People of Note Review – Great Music, Strong Combat, Weak Story

People of Note is about a land of music called Note, and the protagonist, Cadence, wants to be the top Pop songstress in Chordia through the competition Noteworthy. What begins as a simple dream becomes much more in this linear turn-based RPG. With a plot that barely gets there and an unlikeable main character, my feelings are mixed on this game.

People of Note is a game about music, and while it packs some surprisingly robust and challenging RPG systems, a colorful pastel world, a great modular soundtrack, accessibility options, and a wide variety of music, some elements and bugs keep this from being certified platinum. The choice of Pop music as Cadence’s forte is emblematic of People of Note’s problems – while it sounds great and feels nice upon further examination, the content of the game is light on substance and verbose in all the wrong ways.

Music is paramount in the world of Note, with entire regions dedicated to genres like Rock, Rap, and EDM. Each location, though linear, is a sight to behold – I found myself in awe looking back at some screenshots I had taken. As you gain party members, you’ll gain access to new versions of battle themes with their particular influence, and on top of that, Mashups will also play tracks with interspersed Rock, Rap, EDM, and Pop, making for a dizzying amount of unique songs in the game.

People of Note’s combat was a pleasant surprise with its depth. Even the most basic enemy, especially later in the game, can be a challenge if you aren’t paying attention to the many interlaced systems at work. Information such as buffs and debuffs is all displayed, which even the biggest names in the space, like Persona and Pokémon, don’t adequately convey. Players will have to choose abilities to succeed. The breadth of choices allows you to do things like increasing your moves by eight next turn, buffing a bandmate to deal 250% damage, or even subtracting a move from an enemy. Each of these things is viable and possible, and as far as I can tell, you aren’t restricted from using certain moves or status effects on bosses, another RPG fault that People of Note avoids.

Some criticisms of combat I have, the biggest being that it seems buggy. There was one particular boss battle where I needed to deal a certain amount of damage to prevent the boss from using their battle-ending move, but the game kept letting them charge it, resulting in my losing a multi-stage boss battle. Upon restarting the battle, the boss could be properly staggered, but it still felt like salt in the wound.

Certain items, like Remix Stones, are slightly too limited in selection before the last chapter of the game, and even then, People of Note does not allow certain combinations. Combat buffs are another issue – while Cadence’s use of her Pop turns to deal massive damage, EDM and Rock genre turns might’ve needed a different buff, as you are often healing or tweaking various combat stats with those characters. Also, for a game about melding different types of music, it was depressing to see bosses automatically drain or disable my party’s Mashup meter completely. As the Mashup meter only fills as your characters take damage, it felt like this was unnecessary, and I occasionally felt as if I lost a battle, not because of my own fault, but due to a boss not attacking the correct character and filling that character’s Mashup meter.

If combat isn’t your thing, People of Note still has that covered. All battles can be retreated from, which will make you lose a couple of vinyls if you even have any. This is a non-issue, as you earn them every battle. Difficulty can be changed at any time, including the ability to skip combat. I felt prepared to face most enemies by trading vinyls and clearing enemies on the map, which is a far cry from the days of grinding metal slimes for hours on end. Puzzle battles reward lots of experience points, and you never have to go too much out of your way for a sidequest to unlock valuable Songstones or Mashups.

The story is a basic one, though tonal inconsistency rears its head. You find out one of your party members is addicted to a drug called Glitter. This is treated like a big deal, and your party member even starts to go through withdrawal, which is only mentioned once. There is also the fact that the Homestead, Country music lovers, are attacking the people of Durandis, which Cadence doesn’t care about because she needs to form a band to win Noteworthy. As People of Note is a game about music, it’s great that it’s broaching topics like addiction and drug use, which are well-known in the music industry and scene. Unfortunately, the game barely touches on these more serious aspects, which makes it strange to even bring them up in the first place. Part of why Cadence is an unlikeable character is that she brushes off these much more serious elements of People of Note in favor of her dream to become a Pop star. It feels callous and shallow, and the game eventually acknowledges this. The problem is, there is so little buildup to the abovementioned, as well as Cadence immediately starting beef with her bandmates as soon as the quartet makes it back to her hometown, which made the tonal whiplash somewhere between laughable and astonishingly selfish. Even the main crux of the game, with Cadence starting a band, isn’t given much breathing room – it starts out that way, but the player gets to see so little of it beyond an ending cutscene. While I appreciate that the developers had Cadence say something when talking to random NPCs, what she says makes me appreciate silent protagonists even more. People of Note also feels a bit dated, with Simon Cowell jokes, Principal Skinner “kids are wrong” memes, and jokes about boy bands, which really don’t even exist in the current musical climate.

Note: People of Note begins with a seizure/epilepsy warning.