I have two passions in life—the flash of the screen as I’m playing one of my favorite video games, and the bright lights of the musical theatre stage (also curry, but that’s irrelevant). So when I first heard that David Gaider, former lead writer for one of my all-time favorite game series,Dragon Age, (as well as some of my favoriteKnights of the Old Republiccharacters) was putting together something called Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, I was onboard from the get-go. I managed to have a pop at the limited-time Steam demo the other day, and after playing through its two offered scenes, I’m even more intrigued than I was when it was first announced.
Stray Gods puts you in the shoes of Grace, a college dropout bandleader who’s auditioning new members for her fledgling band. However, Grace’s world is secretly the home of incognito Greek gods, and her journey will help her discover that she carries the power of a muse.
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The demo is not just an intro to the game; there’s a notable time skip between the two scenes, and it’s not shy about pointing that out (seriously, there’s just a black screen with a few words on it letting you know the next scene isn’t contiguous to the last one). That said, it’s a brilliant move, because rather than sitting through the early Act One pacing, we get a little taste of our heroine Grace’s struggles as frontwoman of a small-time band and instantly move onto the heavier material of her dilemma, choosing between the safe-but-mundane human world and embracing the creative power of the gods.
Visual novels aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, and admittedly, for everyDoki Doki Literature Club!orDanganronpa, there are a dozen cookie-cutter anime dating sims and a handful of hackneyed sci-fi stories. Stray Gods, however, adds a unique hook to the formula—the choices you make during songs affect both how the action plays out and the actual lyrics you’ll be hearing. In addition to putting you in control of how the stellar songs play out, it adds a sense of urgency, as you’ve got to make your choice before the music catches up with you—no vamping to stall for time here, folks!
There was one point in the second song when I was forced to make a decision between embracing my inner Greek muse and siding with the velvety-voiced Pan (marvelously played by The Walking Dead’s Khary Payton), or going back to the way things were with my sympathetic friend and bandmate Freddie. Of course, there is a third option—why not both?—and choosing that one, my Grace asked the other two to join her in a three-part harmony. What resulted from this decision was a sad attempt at classic Motown doo-wop, the three of us huddled back-to-front, snapping fingers to the rhythm and slurring out driveling, discordant onomatopoeia. My choice, or refusal to make one, drove the high-stakes tension of the song to a droning halt, and the message was obvious but poignantly put: this trio is never going to work, and I’m going to have to turn my back on one of these characters. (Sorry, Freddie, I love the Boy George motif you’ve got going on, but I just can’t resist Pan’s silky-smooth baritone).
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As for the music itself, it’s pretty phenomenal, and with only two scenes to go on so far, the variety is already clear. The opening’s melancholic longing for truth is reminiscent of the first half of Mama Who Bore Me, of the first song of Duncan Sheiks' 2006 Broadway masterpiece Spring Awakening, with just a touch of Repo: The Genetic Opera’s slower, melodramatic numbers. By comparison, the second has a much more sinister yet seductive tone, with the heavy bass line pulsing out Grace’s troubled yet excited heart’s dilemma of choosing between her human friends and the power of the gods. I’d liken it to Helluva Boss' The House of Asmodeus, but with the alluring pull of Hadestown’s Hey, Little Songbird.
And the cast list is phenomenal too. Big, familiar gaming names like Laura Bailey (Spider-Man,Call Of Duty: Vanguard) and Troy Baker (The Last of Us,BioShock Infinite) join together with nerd icons like Felicia Day (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, The Guild) and verifiable Broadway legends like Anthony Rapp (RENT, If/Then). The whole list is also a who’s who ofThe Legend of Vox Machina, if you’re into that sort of thing. Couple that with Gaider’s uncannily intricate storytelling abilities, and it’s no wonder this has quickly become my most anticipated game of 2023.
I still don’t know how we get from that first scene to the second one, or just what waits in store for Grace after she makes her big decision, nor do I know how the three musical/personality traits between which I have to choose at the start of the game will affect my play experience. What I do know is that I’m already lining up at the proverbial box office, and I’ll have my metaphorical bouquet of flowers ready to toss onstage at curtain call, because just two songs in, I’m already fully committed to giving Stray Gods a standing ovation when it debuts on August 3.
