In the pun-filled People of Note, Cadence is a fashionable, passionate woman who yearns to be a hugely popular singer in the cutthroat music business. Her goal is to win a Eurovision-style contest called Noteworthy, but she’s hindered by evil gatekeepers, egomaniacal pop stars and a looming dark threat. While not precisely the same, this turn-based role-playing game feels like “KPop Demon Hunters” for game lovers.
At the beginning, it didn’t seem as if there was enough depth to satisfy. The first song isn’t thrilling, and while the soundtrack’s songs are creditable, many aren’t very moving. And Cadence is portrayed as completely single-minded, too into herself and her idea of success to be completely likable.
But People of Note ultimately soars because of an unexpected narrative, a pleasant music-themed twist on turn-based gameplay and inventive environments that are luminous and energetic. The music venue in Chordia, with its 14 blue spotlights against purple skies, enhances the feeling of a concert’s excitement. A K-pop district feels alive through its multicolored strung lanterns, a vibrant club scene and the Accorgion, an adorable accordion dog.
Cadence learns — after some rejection by judges — that forming a band that has her back may be the way to winning Noteworthy. In essence, the game’s designers believe that musicians with interests in different genres represent the surest way to enhanced creativity.
In the unnamed band’s way, however, is Smolder, an ego-filled group who have won the contest many years in a row, and whose fans are as devoted as Taylor Swift’s. Smolder’s singer is so full of himself that he thinks a simple invitation backstage will seduce Cadence. But she’ll have none of his nonsense. She hates the band’s corporate nature, its lack of risk-taking.
It’s when she gets a special key to let her perform at Noteworthy without auditioning that Cadence begins to branch out.
She travels to a rocky, desert land and finds Fret, a washed-up but brilliant rock guitarist who, at 54, feels he has been burned too many times to play live music again. Cadence researches his past and conceives a way to bring him into the fold. In doing so, she realizes that her personalized pop songs, belted like Broadway numbers, need to have more heart.
This tale has much more nuance than a coming-of-age music story. There’s a fantasy twist in which sinister forces want to retain, and then destroy, four ancient keys that would end the world. As Cadence makes her way through well-conceived lands, others join the band — blue-haired Synthia is a rising club DJ who sings about impostor syndrome.
Cadence’s motley crew takes to fighting enemies like a Clarinewt, a lizard-and-clarinet mash-up, and Eleflutes, part angry elephant and part flute. Later battles, like one featuring Organightmare, with its three-level keyboard for teeth, can last 25 minutes. Choosing from an impressive assortment of music-themed power-ups — the Linkin Parka increases both your offense and defense — becomes the best approach to victory, as long as you strategize how to use them properly.
While moving through the mazes of clubs or lonely netherworlds, I generally found the puzzle challenges to be happily daunting. Before finding a way to bring Fret into the fold, I needed to connect energy beams and bounce them off metal walls to open the next area.
It isn’t all hits all the time. When the game crashed during battle, I lost an appreciable amount of data. Cadence became stuck in a corner near a store, forcing me to restart. Some of the luridly colored set pieces hid, say, a lever that needed to be pulled to spin away dancing fans who were blocking a hidden V.I.P. room at the Whirls Generation nightclub.
Nonetheless, Cadence discovers a winning combination that turns struggle into inspiration. In saving the world with her band, she is going up, up, up.
People of Note was reviewed on the Xbox Series X. It is also available on the PC, PlayStation 5 and Switch 2.
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