Are you like me where you used to play those cheesy Japanese RPGs with animated cutscenes where the characters all of a sudden just burst into song? The ones with campy, yet catchy lyrics? Ones that were brutally localized in English, yet I still loved every moment and memorized the songs (stop judging me).
People of Note brings back the classic J-like RPG narrative style, incorporating turn based battles, all (w)rapped up by musical themes and puns galore.
Warning: I will be doing my best (yet failing) to put as many musical puns as I can.
Vinyl Fantasy
People of Note is set in the world of Note, a place governed by music, both new and old. Cadence, our main character, comes from the city of Chordia, a place run by pop. Cadence is distraught from constantly losing to a boy band Smolder, and failing at the Noteworthy Song Contest, decides that perhaps her solo act isn’t enough.
The world of Note is one of the many aspects this game does well. It is teeming with music, its themes, and terminologies, that listening to the characters talk and reading what the NPCs had to say kept me engaged. From the way they talk and the slang they used (“trill” is used for “great!”), to their currency (Groove), I was eager to absorb every text I saw on my screen, looking for how they turn music-themed names into everyday items.
During Cadence’s adventure, she’ll travel through places like the Rock City of Durandis, the EDM city of Lumina, as well as meet new friends and Bandmates. The world of Note and its people look beautiful and are well designed. Best of all, there is at least one musical number, complete with lyrics sung by its characters, in each area! It is unfortunate that there isn’t a way to view these musical numbers again.
Much like games in this genre, things aren’t as simple as it seems. Soon, Cadence must not only find more members for her band, but also collect Keys held by each nation and keep away from the baddies.
The Fusion Fighters
People of Note has a turn based battle system. A turn is called a Stanza, and the number of actions our players and enemies can take is the Time Signature. Our characters can take action in whatever order, focusing on strategy. There are many variables that can happen throughout the game that can alter the efficacy of your abilities. In essence, it is very much a normal turn based system. However, once you get into it, it is far from normal.
Each of your party members will have their own musical style. Cadence is Pop, Fret is Rock, etc. Stanzas will have a specific music style during battle, and any attack or abilities during this music style will have higher potency.
You’ll also have to balance your abilities (from Songstones), the resource to use them (Beat Points/BP), and when to Rest which replenishes some beat points as well as defending during that turn.
Songstones & Remix Stones
Each of your party members can only equip three items: a weapon, an armour, and an accessory. It isn’t too bad, though I wish I could equip a 2nd accessory for better builds. However, what’s super cool, is how weapons are handled. Besides the normal increase in attack power, each weapon has its own Songstone Graph.
Within this graph, you can place songstones, the abilities you use during battle, and remix stones, the passives that can alter that songstone. Creating builds is fun and altering it to suit a particular encounter could be your road to victory against a tough boss. It’s a great system with lots of flexibility. It could be built upon if the graph can somehow be altered, or older weapons can be upgraded. The way it is, unfortunately, there is no benefit with keeping older weapons as the new one will always be better regardless of how the graph looks.
Lastly, you can increase the potency of some songstones with Ability Points gained after battle. The cool thing about this is that it can be changed at any time. Your AP spent is not permanent. Lowering or increasing a songstone’s level can be changed as easy as pressing L1/R1.
This malleable system would stand above the rest if it had some way to save different builds. For example, one for boss battles with only one target, and another with multiple.
Treble Threat
People of Note does not have random battles! I don’t care what the JRPG purists think; having the choice when to fight and when not to fight is superior. If you have a problem with that, Drop a Beat and fight me! Whenever you’re in a “dungeon” (each zone has at one), you can press a button (Triangle on PlayStation) to “Drop a Beat” and enter a battle to fight enemies to collect resources such as groove, vinyls, and ability points. It’s not necessary to do additional fights, however, if you want to purchase unique items, many are purchasable using Vinyls from a vendor named Maestro.
Otherwise, you’ll encounter enemies that are glowing red, letting you know that getting close to them will initiate combat.
People of Note is NOT an easy game, especially later on. You’re encouraged to go all out at every encounter. Your HP and BP is replenished every battle.
Enemy variety is fantastic. Not only do they look cool and have cool names, each one is unique. You’ll have a snake that’ll play a tune that locks your ability to perform basic attacks. You’ll have an elephant that attacks your whole party multiple times. You’ll even have ones that will put a modifier on a measure of your stanza, making it so that any action performed on it will cost extra BPs or have lower potency. Every encounter is a puzzle that needs to be solved.
Puzzle of Note
This game loves puzzles. Each zone has a unique puzzle mechanic. It makes each dungeon fun and engaging, especially since they are linear. Not only that, there’s even a secret organization called the Voluminati that challenges you to puzzle battles, where you need to complete specific tasks during a battle.
These puzzles starts of simple, but will steadily get more challenging as they layer more of its mechanics in each stage. The only thing I would change with their love of puzzles, is the ability to reset it. Sometimes is easier to visualize the solution if we can start from scratch.
Do not fret, all the puzzles are optional, though completing some of them can yield unique items and experience points.
Turn it up to 11!
People of Note is a role playing game with heavy emphasis on music. This was the game’s biggest selling point to me. The music that plays in the background in each zone, the way that it changes to the theme of each music style that stanza has during battle, and the musical numbers that the game has. Everything sounds fantastic!
It may seem like I’ve forgotten to talk about it, but the game also has some aspect of rhythm gameplay. Many of your abilities require you to press in appropriate rhythm in order for that ability to have the best potency. In my opinion, this is the game’s weakest point. The abilities have their own rhythm, one that doesn’t match anything in its surroundings. I get it, each ability is like a beat in a song and each character has their own style. However, it doesn’t mesh. The rhythm gameplay feels quiet, muted, and shy in comparison to People of Note’s overall loud and proud presentation. You can turn it off, however missing out on potential potency that Perfects gives you hurts, especially in tight battle situations. This is a small gripe.
Accessibility
While People of Note boasts fun, challenging, and strategic turn based battles, you can change battle difficulty or turn it off entirely. While puzzles in dungeons makes the world more engaging, you can turn it off entirely. Don’t do that though, in my opinion, the battles and puzzles in People of Note is two of its strengths.
This may not be a game of narrative choices, but it is a game of options. From being able to retreat from battles to rearrange your load out, to whether or not to interact with its battles or puzzles, you can choose how to play People of Note.
An Instant Hit!
People of Note has many gameplay elements that reminds me of games I’ve played before: the campy narrative style, the stylishly drawn characters, pun-filled world, turn based battle, and musical cutscenes.
However, everything about People of Note feels new, refreshing, and fun; elements that have been remixed into its own style. You can tell how much love Iridium Studios put into their game. While it could use some fine tuning before it can be a masterpiece, this is a beat that you shouldn’t miss. I highly recommend it!
People of Note was reviewed on PlayStation 5, Gamer Social Club would like to thank the devs and publisher for the code.
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