People of Note Review: It's a Musical World, and I Wanna Live in It

2 weeks ago 7

Published Apr 7, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT

Daniel has been playing games for entirely too many years, with his Steam library currently numbering nearly 750 games and counting. When he's not working or watching anime, he's either playing or thinking about games, constantly on the lookout for fascinating new gameplay styles and stories to experience. Daniel has previously written lists for TheGamer, as well as guides for GamerJournalist, and he currently covers tech topics on SlashGear.

Despite being completely bereft of anything resembling musical talent myself, I love the culture that surrounds music and its many genres. From the mechanical knowledge that goes into music production to a genre’s associated iconography, music is a veritable reality in itself. I’ve seen plenty of stories, movies, and games interpret that in a more literal sense, creating entire settings that revolve largely around music as a concept and cultural touchstone, the newest of which is Iridium Studios and Annapurna Interactive’s People of Note.

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On its surface, People of Note feels like something I’ve seen before, a turn-based RPG set in a world with music as its very lifeblood. While it’s not the most original concept in the universe, People of Note approaches it with a sense of both earnestness and accessibility that I can’t help but get drawn into. Also, it’s got some supremely bangin’ tunes, but it’d be kind of weird if a game like this didn’t have an excellent soundtrack, frankly.

Sometimes you Join a Music Contest, Sometimes you Save the World

People of Note is set in the world of Note, and focuses on its people. If that pun got a groan out of you, gird yourself, because there’s a lot more where that came from.

Our protagonist is Cadence, a denizen of the pop-powered city of Chordia who dreams of becoming the next big musical sensation. Her big shot is an upcoming citywide music contest judged by the city’s leading authorities, but when one of those authorities writes her off in favor of his favorite pre-packaged boy band, Cadence resolves to travel across Note, seeking musicians of other genres to create a sound nobody has ever heard before, getting wrapped up in an international conspiracy of potentially catastrophic proportions in the process.

The game’s overall theming feels kind of like a Pixar movie, with a comparable degree of color, character variety, and most importantly, musical numbers. Every chapter has at least one full music video-style performance, some with choreographed dancing, each reflective of the musical genre of the hour. Apparently, these musical numbers are also diegetic, which means they’re all happening in-universe, and no one’s allowed to interrupt.

That kind of ties into something I really like about this game’s setting, which is its uncompromising earnestness. As I mentioned, there are a lot of musical puns scattered around, but they’re all played completely straight. Nobody’s winking at the camera and rolling their eyes (outside a couple of moments that are deliberately played for laughs), they just live in a world that happens to be punny. EDM fans ride elefaders, the most popular kind of pet is the accorgion; this is normal for this world and is treated as such, and as someone who’s gotten a little burnt-out on irony, I appreciate the commitment.

Laying Down a Spicy Track

People of Note is a fairly traditional turn-based RPG, reminiscent of JRPGs from the early 2000s like Tales of Symphonia and Final Fantasy X. In combat, you take it in turns to pummel your foes with your instruments, switching between regular attacks, equippable special skills, and Mash-Up techniques that merge two of your party members’ musical genres for unique effects.

As someone who’s gotten a little burnt-out on irony, I appreciate the commitment.

If the game’s theming has you expecting it to be a rhythm game, you might be a smidgen disappointed. People of Note does have rhythm elements, but they only manifest when performing attacks and certain skills, and even then it’s never anything more complicated than a few timed button presses. You can even turn the rhythm elements off entirely if you don’t feel like using them. While it may not be a rhythm game, though, People of Note does incorporate music theory into other elements of its combat system, and in interesting ways.

You know how, in some turn-based RPGs, you have a turn order on the screen that shows who in your party and the enemy’s side is going next? People of Note does that too, but you decide who in your party goes when during your turn. As long as there are open slots on the time signature, you can slot in attacks and abilities in any order.

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Additionally, the dominant musical genre of the backing track changes every turn, enhancing and modifying your corresponding party member, so you can plan your turn order around enhancing or protecting whoever’s got the stage. It’s surprisingly deep and strategic, especially when you’ve got time signatures with extra slots for your turn, allowing your members to go twice, or when the game introduces modifiers that enhance or hinder whichever character takes a turn under them.

A Simple, Yet Well-Composed Melody

Outside of combat, you can explore the various towns and cities of Note, from the hard-rocking canyons of Durandis to the EDM-bouncing city of Lumina, as well as various dungeons filled with puzzles and encounters. These areas aren’t exactly gigantic, but they have a very concise flow to them. You’re not bumming around a massive city full of dead space, trying to figure out where you’re supposed to go next; it’s always clear what needs to happen and where, which keeps the story at a fairly brisk pace, good for those who aren’t in the mood to get lost in an endless overworld.

