'People of Note': Turn-based combat becomes a full-blown musical experience in this new Xbox Play Anywhere title from Annapurna Interactive

Name a more iconic duo than video games and music. Video game soundtracks are every bit as important to a good gaming experience as the art style and gameplay loop.

Yet, there’s a notable lack of offerings when it comes to musical games. Sure, you have your classic music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, but those games lack any sort of narrative component and have also been absent from storefronts for quite a while.

Hi-Fi Rush and Metal: Hellsinger are some more recent entries, but in general, it's a genre that just doesn’t see a lot of releases. Which makes Iridium Studios and Annapurna Interactive’s recently released People of Note feel all the more special.

People of Note slips players into the role of Cadence, an ambitious young musician who dreams of taking the stage during Noteworthy — a talent contest that finds the best of the best musicians in Note.

The contest has been dominated by Smolder for far too long, but after Cadence fails to win over the hearts of judges in initial auditions, she sets out to earn one of the councilmembers’ Golden Clefs for a second chance to prove her mettle on the main stage.

'People of Note': Turn-based tunes and RPG rhythms combine in this new Xbox Play Anywhere title - YouTube

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What Cadence does not expect, however, is that to prove herself for Noteworthy, she’ll have to gather an ensemble of musicians — each with different musical backgrounds — to create a genre-bending band that can wow the council.

Cadence isn’t just fighting for her own success, but for the entirety of the realm of Note.

The world Cadence inhabits takes music very seriously, and each genre has its own location that makes up the whole of the realm complete with an abundance of puns and in-jokes.

The player must take Cadence on a journey through Note to meet the people who inhabit each genre, from the grunge and punk rockers of Durandis to the EDM city of Lumina back to Chordia’s K-pop district. But chaos has come to the realm of Note, and Cadence finds herself smack in the middle of a battle between the line-dancing, country music blasting Homesteaders and the rockers of Durandis.

This is where People of Note’s creativity and music punnery meet tactical turn-based combat. Cadence and the crew will occasionally enter into combat against a variety of enemies.

Combat scenarios play out on a timer modeled after sheet music. Actions like healing or attacking take beat points, and there is a limited number of stanzas for Cadence and any available party members to make moves before enemies can attack. In some instances, the player will be forced to face off against musical bosses, whose power increases over time as a crescendo meter fills up, making them more difficult to defeat as the song plays out.

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People of Note also takes the opportunity to set the player into arenas for a dose of dungeon-crawling, just to mix things up. These small dungeons are filled with a variety of musically inclined puzzles and combat engagements.

However, puzzles and musical combat challenges can be particularly difficult for some people, so if those aren’t your cup of tea, you can easily head into the accessibility settings and disable any barriers that prevent you from experiencing the magic of People of Note.

People of Note

Cadence dreams of being under the lights, but before she can win the Noteworthy song contest, she has to go on a journey to explore different genres of music and put together a genre-bending band. Turn-based combat, light RPG and dungeon crawling mechanics, and a banger soundtrack make People of Note an exciting take on the rhythm game genre.

People of Note is available now on Xbox, Xbox on PC, Steam, PlayStation, and the Epic Games Store. The game is not available on Xbox Game Pass; however, it is an Xbox Play Anywhere title, which allows you to purchase it once on PC or Xbox and enjoy it freely on both platforms, as well as compatible handheld devices.