STRAY GODS: THE ROLEPLAYING MUSICAL Is A Phenomenal Game

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical from Summerfall Studios and Humble Games has been a game that I’ve followed for a long time. When I first heard about it I fell in love with the idea. I had no idea how a roleplaying musical would work, but I was excited to try it out. Then when I heard Laura Bailey would be playing the main character I was sold. After years of waiting, the game is finally releasing on August 10 on Microsoft Windows via Steam and the Humble Games Store (affiliate link), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. I was sent an early copy of the game to review and let me tell you, this game was absolutely worth waiting for. The art, characters, cast, music, and story all combine to create a truly unique and phenomenal game. I’m going to avoid spoilers here, but I will mention the names of characters who appear in the game.

First the story. You play in the modern day as Grace, a college drop out adrift in life. Her life is forever changed after a fateful encounter with Calliope. After Calliope has been mortally wounded, she stumbles to Grace’s apartment and bestows upon her the powers of a Muse as she dies. Already overwhelmed by everything, Grace is suddenly confronted by the Chorus, the Gods and Goddesses who rule over what are now known as the Idols. They accuse Grace of murdering Calliope in order to steal her powers. After discussing the matter, Grace is given seven days to find enough evidence to convince them of her innocence or face death. You’ll spend the rest of the time getting acquainted with the world of the Idols, meeting familiar Greek gods such as Apollo, and lesser known ones such as Hecate. At this point the story can diverge in many different ways depending on who you decide to go to for help and who you decide to trust. You will also get to choose one of three different character traits that will influence choices you are able to make throughout the game. You get to choose one at the beginning and then another one mid game. Each pivotal choice in the songs corresponds clearly to a trait, you can choose the one that matches your traits but you don’t have to. The game is full of charm and has some really funny moments and other emotional moments that hit hard. There are four romanceable characters which sounds shockingly low for a game like this, but believe me if there were more it would have been way too much to handle. Overall, the story was really good and intriguing. I loved solving the mystery of it all and even though I now know the answer, I'm excited to go back and play through a few more times to find information I couldn’t get before and get a more complete picture of this world.

The art for the game is all hand drawn and beautiful. It plays like a visual novel and all the art is great. I always loved the dramatic way Grace’s eyes would light up when her powers were activating. The character designs are all really good. I loved the designs for Grace, Persephone, Hecate, and Medusa. All the characters look great though, there is a strong case to be made for any given character design to be someone’s favorite.

The music, and by extension the cast, is truly where this game shines. This is the unique element that makes it stand out above other games. It’s so good, like really so good. If you have any passing interest in musical theater, then you will definitely want to check this game out. There’s a lot of variation in the music from playing in different genres to just the style of singers they had. Bailey really shines as Grace, but the rest of the cast were no slouches either. Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Troy Baker, Janina Gavankar, Khary Payton, Abubakar Salim, Felicia Day, Rahul Kohli, Allegra Clark, Merle Dandridge, Erika Ishii, Ashley Johnson, Lauren 'Lolo' Spencer, Anjali Bhimani, Kimberly Brooks, and Anthony Rapp were all so good I’m not certain I could even pick a favorite one. Everyone did so well and were all so perfectly cast for their roles.

Last, the team has gone above and beyond to make this game accessible for as many people as they can. From turning off timed decisions to audio descriptions to subtitle customizing, you can read everything they did on Summerfall Studios’ site. It includes all the trigger warnings as well so you can make an informed decision about whether you can handle what is in the game. After playing it I wouldn’t call anything graphic, but it’s still good to read ahead of time if you are sensitive to any of the topics listed.

I can’t really recommend this game enough. If you like musical theater and/or Greek mythology, definitely pick up this game. I love playing games for story and this one was so good and incredibly satisfying. This is just a really unique kind of game and it is clear that the team who worked on it loved what they were doing. There is not a thing I would change about it, a well earned 10/10.