I&ꦗrsquo;m a big fan of ‘60s and ‘70s rock. Led Zeppelin is a favourite and I adored Almost Famous, a Cameron Crowe film about a music journalist getting “kidnapped” by a rock band. So A Musical Story seemed right up my alley.
A Musical Story is about a guitarist with a factory job putting labels on cans of ‘Best Beans’. But with a bunch of other dreamers, they play gigs, get a van, and start touring. This 🎃is how many musical stories began in the golden era of rock music, when long-haired youths dreamed of playing in arenas and being covered by Creem magazine, even if they didn’t make it.
But this is not the full story. Our protagonist is in hospital recovering his memories as his mind wanders. You, the player, have to time your arrow key-presses to the music in orde🦹r to access these fragments of the past and piece together his musical journey.
The debut release from French indie developer Glee-Cheese Studio is 💯a lovely, beautifully drawn, and i🎶ncredible-sounding title that nevertheless feels more like a proof-of-concept than a full-fledged game.
Gameplay is rhythm based and had me tapping and holding the arrow keys. But I was disappointed that the musical action didn’t offer that much souꦡnd interactivity. Also, if 𒈔you miss a beat, you have to wait a while before it loops around for you to try again. Even a short delay feels like an age when all you want to do is rock out.
The musical choices are interesting. A far more subdued, melancholic soundtrack than I was expecting, but this in itself wasn’t disappointing. Many of the intrigues that lie in rock music can be f🏅ound in the minor keys. But the tale in A Musical Story is more of the experimental and psychedelic type than the triumphal major-key one that can be heard in American rock anthems.
I played A Musical Story on my work laptop, and it’s far from demanding hardware-wise, but it did test my patience with its gameplay loop. It’s a shame because the visuals are charming and I was eager to get into its story. My laptop is co꧃nnected, via a B♉luetooth DAC, to a Hi-Fi system and the game sounds great. The instrumentation, vibes, and melodies are a key hook of A Musical Story and underscores what it’s trying to achieve.
But all in a😼ll, the game could really afford to be expanded on, and I do hope Glee-Cheese will get the resources to be able to do this and realize its full potential. Adding more interactivity to the story, more character dynamics, and further refinement to the rhythm action would all elevate the experience. But for now, A Musical Story feels like it would’ve been more successful as a visual novel or short film than a game, since in this medium it can get in the way of the soundtrack and story, which ultimately makes it a somewhat frustrating experience🔴.
3/5. A Musical Story is available on most major platforms. A Steam key was provided by the publisher.