A turan-based RPG musical where you literally fight to the beat sounds like a recipe for disaster. But, Stray Gods was also a musical and we love that game to death. People of Note is a game that has a lot on its plate. And yet, somehow, it actually pulls it off. It has the scrappy, undeniable energy of a garage band finding its footing on stage. You’re definitely going to miss some notes, and the mechanics will drive you crazy sometimes. But you probably won’t leave the show early.
A lot to juggle
Tempo-Based Attacks: Combat efficiency is directly tied to hitting inputs on the beat of the background track.
Dynamic Audio Shifting: Background music seamlessly transitions genres during fights, forcing players to adapt their timing.
Genre Mashups: Combining party members from different musical backgrounds creates unique, high-damage combo attacks.
Jam Session
At the begining, you might be thinking that you’re getting yourself into “a totally new kind of turn-based combat,”. In all fairness, however, you’re essentially playing a massive rhythm game stapled to a standard RPG. It works better than it sounds. You step into the shoes of Cadence, a pop singer who tanks a music contest and decides to form a cross-genre supergroup to stop a world-ending event. It’s a standard save-the-world plot, just drenched in neon and glitter.
The fun part here is that you can’t just zone out. You aren’t scrolling a menu, hitting ‘Attack,’ and watching the animations roll. You have to sync your button presses exactly to the beat of the background track.
When it clicks, it’s amazing. The music is outstanding and it’s doing its best to properly motivate you. You want it to click as often as possible. The whole concept is very satisfying.
Swap out a heavy metal guitarist for an EDM DJ mid-fight, and the music instantly shifts gears. Suddenly you’re comboing to a completely different rhythm. It feels fantastic.
Then you miss a beat. Your damage plummets. Because the music shifts in real-time, your timing has to shift with it. If you don’t have natural rhythm, these dungeons will eat you alive. Staying that focused for every single random encounter over a 15 to 25-hour campaign can be exhausting, especially if, as we said, you have a poor rhythmic coordination.
Iridium Studios loves experimenting with unique controls. Here, you can definitely feel the strain of them trying to build a massive game on a double-A budget. Yet, despite the limitations, the dedication shows. They consistently went the extra mile to make the final product feel as polished as possible.
Hey, did you know that:
The game features a helpful “skip” option that lets players turn off environmental puzzles and the core rhythm combat if they just want to enjoy the story.
Unlike most RPGs that use short looping tracks, this game features full-length cinematic musical sequences for its main cast.
The world map, Note, is geographically divided by music genres, featuring distinct biomes like the Rock City of Durandis and the EDM City of Lumina.
Gorgeous and Chaotic
People of Note is a game that demands way too much of your attention and sometimes punishes you for its own technical hiccups. But the sheer fun of nailing a perfect mixed-genre attack makes it easy to forgive. It takes a big swing. And it connects just enough to be worth your time.
Narrative (8/10) The “save the music” story is as old as time, and the Harmonic Convergence is a pretty standard threat. But Cadence is fun to follow and we like how the plot drives you to the next song.
Gameplay Mechanics (8/10) When the rhythm combat matches the changing music perfectly, it feels electric. When the button prompts mysteriously detach from the beat of the song, it gets really annoying.
Audio (9/10) The way the music changes genres during fights is a massive achievement. The game has a huge, brilliant soundtrack that excuses a lot of its mechanical issues.
Graphics (7/10) The art style for each city is bright and distinct. It looks great, but the visual clutter can sometimes get overwhelming in motion.
Overall Score (8/10) A flawed but highly creative game that is absolutely worth a spin.
ID Card
- Developer: Iridium Studios
- Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
- Engine: Unity
- Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2
- Genre: Rhythm / Turn-Based RPG
Dev & Play Media 
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