Last week, the announcement of a DLC for Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical had me returning to the game to rediscover it in preparation for the DLC. I had played Stray Gods once before and found it quite enjoyable, but I wanted to see how the story and songs could change. So, I reached out to a few friends and had them over to hang out and play Stray Gods.
Playing Stray Gods with friends is a fun experience and might just be the best way to experience the game. Each shift in the song yielded different choices than I would have made on my own. It made for a unique experience that had us laughing together constantly.
A Roleplaying Musical
As the name suggests, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a musical inside a game where your decisions will change the song as you play. Set in a modern world where Greek Gods live among mortals, you’ll be using your musical powers to find hidden truths and solve a mystery with high stakes.
One of the first decisions in the game has you choose between one of three traits for Grace to embody: clever, charming, or kickass. This choice mainly opens up different options for dialogue options outside of songs.
Each of the three traits is also color-coded and you can select the options corresponding to your chosen trait. This is a fun feature as it allows you to set the mood for your song based on the trait you chose at the beginning of the game. Choosing the clever options might yield a more reflective quality to the song. Alternatively, you’ll see an aggressive quality, if you choose kickass, or a compassionate quality if you choose charming.
The trait system can also be something of a double-edged sword at times. After picking a trait, it can feel like you are then restricted to picking only song options color-coded to your chosen trait. This is not the case! When playing Stray Gods, you shouldn’t feel the need to restrain yourself to one trait.
There is no limitation to what traits you can express in a song, even if it feels like there are. A kickass Grace could still play the game selecting all the charming options in songs with no downsides. You can also play the game alternating trait responses at every point in the song without repercussions.
Another factor also complicates the trait system: at certain points there are “correct” options to select to achieve a desired effect. If you’re sticking to choosing options from your trait, you may end up choosing the wrong option.
To illustrate, at one point in the game, Grace is asked to help someone improve their love life through song. There are wrong choices that will destroy your new friends’ chance at love. In this instance, the options that would have dashed the budding romance just so happened to correspond to the trait we chose at the start of the game. Only by choosing options outside of our trait did we ensure that cupid’s arrow hit its mark.
The Magic of Stray Gods
Stray Gods knows its players and what a fan of musicals and Greek gods may be interested in. From various tempting romance options to compelling decisions you can make outside of songs that influence the story, Stray Gods caters to its players just the right amount.
Some of the best moments in Stray Gods came when my friends threw a flirty line at a character and a potential dialogue option with the exact same line popped up a moment later. This led to some of the most hilarious moments in our playthrough as we unanimously decided if we ever called out a response before it appeared we would have to choose it. We all burst out with laughter when we realized this resulted in us getting the “Heartbreaker” achievement for flirting with every romanceable character in the game.
The biggest gripe my friends had about the dialogue is that sometimes the options presented on the screen had Grace saying something we didn’t actually want to say. However, this is a noted problem in many games that have you selecting between different dialogue options. As long as you’re aware of this going into your playthrough, you shouldn’t feel like Grace says anything too out of line with what you selected.
Preparing for the Stray Gods DLC
The announcement for the upcoming DLC for Stray Gods has revealed that it will focus on Orpheus, a side character who appears during the game’s third act. Anthony Rapp provides the voice of Orpheus and does a great job in his song. The references to Opheus’s myth in his song hit perfectly and deliver the ideal introduction to the character.
While Orpheus doesn’t feature heavily in the base game of Stray Gods, he has a good characterization and an interesting story. Orpheus differs significantly from his mythological counterpart but keeps the core of his legend: his love and grief for Eurydice. There is room for his character to grow, and this DLC seems like Orpheus’s perfect opportunity to shine.
The other character featured in the trailer for the DLC is Hermes. Like Orpheus, Hermes had a minor role in the base game of Stray Gods, but was an enjoyable character who I always wanted to know more about on both of my playthroughs. I’m looking forward to seeing the chance for these characters to take center stage in Stray Gods’ DLC.
Third Act
Whether you’re just coming to Stray Gods for the first time or preparing for the DLC, you’re in for a fun time. With around 7 hours of playtime, you can play all or most of this in one sitting. I highly recommend playing this game with friends as the process of scrambling to pick a response as the time to decide winds down was a frantic but exciting experience.
Good luck with your time through Stray Gods! May the fates and muses guide your musical journey through this tale of gods and mystery.
