Music, a murder mystery, and a meeting with an Ancient Greek Muse. This is the backdrop for the story told by Summerfall Studios’ most recent title, “Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical”. You begin the game as Grace, a recent college dropout trying to find her footing. Through unforeseen circumstances, Grace winds up blamed for the death of Calliope, a Muse she met a few hours earlier. Calliope gives Grace her soul, or eidolon, as she dies, and with it, her musical powers. Before Grace can figure out what happened, she meets Hermes who takes her to meet The Chorus, a tribunal who are part of the remaining members of the Greek Pantheon of gods, known as ‘Idols’.
The Chorus consisting of Apollo, Aphrodite, Athena and Persephone convenes to accuse Grace of murdering Calliope. They are about to sentence her to death, but at Grace’s insistence of innocence, Apollo speaks up and says they should give Grace a few days to figure out who murdered Calliope. Athena, the leader, grants Grace one week to find out who killed Calliope, as a sort of trial. If she fails, she’ll be killed. Now the game truly begins, as you help Grace try to uncover the identity of Calliope’s killer time runs out.
Since Calliope’s power was music, this new power will now belong to you, and you’ll wield it to help people tell you the truth. You can choose from one of three different color-coded options as you play through the songs. Charm, colored Green, is just as it sounds, the more charismatic option. You choose it if you want to be a little more gentle and charming to get your duettists to tell you what they know. The songs you make with this option will be brighter, and almost pop-like in their sound.
On the other end of the spectrum, Kickass, colored red, is your rougher and more aggressive option, and the songs you create with it will be darker, and more rock-like. The final option, Clever, colored blue, is the more thought-through and logical option, and these songs will be smoother and jazzier in their presentation.
Whichever route you choose, there will be unique dialogue and lyrics depending on your choices. And, though you start with whichever of the traits you picked at the beginning of the game, your options are still open, and you can pick any of the other options as you sing. Like other choice-driven RPGs, the choices you make and traits you choose, and the songs they help you create will be unique to your playthrough and will impact those around you, either helping net your allies to stand with you at the trial or turning them away from Grace, making them silent observers.
One attempt to net allies starts at Grace’s apartment after she learns about her quest and upcoming trial. Here we meet up with Freddie, who’s been worried and looking for Grace since the night before. Grace begins to explain what happened with Calliope when Pan, another Idol of the pantheon, shows up, offering to help Grace with her ‘predicament’. Grace explains what’s happened since the two last saw each other and Freddie asks Grace if she believes all of this, when Grace says she does, Freddie says she’s got her back, no matter what. The two turn to Pan, immediately suspicious of him, but since Grace does need help, she accepts Pan’s advice. He assists her in better understanding her powers, and our first song, “Lost Girls” begins.
Here, you can choose any of the traits through the song, but to progress the story, you have three options. Grace can choose to side with Freddie, side with Pan, or go solo. No matter what, the song starts with Grace’s suspicion and lack of trust toward Pan. As the song progresses, both Freddie and Pan will try to sway Grace to their side. Pan’s goal is either to get Grace to go solo or follow him.
Freddie will either bolster her friend’s feelings and affirm Grace’s distrust or, if you start seeing Pan’s point of view, will offer counterarguments to his claims. Grace will argue her side of the story, picking Kickass, Clever, or Charming, respectively. At the end of the song, whoever you choose, Pan will give you the address for Calliope’s apartment, and remind you that as a Muse, you inspire, not command, so while your powers are steering the music, the song will go where it wants.
Without giving too many of the bigger details away, this is just one of the many ways the traits you choose can help guide your path as Grace through the game, and bring you closer to the mystery of solving Calliope’s murder.
The songs you sing and the dialogue options you pick also influence your ability to romance certain characters. The game allows Grace to choose between four potential partners: Freddie (Grace’s best friend since childhood and leader of their band, Edge of Elysium), Pan (another Idol of the pantheon, known for his mischievousness), Apollo, (Idol of prophecy and the sun) and finally Persephone, (Queen of the Underworld). Along with the few Gods you meet as part of The Chorus, you meet a myriad of other figures from mythology as well, such as the Minotaur, Medusa, and others, who you need to convince to help you.
Investigating with Clever
During my first play-through of the game, I chose the Clever trait. There are a few moments where the trait you chose will give you access to specific options for dialogue that other traits don’t. Since I took the Clever option, I was given more chances to investigate when I talked to people, to offer up solutions to problems, and to get to the truth behind someone’s words quickly. I was also able to suss out the reasoning behind other characters’ choices and accuse them of lying or being deceitful when they weren’t telling the whole truth. The Clever option also gave me more ways to offer the other characters logic instead of emotion when they were talking to each other or trying to make decisions.
In one scene, Grace goes to visit Persephone in the club she runs, called The Underworld, and brings along Apollo, who has chosen to help her find Calliope’s murderer, since they were close friends, but became estranged before Calliope died, and Apollo feels guilty about their last conversations.
We learn by talking with Apollo and a few other characters that she holds a grudge against the other Gods for, (among other more spoiler-filled reasons) taking the throne of the original Underworld (the one in the myths) away from her. We also learn that Persephone owned the apartment that Calliope lived in, making her a suspect in Calliope’s murder as well. We go and talk to her, and she yells at Grace, asking why she came to Persephone’s domain, and what Grace’s “real” story of how she got Calliope’s eidolon is. Grace demands answers as well, and the conversation moves to Persephone’s office.
As the three begin talking, Grace’s power activates, and it turns into a sung argument. Persephone asks Apollo why he bothers working with Calliope’s presumed killer (Grace) and that he should just leave, since it’s what he’s best at, singing, “Apollo your help is not needed here, go ahead and abandon another Muse,” inferring he abandoned Calliope.
Apollo gets extremely upset, calling Persephone “callus” and “heartless”, and the two go around and around in circles, getting more and more heated, and bringing up wounds from their pasts.
Grace steps in, and calms Apollo down with the help of the Clever trait, reminding him that she needs his help and that his anger is understandable but it’s not what either of them needs right now.
By getting both Apollo and Persephone to think logically, they can see that these arguments are just confining them to the past and if they want to bring Calliope’s real killer to justice, in the present, they’ll need to work together to help Grace, not against her. They agree, and the search for Calliope’s killer continues.
I had an absolute blast playing the game, and if you like musicals, Greek mythology, or RPGs, this is the game for you. The game has a stellar cast of voice actors and Broadway stars, including Laura Bailey (Jaina Proudmoore in “World of Warcraft”), Troy Baker (Joel Miller in “The Last Of Us”), Felicia Day (Charlie Bradbury in “Supernatural”), Khary Payton (Cyborg in “Teen Titans Go!”), and even Broadway alum Anthony Rapp (Mark Cohen from “RENT”)!! The game is out now on all major platforms including PC, Xbox S and X, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 and 5.
