Back at PAX West last month, I was hyped for the Humble Games booth. Considering the indie publisher’s output in a the past couple of years, they were set to deliver one killer lineup of games to be showcased. And while that arguably is still what they delivered overall, it didn’t exactly have the massive impact I was hoping for, for one reason or another. Quirky narrative-driven adventure/simulation game Mineko’s Night Market was playable for the first time ever, but while the world was impressive and the stealth section in it was fun, the demo clearly only showcased an early portion of the game, before we even get to the titular night market. Signalis is shaping up to be an amazing and unique top-down survival horror game, but I had already experience its demo before. Same for Ghost Song, the metroidvania game that felt just as impressive when I first played it back at PAX West 2016 (when Adult Swim games was going to publish it), but there wasn’t much on display here that felt new enough.
Moonscars was good but nothing spectacular, Infinite Guitars was unique and showed promise, but felt rusty, Prodeus was fun, but exists in an era while boomer shooters are a dime a dozen, and the rest consisted of great games that were already released at the time. Honestly, it was an amazing lineup for any regular attendee…I suppose it’s just that the demos and presentation didn’t give someone like myself, who would willingly tackle over half a dozen games or more at one booth at the cost of their sanity, a lot to work with writing-wise. Humble did have one game at the show which truly stood out with its uniqueness and ambition, however, it just wasn’t on the show floor. That game would be Stray Gods, the upcoming role-playing musical from developers Summerfall Studios, which was shown behind closed doors as a hands-off preview, showcased by studio co-founder and Dragon Age writer David Gaider.
Mind you, the build of Stray Gods that was shown off was still rough, to the point where one character was still voiced by a text-to-speech, but it still showed promise as not just a great narrative adventure, but a clever blending of video games and musicals. The story follows Grace, a college dropout and aspiring musician who ends rehearsal one night and meets up with what appears to be a new friend, Calliope, who loved their performance. The bad news is that their new pal winds up being murdered. The worse news is that the young woman was actually a Muse, and Grace is now a suspect in their murder. Now they have to face the Chorus, a society of mythological figures and Greek gods, who give Grace an ultimatum: solve the murder case in three days or be sentenced to death.
Unsurprisingly, Grace chooses the murder investigation, and in one bit of good news, they get all the powers of a Muse to help solve it. While none of the Muse powers or investigation bits were shown off, what was shown was impressive writing and voice acting (courtesy of the likes of Laura Bailey, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, and a few surprises), with Gaider clearly having a ton of fun with a more modern fantasy universe. Notably, despite being described as a “role-playing musical,” Stray Gods isn’t an RPG, with the role-playing here referring more to steeping into the shoes of another characters. Instead, the gameplay so far is largely narrative-based, with focuses on choices and consequences.
It may not sound much different than, say, later Telltale games, but the big hook here is the musical aspect of the gameplay, where during each number, you not only have moments where you get to choose what direction the dialogue goes in, but the music as well. This was shown of nicely during a peek at a later portion of the game, where Grace has a meeting with a devastated Apollo, who personally knew the slain Muse. The choice of Grace’s words – represented by different emotions – not only determines whether or not Apollo joins up with them later for the investigation, but also the mood and lyrics of the song itself, whether or not its darker or lighter, nicely fitting whatever choice you make and beautifully shifting seamlessly. Throw in some simple yet impressive visuals to accompany this amazing music and it’s clear that Stray Gods is shaping up to be a musical extravaganza and a potentially epic tale. So while Humble Games still has one impressive stable of upcoming games, this is the big one to keep on your radar, something that could be worthy of the gods.
