way more than I was attacking, which made for an incredibly frustrating experience against more difficult enemies.
The Elite Beat Agents-feel to the battle systems made them feel fun, as long as you weren’t in an overly drawn out boss battle.
This is where the game sort of reached a crossroads for me. The “beauty” of these extremely difficult bouts is that you don’t actually have to go through them. If you want, you can totally skip any battle you want, including bosses, and you’ll get the experience points and trophy that come along with it. If you really want to, you can just go through the game and skip every fight, but where’s the fun in that?
The other aspect that’ll draw People of Note‘s attention is its puzzles. Every area in the game has a puzzling section that’ll usually be your key to fighting each place’s big boss, but the degree of difficulty of these puzzles fluctuates in ways that I also found frustrating. Puzzles range from instances requiring your comprehension skills to environment-based puzzles that utilize skills you learn from ability stones in various levels or dungeons. One such skill is forte, which allows Cadence to unleash a musical force that’ll make things move.
It really bugged me that more puzzles than I’d like to admit stumped me to the point of anger and frustration, especially as someone who wants the Golden Sun series to come back, because in some ways, People of Note might be the closest thing I have. I particularly had trouble in the Choral Reef, manipulating how high the geysers would push the platforms so Cadence could hop on.
It has its rough edges in how you keep inventory, but the Songstone system in People of Note rivals that of Final Fantasy VII’s Materia system. It’s that good.
Since this review is being published on the day the game comes out, I couldn’t look things up even if I wanted to. Some of my peers in the industry also told me they took way more time than they wanted solving some of the game’s puzzles and also ended up skipping them entirely just because they could. Again, like the battles, where’s the fun in that?
So that brings up the question. Outside of the difficulty and sense of accomplishment you’ll get when overcoming these challenges, what will actually motivate people to see the game through? While I don’t think this story was anything special, again, I enjoyed the world that I was in–the colors, the culture, a lot of the dialogue. Despite how frustrating the game is, People of Note has some irresistible charm to it, and I didn’t even mention the actual musical performances.
The performances were what captured my attention during the game’s reveal in the first place, and they’re definitely what kept my eyes glued to the game. Almost every big story beat in the campaign will lead to some sort of overproduced music video that really gives off K-Pop Demon Hunter vibes, especially when it comes to the performances done by the K-Pop folks in Chordia. But once you mix in the likes of rock, rap, EDM, and other forms of music with that pop, it’s all just well done. The songs are so catchy and well-written that I wanna go back and look up those music videos right now.
One of the last dungeons in People of Note really felt like an escape room, and it was one of the less frustrating collections of puzzles in the game.
But that also led to something frustrating.
Every dialog scene in the game is acted out by JPEGs of the characters with speech balloons. Given how visually outstanding the game is, it’s unfortunate we couldn’t get real cutscenes. The voice acting is great, and the musical performances are better, but the immersion absolutely disappears when it comes to these pivotal dialog scenes. I know this is an indie studio and you can only do so much, but it’s hard to really create a memorable experience when many aspects that make your game special end up only getting in the way.
Of course, as a game inspired by JRPGs, there are sidequests and other things to get involved in, and as someone who’s a sicko for the genre, I had to partake in my fair share of them. Not only was I met with the same sort of frustration I just talked about regarding battles, puzzles, and dialogue, but it also opened my eyes to other problems. Quality of life just really isn’t there. There’s no maps to guide you through any of the towns or dungeons you’re in, there’s no quick travel, and even when you’re on the world map which is actually a menu, you actually have to watch Cadence run from one side of the map to the other, which is extremely excruciating when you know that you’re just doing a quick fetch quest. It honestly feels like the 20 hours I spent on this game could really have been less than 15 if I didn’t spend most of my time traveling through cities I’ve already explored instead of pinpointing where I tried to go in the first place.
The EDM city looks so damn cool, and I don’t even like EDM.
I really liked People of Note, and I hope Iridium Studios can get a bigger budget for their next game because if they decide to stick with this kind of JRPG-inspired game in the future, it could be a real banger. This is a solid first try, but I think the difficulty of the puzzles and overly drawn-out boss battles will make people quit, even if you can skip almost anything remotely difficult. If I didn’t have to review this game, I would’ve abandoned it because I felt like the game didn’t respect my time.
But I’m glad I didn’t, because these are some of the best end credits you’ll ever experience in any medium.
by Danreb Victorio
