People of Note

It's a game about music and puns and music puns and I'm absolutely here for it. The gameplay has a rhythm aspect to it, but more Paper Mario TTYD than going along with the music playing, so that's likely to annoy some folks. It's pretty easy to settle into though. And the musical numbers just make it a complete win, for me.

ミュージカルする世界で戦うRPG まずJRPGとしての完成度が高い。 最初は世界観が結構謎かも。でも普通にファンタジーしつつ音楽を中心に添えた世界が完成している。 世界感に対する表現力がすごい。 移動が遅かったりミニマップがなかったりパズルがやや難解だったりはするが、それでも満足度がかなり高い作品。（パズルは一応設定でカットできるはず） RPG好きならプレイすべき逸品

This has very quickly become one of my favourite games of all time.

Genuinely fun and well-written **if you like pun-based humor.** If you don't like puns, you will not like this writing. Lots of references to popular tunes from various genres which, unfortunately, will narrow the audience this game appeals to. I would be very surprised to see people under 21 who know (or care) who Vanilla Ice is, for example. My biggest praise is that, despite appearing that way for most of the gameplay, none of the characters are truly one-note (pun intended.) I had completely written off Sharp as "generic bad guy" but he pivoted to being one of my favorite characters when given some room to show off. It's not an incredibly long or intellectually demanding game but it's a romp.

I enjoyed this more than I should. Story was passable at best. Battle system was mediocre, equipment were just stats, puzzles were terrible. Yet somehow it inrtigued me enough to finnish it. Songs were good though. If you are on a turned based RPG drought and this is on sale consider it.

This game is an absolute joy for music nerds who also love JRPGs. It's an incredibly niche appeal, and this game won't be for everybody, but for those in the target audience, People of Note is a wonderful love letter to classic JRPGs and a celebration of music across many genres. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] People of Note markets itself as a "JRPG musical". Indeed, this game follows a turn-based combat system with four party members. Each party member represents a genre of music (pop, rock, EDM, and rap), and the "active style" changes after each round, providing a power boost to the corresponding party member (and also altering the background music to match the genre). The party members' usable abilities are determined by "Songstones". Every weapon in the game has a unique "Songstone Graph", determining how many slots available you have for each of your Songstone abilities. Additionally, there are "Remix Stones", which can alter the properties of Songstones (such as giving a damage boost, reducing the cost to use the ability, or giving a small heal upon usage). While some Songstones can be used by any party member, most are exclusive to specific party members. This curated customizability gives every party member some niche/role within the party (like damage-dealer, support, etc.) without pigeonholing them strictly into that role. In fact, as the game goes on, every party member is able to capitalize on massive damage whenever their respective style is active in combat. Your typical round of combat will look like "your party attacks first, then the enemies attack", but how many attacks each side gets can differ between encounters. Some enemy formations might give you four attacks in one round, others five, and some only three! Meanwhile, some formations may let enemies attack more than once in a single turn. The combat can get surprisingly deep. Your party will get very strong as you explore its synergies, but the game does a fantastic job of making the enemies proper threats. The bosses especially tend to have some way to bend the rules just enough to make you break away from your usual strategies. It's also worth noting that every attacking ability in the game has osu!-like action commands that require you to hit a button "on the beat". In actuality, every attack has it's own unique rhythm that you have tap along to, independent of the BGM. The more complicated timings have a learning curve to them, but you'll get the hang of it after hearing the rhythms a few times. (Though it's worth noting that these action commands can be disabled if you don't want to deal with them) Outside of combat, the game plays like most other JRPGs. You have a few main towns where you can talk with NPCs, shop, and advance the story with fully-voiced dialogue. There are also dungeons filled with [i]very[/i] well-designed puzzles. They start out fairly straightforward, but by the end of the game, there will be some genuine head-scratchers. I really enjoyed solving all of these puzzles, but if they prove too difficult, there is an option to disable them. While I didn't mess around too much with the accessibility options, the game does its best to be as accommodating as possible. [h2]Story[/h2] The game follows the main protagonist Cadence, a pop singer who wants to be up on stage for the biggest singing contest in the city. Eventually realizing she needs something fresh and new to stand out in the contest, she ventures out beyond the city and meets new people along the way. The story starts quite simple at first and really does follow similar beats as many musicals, but in typical JRPG fashion, it does grow into something much larger. The story itself may not be groundbreaking or a masterpiece by any means, but it's certainly enjoyable for what it is. Don't go in expecting a grand epic, but do expect to be endeared by all the different characters and the charming world of Note. I also need to give a special shout-out to the very witty writing. If you like musical puns or jokes, this game cleverly weaves them into the dialogue in such a way that never feels forced but will make you snicker. [h2]Music[/h2] For a game focused on music, the soundtrack must be pretty good, right? I'm happy to say that the OST is indeed quite good. Maybe not JRPG hall of fame level, but it is very impressive how many genres are covered within the OST and how enjoyable each track is both on their own and within the context of the game. The highlight, though, is the musical numbers. Like any good musical, there are dedicated, pre-rendered cutscenes where characters will break out into song, giving extra context to both the story and to those characters. The numbers can be hit or miss, especially early on, but the ones that land are either really catchy or just so profound that they stick out in your memory. The team did a fantastic job with all the scene direction and animation on top of the writing for the musical numbers. [h2]Drawbacks[/h2] I only have two criticisms of the game: [h3]Quality of Life[/h3] While the game has little friction majority of the time, equipping a new weapon necessitates completely reconfiguring your Songstones. That's a problem in and of itself, as it forces you to be creative and switch up your synergies every now and then (or consider using a weaker weapon if it gives you a better loadout). But what really bothers me is how your ability list gets shuffled around with no clear logical order whenever you switch weapons. If your healing ability was at the top of the list with one weapon, it might end up at the bottom of the list with a different one. This makes muscle memory quite devastating, especially since not every action requires the same number of inputs to confirm. Typically, when you use a single-target attack, you have to select the attack, then confirm your target -- two button presses. But when you use an attack that targets all enemies, it's only one button press. This makes misclicks rather punishing. Many JRPGs with "all enemies" or "all allies" targeting will still highlight the targets that'll be affected by the ability, even if you can't actually change them. This makes every ability always require two button presses to lock in: one to select the ability, another to confirm the targets. This game unfortunately lacks that secondary prompting, which makes misclicks an annoying but not insurmountable problem. [h3]Terminology[/h3] I won't lie, this game can feel a bit difficult to approach due to some heavy usage of musical terminology. For someone with a musical background, it's not too bad, as every term [i]is[/i] rather appropriate. For example, each round of combat is called a "stanza", and each turn is a "measure". These make sense when you know what these terms mean in a musical context, but within the game, it adds a layer of obfuscation. It's very easy to misinterpret an ability that gives your character an attack buff for three rounds of combat (stanzas) as an ability that gives the buff for only three turns (measures). Granted, I don't think this is [i]too[/i] huge of a barrier. It's a bit more of an nitpick than anything else. [h2]Conclusion[/h2] People of Note is a wonderful experience for lovers of music and JRPGs alike. It's a game full of charm, is well-polished, and offers a hefty amount of challenge while also allowing accessibility options. The game is creative in both writing and in gameplay systems, especially with how combat encounters play out. The soundtrack does the idea of a "JRPG musical" justice, and the game is overall just a very fun and fulfilling ride if you're looking for something lighthearted and charming.

Fun RPG with a good battle system and favorably invokes FF7's materia with songstones.