Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical - Review Thread

Game Information

Game Title: Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

Platforms:

PlayStation 5 (Aug 10, 2023)
PC (Aug 10, 2023)
PlayStation 4 (Aug 10, 2023)
Xbox One (Aug 10, 2023)
Xbox Series X/S (Aug 10, 2023)
Nintendo Switch (Aug 10, 2023)

Trailers:

Developer: Summerfall Studios

Publisher: Humble Games

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 79 average - 82% recommended - 41 reviews

Critic Reviews

But Why Tho? - Kyle Foley - 8.5 / 10

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical does an excellent job of blending video games and musical theater in a way that should appeal to virtually everyone. Excellent storytelling and a masterfully crafted soundtrack combined with incredible visuals give a new take on Greek mythology.

CGMagazine - Justin Wood - 9.5 / 10

Stray Gods felt like it was made for me. If you love musicals in the rock opera genre, then dive in immediately as there is a story full of emotion and fantastic music waiting for you.

COGconnected - Mark Steighner - 84 / 100

Part murder mystery, part visual novel, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is an audacious experiment. Happily, it pays off in a unique video game experience. There aren’t many games that use songs in a theatrical way. Being able to direct the flow of the music in real time is exciting and engaging. Pacing issues aside, it’s a concept that’s definitely worthy of continued development. I hope Wintory and Gaider continue to iterate on this new IP.

Checkpoint Gaming - David McNamara - 9 / 10

A wonderfully peculiar blend of visual novel, choice-driven RPG, and off-Broadway musical, Stray Gods embraces the theatrical duality of comedy and tragedy and wraps it into a narrative experience that can be at once gut-wrenching and cheeky. Through some excellently written and performed dialogue, incredible audio production, and effective use of player choice, it provides an intimate and personal music theatre experience. While its semi-animated visual style and simplified gameplay may prove off-putting for some, Stray Gods is a unique and compelling love letter to the theatre kid inside us all.

Destructoid - Cody Perez - 7.5 / 10

Solid and definitely has an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.

Digital Chumps - Nathaniel Stevens - 9 / 10

Stray Gods from developer Summerfall Studios and publisher Humble Games is a beautiful and engaging musical branching narrative game that succeeds in delivering a powerful story with compelling characters. While not every song in the game is gold, the music that accompanies the gameplay mixes well and makes for one of the more entertaining gaming experiences of 2023.

Digital Spy - Jess Lee - 4 / 5

There isn’t really anything like Stray Gods out there right now, and while it falls short of hitting the highs of some of the musicals that served as inspiration for the game, its narrative design and the unique way in which player choice affects the story make for a refreshing and enjoyable ride.

DualShockers - Matthew Schomer - 9.5 / 10

A modern-day musical murder mystery in which the Greek gods are living among mortals, and you’ve just become one of them. DualShockers was provided with a copy of the game for review purposes.

Eurogamer - Ed Nightingale - 3.5 / 5

A fascinating but flawed experimental musical game that fails to live up to some heavenly potential.

Game Informer - Charles Harte - 8.3 / 10

Overall, Stray Gods rocks. Between the cast’s fantastic performances, a fun twist on Greek mythology, and a genuinely novel game mechanic, it’s a game I didn’t know I needed, but one I’m happy to give a standing ovation to.

GameGrin - Alyssa Rochelle Payne - 9.5 / 10

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is one-of-a-kind in the best way, excelling on all fronts - narrative and musical. It’s a must-play for lovers of theatre, Greek mythology, and story-rich experiences.

GamePro - Eleen Reinke - German - 84 / 100

Stray Gods is worthwhile for all fans of good story, multi-layered characters and, of course, musicals. Only the RPG aspects are neglected.

GameSpew - Richard Seagrave - 8 / 10

It’s a shame that the songs in Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical didn’t have quite the impact on us that we hoped, but it might not be the case for everyone. Still, while we won’t be rushing to listen to its soundtrack on any streaming platforms, we’ve very much enjoyed our time with the game, and we’ll no doubt be returning to it for another playthrough or two in the future.

GameSpot - Jordan Ramée - 9 / 10

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a visual and auditory delight filled with superb musical performances.

