While Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is certainly unique, it’s hardly a “role-playing game” in the widely accepted definition of the word, and because of this, many fans of the genre will be left feeling cold.
Singleplayer.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical’s chief selling point and only real mechanic is the ability to guide the outcome of various musical numbers by choosing which preset responses Grace sings at various stages throughout each song.
While some have decried these songs as terrible, and others praised them like they were contemporaries of Hamiltion, the truth is somewhere in between, with most songs in Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical falling into a grey area of musical numbers that is the home of made for tv movies such as High School Musical 3 and Camp Rock 1 & 2.
Did I love the Songs? Not really, and some of the vocal performances were lacking; however, no single performance was “terrible”, and being able to influence the narrative via song is a very interesting mechanic, and for those who are into musicals, it is a great way to combine two interests (gaming and musicals).
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical has an all-star cast featuring some of the biggest names in voice-overs, such as Laura Bailey, Troy Baker and Khary Payton.
Most voice actors match their characters perfectly; however, some do not work so well, such as casting genderfluid actor Erika Ishii (She/They) as the character Hermes who is presented as being cis-male in the narrative while Erika Ishii is female presenting and roughly twice the age of the character they are voicing, making it very difficult to take Hermes seriously, in much the same way I would if Troy Baker (He/Him) was voicing the protagonist Grace instead of the legendary Laura Bailey.
Issues with Hermes aside, Athena is voiced by Felica Day, and honestly, compared to the voice-over work of other Chorus members, the quality of voice work is severely lacking.
This is never more evident than when Athena is sharing a scene with characters such as Apollo (Troy Baker) and Persephone (Mary Elizabeth McGlynn), who is possibly the best voice actor in the game, giving the likes of Troy Baker and Laura Baily a run for their money.
It’s not all bad news; however, the mischievous Pan is voiced by Khary Payton, most recently known for his multi-season role as King Ezekial in AMC’s The Walking Dead, and I would venture that he is even better in Stray Gods than in The Walking Dead, where his performances were a highlight of every episode he appeared in.
While it would be easy to believe that a title targeted at musical lovers would be free of controversy, this is far from the case, with many gamers taking issue with the fact Stray Gods is implied to be a role-playing game when it appears only to be a visual novel, and yet the question remains, can visual novels be roleplaying games?
Normally no, but in the case of Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, a reluctant yes, there are plenty of opportunities for players to shape the narrative in minor ways and react to key moments while “role-playing” as Grace, including helping her clear her name, decide on which leads to investigate, and even who to love, however at the end of the day these have little effect on the overall story, and while they do shape the fates of several supporting characters, the fate of Grace is pretty much the same, regardless of how you get there.
That being said, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a visual novel with RPG elements tacked on, and in no way does Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical qualify as a traditional roleplaying game, and fans of the genre are unlikely to find it a fulfilling experience unless they also happen to be massive musical theatre buffs.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical narrative is a very interesting one, as while I am a devout follower of Jesus Christ, I can appreciate Greek mythology as an interesting setting, and seeing mythological characters in a new setting is pretty interesting, even if I would be the first to admit its pure fantasy.
The murder mystery aspect of the story is also very engaging in short doses, and while investigation scenes drag on far too long, and players are bombarded with thousands of lines of superbly voiced dialogue, much of it has little to no effect on the overall outcome of the narrative, which unfortunately quickly begins to lose its shine after players are subjected to the 5th musical number in less than an hour.
However, I must admit the narrative did get me thinking about the concept of “killing gods” and the role of gods walking among mortals, which as a Christian, brings me back to Jesus and his life as God incarnated as a man.
The Murder of Calliope, the last muse, is central to the plot of Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, and in many ways, is entirely responsible for everything that occurs after it and the ability for a divine being to be killed by a mortal, as the Chorus initially suspects, is an interesting one, and while there have been many myths that touched upon this topic, the question remains, in the real world could a mortal kill a God? and the answer might surprise you.
The Death of Jesus Christ, the son of God, was very much because of mortals; however, no mortal could take his life, as we see in the Gospel of John, where Jesus discusses his impending sacrifice to redeem mankind by saying.
The sins of mankind, which had separated God and Man since the fall of Adam and Eve, were very much the reason Jesus had to die, meaning that while the Son of God needed to die so that man could live, and by raising from the dead three days later, taking up his life as he foretold, he proved that he was who he said he was.
This is confirmed due to thousands of his former enemies (Pharisees), coming to believe in him, and even the powerful Roman Empire at the height of its glory, fearing the effect this “one man’s teachings” would have on the empire, resulting in a series of brutal persecutions against Christians up until the Roman Empire embraced Christianity in 380 AD.
In Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, we see gods act in various ways towards mortals, ranging from helping where they can (Apollo & Calliope) to feeling they are better than mortals (pretty much everyone else), with many of them (at least at first) acting selfishly towards Grace endured, going as far to sentence her to death before Apollo intervened to buy her some time.
Many gods live in luxury, with gorgeous designer apartments and all the trappings of wealth, which once again made me look back to Jesus, the only time a God walked among man, and how he interacted with those around him, his humility and concern for the poor being far from how people would expect a God to behave then or today.
In addition, Jesus addressed multiple social issues, such as equality, unity, diversity, social justice, and more, and his example is one that anyone truly compassionate about making the world a better place should follow.
A recurring plot in Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is the topic of how the gods have weakened with time and how they must change if they are to remain relevant; however, Jesus and God not only have not changed but cannot change, as Jesus himself refers to himself as “I am”, not “I will be” or “I was” indicating that he and his Father, are always the same, and will continue to be the same, going as far as to say that it was his words that would judge all mankind for their deeds, both good and evil at the end of time.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical utilizes a gorgeous comic book slide show aesthetic, and honestly, it’s perfect for this type of game, allowing the developers to dedicate more resources to script writing and voice acting (which are very important) over impressive visuals which would fall flat in a game that is almost entirely focused around providing an excellent audio experience.
Some of the individual pieces of art are of such high quality they would look amazing as prints, and I would like to see the developers offer such on their website, perhaps as a way to support the development of a sequel or to sustain the studio while they decide what they will do once Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is out in the wild, and no longer needs development resources.
I must preface this by saying I enjoy dialogue-heavy games and love a good narrative encounter, but Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical takes this to the extreme, and with little to no interaction for minutes at a time, I often found myself feeling bored as characters talked endlessly about an array of interesting in small doses, but overwhelming in volume topics, that had various degrees of importance to the overall plot.
Some gamers have taken issue with Summerfall games, including an apology to indigenous tribes of Australia for the game having been developed on land that originally belonged to indigenous tribes; however, this is a single loading screen, and to take offence at the developer’s attempts to “do the right thing”, is immature, regardless of how you view the concept of “Stolen land.”
As Jesus Christ said.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a role playing game video game developed by Summerfall Studios and published by Humble Games, it was released on 10 August 2023 and retails for $29.99.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is available on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
On average Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical takes between 6 and 40 hours to complete.
Estimated completion times are derived from various sources and may vary based on the skill level of each player.
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is rated PEGI 12+ and contains:
Overall Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a great “game” for non-gamers, but it lacks the content and mechanics required to make it engaging for those who are used to greater levels of interactivity in their role-playing games.
