Played from – to: (2023-10-25 – 2023-10-25) – PC controller.
‣ 4/10 – Sponsored by bean bird.

‣ Thoughts: When it comes to rhythm games, I tend to be pretty good at them. And that’s why I enjoy most of them. Hitting required buttons at the right time makes me feel like I am participating in the music I hear, however this game flips it all upside down and suffocates you.

Story wise the game isn’t anything phenomenal or even memorable but for the time being it was alright. I enjoyed the slow start and the dramatic turn of events, but I was more bored than invested.

At the start I was really vibing with both the gameplay and the songs that would play throughout the chapters. Sadly, the deeper I went the worse it got. I might not be musically gifted, but I think most of the later songs in this game suck ass. They go from moody jazz to synthesizer ear rape. I feel like rhythm games should have rhythms you can easily get into the rhythm of replicating, however here I feel like they start strong but then slap random keys around and call it a day. There’s a reason assisted mode is the intended way to play this, because the developers themselves knew they made unfair random musical crap.

Overall, A Musical Story is something I really thought I could enjoy, but that quickly flipped on its head. Gameplay wise, this is a pathetic rhythm game that asks you to replicate random improve note soups and do all that while four different background beats are played to distract you. It is in every aspect a mess and just an overall infuriating experience. If you’re looking for a good rhythm game, check elsewhere.

A Musical Story is a rhythm game about a jam band who decides to travel to play at a musical festival...but it's also about addiction, love, friendship, and the true value of music. The story itself is a rollercoaster that manages to find a sweet spot between emotional and intimate. The music to score the adventure is usually excellent, with inspiration from 60s/70s prog rock and jam bands and other icons such as Jimi Hendrix. The soundtrack is really why you take this journey, but the game sometimes doesn't know how to handle its own music. The gameplay comes in the form of a ring, where you must mimic an instrument's notes/beats by repeating the line back. Typically, it's about a measure or two of music at a time, which can range from slow, meditative pieces to faster rock anthems. The game's primary issue comes from its ability to time out to the player when to press the notes. There is no visual guide as to where on the ring you are, and the spacing can not only change between songs, but even within a level. This combined with several of the 24 chapters being very ambient, slow pieces with no backbeat to anchor to leads to a frustrating few sequences that result in many failed attempts to find the obtuse beat. There are no accessibility options that truly help with this either, like a metronome which would play out a steady beat to assist. I am a musician and have been playing instruments for over a decade and I struggled to understand some levels due to the sheer chaos. On top of all of that, you must do a perfect run of every individual level if you would like to see the true ending, which requires a lot of patience and practice.

All of this said, I really liked A Musical Story. Its art is astoundingly gorgeous and with no dialogue, the characters still tell an engaging tale of music and romance and heartbreak. I don't know if I'd recommend this to anyone who doesn't play music. There are other titles (Rhythm Heaven) that appeal more to non-musicians that still have a great set of songs. But, if you feel like casually playing through this game, you'll probably have a good time. If you're going for completion, expect a difficult handful of chapters to bump up your playtime by double.

"A Musical Story". Where the story?

There are very few scenes with a plot, they are very little detailing, practically uninformative, at first the plot is simple, by the end everything turns into some kind of art house with crows. I just instinctively turned away during the scenes. Yes, I realized that these are memories and gg is in a coma according to the plot, but this does not save. Doubly sad, because the visual style is nice, but all the efforts of the developers went to the gameplay, apparently.
And the gameplay is just a rhythm-clicker, and at first the music really shakes, but by the middle it’s boring, and it becomes difficult for me to catch the rhythm.
/
"Музыкальная история". А где история то?

Сценок с сюжетом очень мало, они очень малодетальные, практически неинформативные, поначалу сюжет максимально бытовой и простой, к концу всё превращается в какой-то артхаус с воронами. Я просто инстинктивно отворачивался во время сценок, так как они просто не о чём, я скорее ждал геймплей. Да, я понял, что это воспоминания и гг лежит в коме по сюжету, но это не спасает. Вдвойне печально, потому что визуальный стиль то крутой, меню выглядит очень красиво, но все силы разрабов ушли на геймплей, видимо.
А геймплей это просто ритм-кликер, причём поначалу музыка реально качает, а к середине какое-то уныние, в котором мне трудно было ловить ритм.

"Rythm game" is a partial misnomer for most "rhythm games", but A Musical Story is truly deserving of the title.
It's an interactive 70s psych concept album with beautiful art, and that's enough for me.

I think rhythm games are an underexplored genre -- I blame this largely on Guitar Hero's introduction and then popularization of many genre conventions that newer titles can't seem to shake.

Guitar hero (and many others) gamify music by asking you to hit the correct inputs as they pass under a line (or using some other visual indicator). However, this often emphasizes input complexity rather than any sense of actual rhythm. You could have no grasp of the beat at all, and the visual indicators would still carry you through the experience.

Put another way: guitar hero and rock band are far more interested in your fret hand than your pick hand.
This is interesting, and maybe a little sad, because we call these "rhythm games", yet rhythm is the aspect of music they emphasize least.

There are rhythm games that buck this trend - "Rhythm Heaven" and "Osu!" come to mind immediately. Yet these are really exceptions to the rule.

Rhytmn games also tend to be random assemblages of music rather than cohesive albums. This is a little disappointing for multiple reasons. For one, something like a leitmotif in a rhythm game is far more impactful than in a non-interactive medium, because you get a direct mechanical reward for identifying the repeated phrase. For two, albums are cool, and tying the arc of an album to a mechanical arc is doubly cool.

There are, again, exceptions here: the 2019 game "Sayonara Wild Hearts" advertises itself firstly as a Pop Album and secondly as a video game; Guitar Hero 6's story mode includes a full playthrough of 2112; Ape Out's integration of gameplay and soundtrack along with the album motif is very cool.

All of this is to say: if you, like me, have ever thought "I wish there was a stripped-back rhythmn game that challenged me to play interesting and unconvential rhythmns a la Rhythmn Heaven, while playing through a bespoke album with gorgeous visuals a la Sayonara Wild Hearts", then you should play a Musical Story. The story is also pretty alright, I suppose.

You could argue that not loving the story is a pretty sever condemnation for a game whose title is literally "A Musical Story", but I don't think it's a huge deal. I can't think of a concept album that's revered for it's narrative twists and turns, but folks love them anyway.

I'm not trying to say that A Musical Story is the best rhythm game ever, or even that it's a "Great" game.
But it's at least very good, and it's not quite like anything else I've played. That's all I really want from a game anymore.