GamesFinest - Vanessa Böttcher - German - 7 / 10

What Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is not is a video game with innovative game design or creative game elements. Instead, the title shines with a gripping story, great images, high-quality music and an interesting implementation of the Greek god mythology. So if you like to influence a beautiful story, create your own little musical, and are cool with experiencing a rather passive gaming experience as a text adventure, you won’t go wrong here and will have a good time.

GamesHub - Christie McQualter - 5 / 5

Stray Gods might not have told me how to get over a quarter-life crisis – unless I can turn into a God sometime soon – but it was an enchanting, emotionally affecting journey nonetheless.

GamesRadar+ - Heather Wald - 4 / 5

“While a murder mystery drives the story forward in Stray Gods, Grace, and the role you have in shaping her, is at the heart of the experience.”

God is a Geek - Lyle Carr - 8 / 10

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is full of charming gods and funky songs, and some issues with sound levels aren’t enough to ruin that.

Hardcore Gamer - Kyle LeClair - 4 / 5

Stray Gods’ unique blend of musicals and video games alone makes it worthy of applause, but it’s the incredible way that the ear-pleasing, player-orchestrated numbers are weaved into such a well-designed murder mystery which deserves the loudest cheers.

IGN - Shannon Liao - 7 / 10

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical’s murder mystery is predictable, but worth playing through a couple of times for its strong voice cast and customizable songs.

LadiesGamers.com - Mina Smith - Loved

I cannot recommend this game enough. I won’t even bother with a Cons section in this article because I don’t know what I would even say against it. It’s fun, well-priced, replayable, beautiful, and filled to the brim with gorgeous music. What more could RPG, visual novel, and musical fans want? It’s so well polished that I can’t think of a single thing that I would change or add.

What a delight from start to finish Stray Gods was. Play it; you won’t regret it!

MonsterVine - Diego Escala - 4 / 5

Fans of musicals are going to find a lot to love with Stray Gods and I’m excited to see future games go even further with the idea.

New Game Network - Alex Varankou - 60 / 100

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a novel attempt at offering something new to the video game space. But while it has a strong cast and a well-realized setting, the uneven songs, lack of meaningful player choice and a dull narrative bring down the curtain too soon.

PSX Brasil - Thiago de Alencar Moura - Portuguese - 85 / 100

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a unique and captivating experience thanks to the strength of its characters and how well-written its narrative is. The very good songs and great work by its cast result in a singular title capable of holding the attention of everyone who gives it a chance.

Polygon - Josh Broadwell - Unscored

Stray Gods is ambitious in its goals, and while the road Summerfall and co. take to reach them is rough and uneven, I won’t be forgetting Grace’s tale anytime soon. It’s a clever format, and the unfulfilled potential makes me excited for future attempts to meld games and theater.

Press Start - Brodie Gibbons - 6.5 / 10

Stray Gods might be a well-written, narrative-driven murder mystery that drags us to Olympus and back again, but it fails to deliver anything remotely close to an earworm after hours of forgettable melodies. Though Bailey and Baker do enough to earn their flowers, the production itself does little to land Stray Gods a place among the musical pantheon.

RPG Fan - Audra Bowling - 92%

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is an incredibly memorable visual novel boasting an amusing interactive musical experience.

RPG Site - Paige Chamberlain - 6 / 10

While Stray Gods is subtitled The “Roleplaying” Musical, it plays much more akin to a visual novel or adventure game than what one might call an RPG, though the musical part still applies. The music is especially fun and some tracks definitely would have a place in theatre.

RPGamer - Sam Wachter - 4 / 5

There is no game out there like Stray Gods, and while its execution has some flaws, its originality shines through. Summerfall Studios has crafted a memorable experience with loveable characters and catchy songs to boot.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Jon Bailes - Unscored

Filling a game based on dialogue trees with mythological musical numbers turns out to be an inspired idea in Stray Gods, as it has the quality of writing, composing and character design to pull it off. Its bulges with both comedy and tragedy, and while some of the songs lack punch, overall Stray Gods puts on one hell of a show.