Side content is equally light; People of Note doesn’t really do side quests in the traditional sense. That said, there are some little distractions and mini-games you can get up to, which often yield rewards like experience payouts, powerful new gear, and cash. In every city, for example, there are a handful of dudes in funny hats that offer you puzzle battles, canned battle scenarios with pre-selected skills and weapons with a specific win condition, like beating all enemies in two turns or ensuring all of your party members survive for one turn.

If you look around carefully, you’ll also regularly encounter the Weird Owls, critters with distinctive curly hair with a fondness for wacky accordion music and random trivia who reward special collectibles for right answers. You can probably guess the reference there, and I had a pretty hearty laugh when I did.

Thinking about it, there are a lot of elements in this game meant to encourage you to keep things moving along. Even in the game’s boss encounters, it’s better to win quickly rather than drag things out, because every boss has a special meter that gradually increases the longer the fight goes on. If it fills, they unleash a devastating attack that, while not guaranteed death, will hurt like the dickens, so it’s smart to really learn the systems and optimize your playstyle to keep them from popping off.

Just an Old-Fashioned Love Song

I mentioned classic JRPGs before, and there’s a reason for that. As I’ve been playing People of Note, I’ve been having nostalgic flashbacks to playing games like Final Fantasy X, with both the dungeon exploration and combat systems hearkening back to those halcyon days of my youth. I get the distinct impression that this game was made with a deep appreciation of the genre and what makes it work, all without getting too lost in the sauce and forgetting to be original and noteworthy.

Speaking of love and being noteworthy, love for music is another element that permeates People of Note. As you visit each of the musically-inclined cities, you can get a pretty complete picture of their respective real-world subcultures, and how those subcultures could inform an actual society. The pop city has dedicated districts for J-pop and K-pop, and the rockers are divided up between classic rock, metal, and grunge, with even math metal existing in the periphery.

Outside the major cities, there are other communities gathered around different genres; one of the game’s recurring antagonistic factions, the Homestead, is powered by country music, while a clan of druids living in a forest channel the wisdom of traditional Irish music.

Every region also has a unique BGM for its overworld and battles, and I’ve had several instances where, upon starting a battle, I actually forget to play for a couple of minutes because I’m so enraptured by the backing track. That’s the nice thing, that every kind of music is well-represented no matter what happens in the story. While everyone in each city thinks every other genre of music sucks, because of course they do, the game never actually disparages any kind of music.

Music is for Everyone, Everywhere

I would be remiss if I didn’t also highlight People of Note’s commitment to accessibility. Music is for everyone to enjoy, after all, and the devs understand that very well. As I mentioned before, you can disable the rhythm inputs for combat stuff if you want, but in addition to that, you can adjust the combat difficulty and even disable dungeon puzzles entirely if you’re really stuck.

Every kind of music is well-represented.

Outside the overt stuff, though, the game just has a lot of very smart decisions in its baseline design. For instance, rather than random encounters or enemy symbols in the dungeons, there are stationary enemies placed in static locations that disappear after you beat them.

If you want to fight an enemy to level up, farm dungeon-specific currency, or just for kicks, you can manually trigger an encounter at any time, but otherwise, you won’t be bothered without your consent. I gotta say, I absolutely love this design choice, because for as much as I loved those classic JRPGs, I despised being constantly harassed by random encounters while trying to solve dungeon puzzles.

Plus, if you end up getting stomped in a regular fight or boss fight, you don’t have to go through a whole rigmarole of reloading your save and watching cutscenes again, you just pop right back into the world in front of where you were. In People of Note, everything’s at your pace and comfort level, and that’s nice! And it’s nice when things are nice.

Closing Thoughts

People of Note is a game that’s positively bursting with love for classic RPGs, music theory and culture, and the people who like both. It’s got an earnest, interesting story with diverse, likable characters, and smartly-designed, cleverly-implemented combat and stat-building systems. Compared to some similar RPGs, it’s a little on the leaner side, and the relatively minor presence of rhythm mechanics is disappointing. Still, overall, it’s a rock-solid, highly-enjoyable experience, and I’d wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who likes good, ol’ fashioned turn-based combat and musical references. Also, if and when they release an official soundtrack, I will play it on loop until my speakers wear out. Especially the Irish battle music, that track is straight fire.