Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a musical choose-your-own-adventure video game in which you play Grace, a woman who is under investigation for the murder of the Muse of epic poetry, Calliope, and who has since gained Calliope's powers of inspiring music and confessional honesty. You are tasked with proving yourself innocent by finding the true culprit from among the other gods-in-hiding in the modern city of New Orleans, Louisiana. You find out information by asking questions in dialogues where every choice has enormous impact on the plot. When the questions run out, the diegetic music begins, and the various murder suspects begin confessing the sordid details of their generational trauma, immigration to the New World, and interpersonal drama as they attempt to navigate an ever-changing existence in the information age.
Stray Gods is a creation of Summerfall Studios, published by Humble Games in August 2023, and it has emerged at a time when musical adaptations of the myths of ancient Greece are at an all-time high in both abundance and popularity, such as Hadestown and EPIC: The Musical. All of the characters are voiced by professional voice actors and musicians, with a cast including Critical Role players Laura Bailey and Ashley Johnson, as well as Felicia Day as Athena.
This game is a labour of love, achingly gorgeous in every respect. I would recommend it gladly to any fan of Hadestown, and if you took particular pleasure in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode titled "Once More, With Feeling," this game evokes that experience, with more polish in the execution. The game offers you four romance options among the suspects you are investigating, but you are not forced to choose any of them, and the characters include a wide range of LGBT identities represented with respectful sincerity, often reflecting how the original Greek myths actually depicted them. Stray Gods is intended for mature audiences, due to the frequent gruesomeness of themes addressed in the course of the investigation, but it does not go out of its way to be gratuitous about it. The story also dwells on questions of ethics around suicide, bodily autonomy, memory loss, and cultural assimilation. There are numerous possible routes, with blended outcomes - some favourable, others not - depending on which characters you question and assist in the course of trying to solve the mystery of Calliope's murder. The game is clearly designed to be played multiple times, if one wishes to see every possible ending, but it is certainly possible to unveil most of the plot's buried truths in a single playthrough, by making careful choices at every turn. Whether you choose to play Grace with a compassionate and charismatic demeanour, a ruthless and forceful presence, or a sharp and rational wit, you can get different responses (and different levels of cooperativeness) from each member of the cast. Every character has their own motives which do not necessarily entail Grace surviving to the end of the story, but learning what they hope to get out of their encounters with you can enable you to get more honesty out of them.
I cannot speak favourably enough about Stray Gods, and as a classicist I can affirm that the deviations from mythic canon are clever, interesting, and self-aware, always justified and comprehensible within the plot. This is an erudite, emotionally nuanced, tightly-constructed story, and if you have read this far, I expect you will find it well worth your time.
Iron Noder 2023, 6/30