A Musical Story Is A Charming And Superb Sounding Debut
thegamer.comI’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.
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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 order 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 incredible-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 sound interactivity. Also, if you 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 found in the minor keys. But the tale in A Musical Story is more of the experimental and psychedelic type than
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