Screen Rant - Deven McClure - 4.5 / 5

One playthrough of Stray Gods takes about five hours, but one of the most impressive things about the game is its immense replayability. Different dialogue choices coupled with the huge amount of musical permutations mean that no two runs are the same, and it’s hard to resist going back for more even after the mystery is solved. The title certainly isn’t for everyone - those who completely abhor anything even adjacent to musical theater are certainly not the target audience. However, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical presents an engaging story and song mechanics that feel beautifully personal, making it worth looking into even for players who don’t consider themselves musical lovers.

Shacknews - Ozzie Mejia - 8 / 10

With a multitude of choices and possibilities, Stray Gods gives players plenty of reasons to stick around for an encore. The show doesn’t always have to end when the curtain goes down.

Spaziogames - Nicolò Bicego - Italian - 8.5 / 10

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a must-play for visual novel lovers, thanks to an engaging story, a rich cast of characters and a compelling original soundtrack.

Stevivor - Steve Wright - 6 / 10

Stray Gods is truly a mixed bag, full of strong actors, average singers, clever storytelling and weak songs. There are points of brilliance mixed with cringe-worthy presentations, making this one hard to recommend because of its inconsistencies. If you’re itching to play regardless, I’d strongly suggest those players pick it up on either PC or Switch because of the one-two punch of visual and interface issues. I can certainly vouch for the issues plaguing the Xbox version, and I’d wager the PlayStation version would be similar.

TheGamer - Jade King - 4 / 5

Stray Gods can be inconsistent in its musical numbers at times and presents a selection of irksome technical issues, but these foibles are trivial to overlook when Grace’s journey fires on all cylinders. It is marvelously written with a beating heart lined with poignancy, which at every turn expresses the joy, fear, and unpredictability of human life you can’t help but feel represented by. Much like Grace, I’m a lost, lost girl with little direction in life, but sometimes a game like this comes along and convinces me it’s only a matter of time until I’m found.

TheSixthAxis - Adrian Burrows - 4 / 10

When I first heard of Stray Gods, I was intrigued. A video game musical might not totally work, but at least it would be interesting to play, I thought. How wrong I was. The concept of Stray Gods is the most interesting thing about it, but the execution is boring to the extreme. If you want a fun musical video game experience, you’re better off watching Singing in the Rain whilst repeatedly changing the volume on the remote. That way you’ll have better songs, a more enjoyable story, more interactivity, and a greater sense of player control than Stray Gods provides.

Try Hard Guides - Christian Harrison - 8.5 / 10

While it’s unlikely to win any Tonys, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a great attempt at bringing soulful ballads and endless drama to games. Summerfall Studios has captured the magic and emotion of its actors, creating a world that’s ripe with possibilities. Those who are interested in either musicals or Greek mythology will likely find something to love about Stray Gods.

VideoGamer - Odhran Johnson - 7 / 10

Stray Gods is at times a heartwarming and expertly crafted musical experience. However, certain narrative choices, along with some minor audio and performance issues, leave the game feeling like it could have spend a little more time in the oven.

WellPlayed - 6 / 10

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical has a sharp eye for aesthetics and a kind heart but its ambitious concept buckles under uneven implementation and a lacklustre sound.

WhatIfGaming - Rizwan Anwer - 8 / 10

Stray Gods does stray from the path of its competitors by doing a lot of new and unique things and it does so with pride. With a great cast of voice actors, a memorable story, and a unique dialogue system, the game truly stands out in the genre. However, the lack of ability for players to explore the world on their own outside of a static scene feels awkward at times, particularly when the world looks stunning.

Worth Playing - Cody Medellin - 8.5 / 10

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical isn’t the roleplaying experience its title and marketing would have you believe it is, but the game commands your attention to the end. The story is a good, old-fashioned murder mystery with Greek gods. The various characters keep the tale feeling fresh and moving along at a good pace. The comic book look is striking, and the songs are outstanding, but the story and various choices grant the game longevity that endures beyond the novelty of using songs in almost every scene. Visual novel fans will love this title, and music lovers will be entertained by how the story doesn’t slow down the proceedings. Players who are slightly curious about the visual novel gameplay style will find Stray Gods to be a good gateway.