The path to being a popular musician, barring nepo babies, is like a long adventure. It requires a lot of hard work and grinding, and like many RPGs, it doesn’t always end up how you were hoping.
As Jason Wishnov spoke to us about his latest game, People of Note, I admired how passionate he was about his own game. Having only worked on two games prior, Before the Echo and There Came an Echo, he seemed excited about this new endeavor.
He spoke enthusiastically about the mash-up system, how musical the game is, and what he expects of the game on release. “Fully animated Disney-style musical numbers,” that’s a tall order, Jason. But he went on and had an answer for every question anyone threw at him.
“If you want a pure turn-based RPG experience, you can turn off the rhythm QTEs.” Accessibility is important, and it shows by how modular you can make your experience in People of Note. “You can just turn off all the battles. You can skip all the puzzles.”
Last month, we got a taste of the voice cast in People of Note, and it’s a pretty great list of VAs. It seems the idea of a fully animated Disney-style musical number, in his words, isn’t that far off with such a voice cast. So I dove into the demo provided.
People of Note is a Musical Turn-Based RPG With Disney-Style Flair
We take on a fairly early portion of the game, starting out without any party members and only acquiring one throughout the demo. The demo takes us through Cadence meeting Fret for the very first time. We get to see her break down his walls, build him up, and get him ready to take on the world.
People of Note is about Cadence, a pop singer, forming a band to participate in the Noteworthy Song Contests. “It’s essentially Eurovision.” She’s got passion, but does she have enough to beat out her primary contender, the 9-time winner Smolder?
Cadence attacks with her voice, but her regular attack is just whacking someone with her microphone. It’s cute. Using songstones, the player can modify existing abilities or give characters brand new abilities. I set it so Cadence’s primary damage dealing ability gives her a heal as well.
Discovering Durandis, the city of rock, Cadence is on the lookout for a band to back her up in the Noteworthy Song Contest. There she runs afoul Martell and her gang of country fellers. Realizing she’s in over her head, Fret makes an appearance.
Fret looks like the appropriately aged version of Eddie Riggs from Brutal Legend. Using his axe (guitar) to whack enemies over the head or play a riff to heal the party, Fret is an incredibly useful ally.
Unfortunately, he’s not interested in joining Cadence’s band. Pop isn’t rock. She learns about his past, uses it to break down his walls, and teaches him about the glory of the mash-up. Like so many episodes of Glee, Cadence manages to win Fret over by teaching him about the power of music beyond his assigned genre at birth.
Fret has some unfinished business around town, though. His old bandmate Quincy is running a group of local ruffians, and he wants to take him down a peg. This is when the game started to drag.
Once in Quincy’s base, I was met with a series of puzzles along with a bunch of trash fights. People of Note’s combat system is thematically appropriate. A time signature is displayed at the bottom of the screen, with the top number showing how many turns your team has against how many the enemy has.
It’s cute, but I don’t think it saves People of Note from its biggest issue, the boring combat. A few small QTEs are all that’s between you and dealing a small amount of damage. Fighting trash enemies sometimes takes 3 – 5 turns. It’s early in the game, but that’s primarily when I want the game moving at a brisk pace.
Having a slog of a fight, followed up with the sight of 2 or 3 more fights on the horizon, just sapped me of joy.
People of Note has had a lot of work put into it, a lot of enthusiasm, and puns galore. I got to pet an acorgian! But the primary gameplay loop built around the boring turn-based combat really put me off.
The demo ends shortly after fighting Quincy, an annoying math rocker, after he changes his ways. The Quincy battle is actually pretty good. In fact, the boss battles are interesting thanks to the crescendo meter, upping the damage they do every time it increases. Obviously, not a solid solution for trash fights, but a big defining feature of the boss fights and what makes them interesting.
If battles moved quicker or had a little more flair to them, other than a QTE and some mediocre damage, I think it would be a stellar RPG. And I’m hoping for an improvement come release. There’s certainly enough passion and enthusiasm behind it.
You can play the demo I played right now by checking out the game’s Steam page. Along with the demo’s release, People of Note is set to be released on April 7th, 2026. Dang, that’s close. Maybe you’ll disagree with me, or the subject matter turns you on enough that you don’t care. After all, you could outright skip the battles if you want.
If you dig it, make sure you add it to your wishlist.
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