Summary
Fretless is a fun experience! I enjoyed my time with the game and if you are a fan of musical based games and turn based RPGs, I believe you will also enjoy this hidden gem.
Developer – Ritual Studios
Publisher – Playdigious Orginials
Platforms – PC(reviewed)
Review copy given by Publisher
Every so often a game will come along that takes me by complete surprise. Fretless: The Wrath of Riffson is definitely one of those games. As it came across my virtual desk, I read up on the synopsis and was intrigued by the premise. A musical, deck-building, turn-based RPG that uses timing and inputs for combat and everything is inspired by music. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of too many games that have tried this in the past. Crypt of the Necrodancer has musical rhythm gameplay and Eternal Sonata uses Chopin as an inspiration for the game’s world, but nothing that I can recall comes quite together like Fretless.
The story starts with your character Rob who is an inspiring musician who is traveling with his acoustic guitar to the latest Battle of the Bands. The price for coming in first place is, of course, a record deal with the biggest label in the world. What could go wrong right? Well the record label is also the force behind a lot of evil spreading across the land. Musical monsters have spawned all over the land and are causing a cacophony of destruction. One your way to take part of the Battle of the Bands competition, you will be fighting a ton of monsters and evil music executives who are trying to stop you.
Over the course of the 10ish hour game you will travel through a different lands across the country like exotic beaches, smoking volcanos, frozen tundras, and ancient ruins fighting all sorts of musically based monsters. The combat is fairly direct and easy to learn. Each instrument you fight with has a different riff book that can be customized and causes all sorts of damage, status effects, and different abilities. For each instrument you can equip a variety of 16 different riffs at one time like putting together a deck of random cards.
At the start of combat you are given a random selection of these cards and you can choose up to three to use on your turn. Once you click Shred, you will play your three riffs each with their own unique combat animations. During the most important parts of the quick animation you can click at the right moment and amplify the damage of the riff against the enemy. After your attack phase, it’s the enemies turn to Shred against you, and much like your attack phase, clicking at the right time for their attacks you can reduce the damage you receive as a defense. The feeling is much like Super Mario RPG.
Outside of selecting your Riffs, you are able to swap between 4 different instruments. Each of these have their own riffs and passive abilities as well. As you progress through the game you will come across different pieces that you can swap out on the instruments like different jobs, strings, pickups, and the like. These can all change the attributes and abilities of the instruments even further. The really nice thing about these instruments is they all play differently. Some are focused on dealing more direct damage, another might be more suited for buffing and debuffing enemies, or dealing damage to yourself to deal more damage.
I had a lot of fun trying out each weapon type but really enjoyed the Bass Guitar. This instrument has a really cool passive effect of summoning a demon to attack enemies upon invoking 8 times using specific cards. Another major source of damage and effects are each weapons special ability that is charged up over time. Think of a limit burst from Final Fantasy 7. Once activated the game turns into a direction input attack where you will have to time pressing WASD keys in time with the direction inputs scrolling across the screen like Dance Dance Revolution. Every correct input increases the power of your massive attack and can be extremely useful in killing bosses or other strong monsters. Bosses can also use similar attacks and in order to defend against it you go through the same inputs to block each attack instead.
While the game is quite linear in nature, there are side quests that you can undertake, secret boss fights, and collecting items that can give you an advantage in battles. On top of the weapons and riffs you have a pedal board which provides passive buffs for your character as well. After collecting enough upgrade materials you can even increase the powers of your favorite riffs. Overall, the game is about 10 hours long and is mostly a smooth adventure. However, I did run into two or three bugs that made me start over the current battle. For instance, the enemy turn would never start or the battle overlay would stay frozen over the screen after death. Nothing major, but lost a small amount of progress due to the bugs.
The musical design of Fretless is top notch. The battle music changes based on your weapon and as you are attacking you can match the beat of the song to your clicks to add more oomph to your attacks. Also the environment has neat little musical interactions like running through tall grass can cause jingling music to play as you walk. Graphically, the pixel art is well done. It’s not the best I’ve seen but it works for the game perfectly and is very charming.
Overall, Fretless is a fun experience! I enjoyed my time with the game and if you are a fan of musical based games and turn based RPGs, I believe you will also enjoy this hidden gem. Hopefully the game can get into the right hands for the exposure it needs to really take off. This is the type of experience that would be absolutely perfect on the Nintendo Switch so hopefully that is in the works as well. I hope anyone that reads this review will give the game a chance!
