People of Note is soaked in whimsy, full of endless quips and in-jokes about songs, musicians, and the art of music itself. As a turn-based RPG, it's serviceable, but it feels lacking in areas where fans of the genre may be hoping for more.
Regardless of its shortcomings, People of Note is a fun, musical-based romp through a cute adventure that will have you laughing and battling while gaining an appreciation for music as an art form and how it can help form the strongest bonds. It's a passion project that's been made by music nerds for music nerds, with a lot of love for RPGs of the past sprinkled in.
Sing it, girl
People of Note is set in a colorful, musical world called… Note. And so, it truly is a game about the People of Note. Get it? (Get used to the puns if you end up trying the game.) Note's countries are divided and separated, each nation defined by its own style of music, with nary a collaboration to be found. Until Cadence comes along to change it all.
Cadence, the main character, is a talented young woman with dreams of becoming a massive pop star by winning her country's reality music competition. Cadence hails from the pop music-based nation of Chordia, but she needs help on her quest to stardom, and so she goes out into the world to help finish her one big song by learning about different types of music, and more importantly, herself.
Along the way, Cadence meets and recruits new band members from different countries and their corresponding genres and sounds: a surly old rocker named Fret, a timid EDM DJ named Synthia, and a regal rapper named Vox. Together, they discover a wider world-threatening plot along the way as they group up to bond and mash up their styles of sound to create new music while battling all sorts of quirky foes.
People of Note's plot ends up leaning into JRPG tropes about powerful artifacts and the creation of the world itself, but exploring the lands of Note and learning its lore while leveling up is a good time because every single inch of the game is plastered with music puns to keep everything light. For example, you can pet accordion-shaped corgi puppies (called Accorgions), or battle with the deer-like Stagpipe or the lycan Lyrewolf, while equipping the Linkin Parka armor and Simon Cowl accessory to buff your stats. Yep. Every inch.
These jokes range from genuinely funny to eye-rolling to cringy, so if you're easily annoyed by non-stop puns and silly humor, you may be put off. But I feel like musicians and music fans who know the ins and outs of the art will really appreciate what's on display.
Learning to collaborate to redefine their songs and sounds while becoming friends along the way is the heart and soul of People of Note, inspired by real life's musical effect of how songs and artists can help bring people together from all walks of life. I've lived it myself, meeting many friends and even the love of my life because of similar music tastes. We haven't had to save the world like Cadence and co. (yet) but the point still stands.
Cadence's journey from wannabe-celebrity to learning about the powers of collaboration and music itself makes the game worth playing for its 12-to-16-hour runtime, which feels a bit short for the genre. But that also makes it more easily digestible, too.
And stay in tune
Inspired by classics in the genre like Final Fantasy 9 and 10, Chrono Cross, and The World Ends With You, People of Note features turn-based battles that take place during turns called Stanzas (did I mention every inch?). Attacks also feature QTE-like timed button presses to maximize effectiveness, à la Expedition 33, but way simpler.
The Stanzas at the bottom of the screen dictate each turn and the order of events, helping you plan your strategy. You can see what the enemy will do and how many turns you have to prepare for it. Unfortunately, the best strategy is often to try to take the enemy out as fast as possible before the enrage-like Crescendo mechanic kicks in during boss fights. (Every inch.)
If the boss can trigger Crescendo, they get a massive buff to their abilities and often end up just taking you out. And while you can use a Rest command to save up points to use your own powerful abilities, battle strategy often ends up degrading into attacking as fast as possible to survive encounters.
Within several dungeon-like areas where you collect Vinyls as currency to earn new abilities, a number of environmental puzzles will stop you in your tracks until you solve them. I found these to be more annoying than anything, often stunting the game's pace.
Presentation-wise, People of Note has a charming art style that delivers the story mostly through 2D art and some really solid voice acting from a talented cast. The biggest moments of the plot culminate in bombastic musical numbers where the characters sing about their goals, troubles, and dreams (did I mention this was a musical game?): These are great and fully performed by the voice actors and singers who put in wonderful performances, but few and far between, as most of the game's plot is presented through the 2D sprites speaking to each other.
Note has some very cool areas to explore, as each country has its own personality to go along with its genre. The NPCs found there have some funny, silent dialogue to experience, and there are minor mini-quests to take on and shops to get upgrades from, but there isn't a ton to do in the world like you'd expect from an RPG.
I also wish there was a bit more meat to People of Note's bones, especially when compared to the games it was inspired by. There's a handful of side quests and extras to do along the way for a few extra hours of fun, but the game is quite linear, and also pretty quickly finished on its normal difficulty level.
The post People of Note review – The power of music and a lot of heart appeared first on Destructoid.
