People of Note combines rhythm games with puzzles and the RPG genre in a most interesting way. Read on to find out more.
*warning: minor spoilers below for the plot of People of Note
People of Note is a recently released RPG video game from Iridium Studios that combines elements of musical games and puzzle games along with the RPG format. The game is set in the fictional land of Note, where each city is devoted to a different genre of music (i.e. Pop, Rock, Electronic, etc.).
People of Note
Developed by: Iridium Studios
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Release Date: April 7, 2026
The player primarily controls Cadence, a Pop singer from Chordia who wants more than anything to win a singing contest that grants a recording contract to the winner. But it quickly becomes obvious that there is something much bigger going on in the land of Note.
For this review, I played the Playstation 5 version of the game and primarily utilized the game’s equivalent of “Easy” mode.
The Story
People of Note has a pretty good story throughout; you’re instantly pulled into Cadence’s life and how badly she wants to pursue her dreams of being a star. The various songs in this game are presented as extended cutscenes and they are gorgeous. I personally would’ve loved to have the ability to interact with the songs, but as they are, they are one of the best things about this game.
I also appreciate how the writers slowly wove in the plot threads of the bigger story going on in the game. While the story of Cadence finding her “sound” by traveling across Note is truly exciting in and of itself, the fact that it’s being done against the backdrop of forces moving to change the world (for better or worse), is just icing on the cake.
I also really enjoy how this game delves into questions of self-expression and what it means to be yourself when you make music. Synthia, who specializes in electronic music, has a fantastic song about this topic that will surely resonate (no pun intended) with a lot of players.
The Gameplay
Initially, when this game was brought to my attention, I thought this was a game along the lines of Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, where the player chooses how the various songs are put together. But People of Note takes a different approach entirely.
Instead of manipulating the songs directly, like Stray Gods, People of Note requires the player to make it through a series of battles, using a rhythm timer to unleash different attacks and effects. It’s an interesting concept, but it gets repetitive after several dozen iterations. Granted, there are different skills unlocked as the story progresses, but the basic battle concept remains the same, meaning the fights gradually feel like a chore rather than something fun.
People of Note is also a game that is full of puzzles, and for the most part that’s not a bad thing. The puzzles were varied and challenging in their difficulty, though the farther I proceeded into the game I began to wonder if some of them were perhaps too challenging. In the game’s third chapter, I hit a virtual brick wall with a series of puzzles that seemed unsolvable.
Fortunately, People of Note includes an accessibility feature that lets you effectively turn the environmental puzzles off if you get hopelessly stuck. While I appreciate that the game developers include this as an option, the fact that I had to utilize it more than once suggests that others may find the puzzles an issue to get past as well.
I was also frustrated by how stiff a lot of the general gameplay in People of Note felt. The battle sequences run smoothly enough, and the song scenes are fully animated. But outside of that…like when Cadence is running from place to place, the game world feels less developed than it should. NPCs are standing still on the street, the camera angle can’t be adjusted, it just felt like the game could be more polished.
In the end, while People of Note is ultimately a bit of a mixed bag, it is for the most part fun to play. The story itself is worth checking out, even if the battles are a bit of a slog.
