As someone who grew up playing music and turn-based RPGs, People of Note seems like a game made in a lab and specifically targeted at me. It’s a rhythm-based RPG where genres of music dictate its societies and timing inputs determine the effectiveness of your abilities. And the way it blends its soundtrack throughout the world and battle is one of its most interesting aspects, and for how it sets the tone for its atmosphere and combat mechanics. These are fantastic ideas I caught glimpses of in a hands-on preview build that featured an early section of the campaign, but the thing I’m still hung up on is how much it’s caught up in this cheesy twee attitude that’s a bit tough to buy into. As is the case with several RPGs, however, a short snippet isn’t going to paint the whole picture.
The demo I played (which is available now) drops you into Durandis, a mountainous region that’s home to several genres of rock music. You have the metalheads living separately from the punk rockers who despise grunge kids in a way that’s very reminiscent of how we formed cliques in middle school based on music and the fashion that came with it. It’s corny for sure, but that’s the idea it’s going for. As the pop singer and lead protagonist Cadence, she still has a lot to learn about the world of music, and so she familiarizes herself with these genres along the way. Shortly after you arrive, Durandis is attacked by a faction of old-timey Western musicians called The Homestead – for what reason, I’m not entirely sure, but it explains how divisive music tribalism harms its world known as Note.
Although the music itself didn’t strike a chord with me, I appreciate how it mixes genres throughout. Going into the grunge part of town plays a riff on Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” while the punk section picks up the tempo while using melodic octave chord progressions. When fighting the wild west-coded invaders, an uptempo folk tune plays as the battle theme, but a pop mix blends pretty seamlessly into the same underlying song when the turn order goes into a pop phase and the same goes for a classic rock phase – there’s a mechanical reason for this, too.
When it switches to a certain music genre during a turn, the song will shift accordingly and this powers up party members who represent that specific style. Cadence’s attacks will hit harder during a pop phase while the washed-up guitarist Fret gets a boost in his abilities in a rock phase. It’s neat how this works, but adds a strategic layer to who you tee up for big hits as you line it up for the best turn possible. People of Note includes mechanics like timing-based inputs to maximize effectiveness of attacks and abilities, which many more are now familiar with thanks to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and I’m happy to see this trend continue because I enjoy the active element it brings to turn-based battles.
One thing I wish People of Note was better about in this regard was syncing up those inputs to the backing track, or making the battle themes punchier to accentuate on-beat cues for those button prompts. At least in this early hour-plus, the visual indicators aren’t quite as clear and the audible feedback wasn’t really felt; not to keep invoking Clair Obscur’s name, but for a non-rhythm game, it was very good about creating “beats” when executing attacks or dodging/parrying enemies through visuals and sound cues. Perhaps more time with People of Note and getting deeper into the mechanics will let these kinds of features shine more, so it’s something I’m paying attention to when the time comes to play the final version.
I only played with two characters (Cadence and Fret) in my party, yet I still got a good feel for how party composition and builds are important to winning tougher battles. You collect Songstones to modify their perks and can customize characters’ movesets, and I had Cadence as my heavy hitter while Fret was more of a support role with healing and feeding BP (beat points, the resource needed to use abilities). Still, with the genre phases throughout a battle, I needed them to remain versatile. That’s also because you can do some interesting things with turn order – the time signature at the bottom of screen telegraphs how the turn can play out, and who you use and in those specific open measures is up to you. For example, against the last demo boss Freq, I had three open measures and I would use Fret to boost Cadence’s BP to then use her powerful Instant Hit attack, and then use the third turn to either heal or defend depending on the situation. Enemies can also permanently modify specific measures in the fight, like how Freq put a half-damage debuff on all attacks used in first measures. This is where I think People of Note can really differentiate itself from other combat systems and go from a novel music-based RPG to a uniquely tactical one.
A nice feature that makes dungeon crawling smooth is that you recover HP after each fight, and since BP is built within battles themselves, you don’t have to manage some sort of magic resource like MP or mana. Each combat encounter is a turn-based puzzle to figure out on its own. It’s more appreciated considering that dungeons in People of Note have actual puzzles to solve, which break up the pace; in the playable demo, there’s a series of rooms with light beams you need to align and reflect off mirrors to unlock doors. It’s not exactly noteworthy as we’ve seen these kinds of challenges many-a-time, so it’s also appreciated that there aren’t random encounters and all battles thus far clearly delineated in the overworld.
By no means does People of Note seem like a high-budget project, but it’s hard to overlook the ways in which its production values sometimes undercut what it’s trying to portray. Dialogue scenarios are nearly all still portraits with overlaid text boxes, which would be fine if its writing was sharp enough to make said dialogue intriguing. As a frequenter of visual novels, it’s par for the course. However, it’s hard to get a sense of the goings-on for this style of game. Some of the enemy attack animations are quite odd, too, but some of the abilities you have, like the limit-break style Mash Up attack where party members attack simultaneously, add some much-needed spectacle in the rare moments you get to use them. Even if I think the scene itself has that cheesy twee tone I’m not too fond of, there’s a fully animated scene in the demo when Cadence recruits Fret that does showcase its visual chops with a musical number to flex the team’s musicality.
There’s plenty of corny media I’ve enjoyed, some of which just needed time to establish itself before shining. So this isn’t to say I’m dismissive of People of Note, but it’s for hoping that it comes around and embraces that attitude in an endearing way. The drama between Fret and former bandmate Freq in the demo’s story bits is quite charming for its play on familiar music industry tropes, and the larger idea of finding unity in blending musical genres (possibly realizing that we’re not all the different) could be an enticing theme to bring it all together. I just hope it can transcend the incessant need to be quirky and at least be clever in ways that elevate its world and story instead of going for simple references for the sake of it.
For my part, I was immediately drawn to the concept for People of Note, as a lifelong musician (of sorts) and lover of rhythm games; Hatsune Miku: Project Diva, Dance Dance Revolution, and the like. And as an RPG sicko, I’ve seen a lot of innovation in the genre coming out of smaller-scale games and indie spaces in recent years. People of Note does remind me of last year’s Fretless and 2023’s Thirsty Suitors in its approach as well, so I hope it can hit those similar highs in its own ways.
People of Note, so far, clearly seems like something that can speak to both the musically inclined and turn-based enjoyers, so it has promise for sure. It’s also got a great cast of voice actors we’ve heard in other RPGs and animation projects and a neat combat system to potentially set itself apart from its contemporaries. But I need that story and its characters to grip me at some point, because that’s what great RPGs are often remembered for. I’ll find out for sure when People of Note launches on April 7 on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch 2, and PC – and you can try it for yourself with the demo that’s out now.
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