It was pretty obvious that I would be interested in People of Note. Much like Devolver Digital, I’ve long championed games published by Annapurna Interactive, as their involvement is usually a pretty clear stamp of quality. And recently, I’ve seen a lot more games playing around with the idea of incorporating music in some unique way, so I was curious to see what this game had come up with.
CGM was fortunate enough to get to sit down with Iridium Studios, who gave us a pretty extensive look at People of Note, and as the saying goes, they had my curiosity, but now they have my attention. It’s a game that looks to be overflowing with charm and creativity, all centred around the idea of using music for nearly everything.
The presentation was led by People of Note’s Creative Director, Jason Wishnov, who spoke excitedly about his past experience in engineering—describing himself as a math nerd—and also his background in voice acting. On top of this, he spoke on the inspirations that went into making People of Note, saying, “I mean, it is a little trite to just say Final Fantasy, but it is Final Fantasy; my all-time favourite series growing up.” He also mentioned games like Chrono Cross and even The World Ends With You, guiding some of the design of the game.
At its core, People of Note is about music. But unlike games like No Straight Roads, Fretless: The Wrath of Riffson, or the upcoming Billy Bustup, it’s incorporated in a way that doesn’t just make it feel like a rhythm game or a video game that features musical numbers. Wishnov describes the game as having three pillars of music: the first is “the musical,” wherein at key plot moments, the game will have full-on “Disney-style” musical numbers.
“I’ve said in the past that RPGs need to have really good battle music, since it’s the thing you’re going to be hearing the most, and People of Note is really hitting it out of the park.”
The second is the combat—and this is where things are the most interesting. Wishnov talked about it a bit during the presentation, but getting to demo People of Note’s combat was something words could not describe. At its core, it works like the standard turn-based combat RPG fans have come to expect, but the music motif has been incorporated both thematically and functionally.
The party essentially functions as a band. Depending on a character’s genre, they’ll utilize different “weapons,” such as guitars, microphones or more. Every turn, or “stanza,” can potentially shift the genre, not only changing the battle music to that theme, but giving any party member who matches the shift a bonus to special attacks. When it’s time to attack, players will need to time their button presses to the rhythm—similar to Fretless: The Wrath of Riffson, for bonus damage.
Even in the brief demo I got to experience, the foundation for something incredibly fun had very clearly been laid. I’ve said in the past that RPGs need to have really good battle music, since it’s the thing you’re going to be hearing the most, and People of Note is really hitting it out of the park. It was hard not to get really into each battle, bobbing my head to the music as it changed from pop to rock—maintaining the motif of the battle music, but shifting it to something cool at a moment’s notice.
“People of Note has a lot of incredible things going for it…”
Which brings us to the third pillar of People of Note’s music…literally everything else. People of Note’s entire world is designed around different musical styles and genres—using them to create whole areas and factions, the same way fantasy RPGs would with elves and dwarves. There’s the Pop-infused city of Lumina, Rock/Metal inspired desert wasteland of Durandis and even a mystical forest known as the Celtic themed Lilting Green.
As Wishnov explains, this runs even deeper throughout the game, by way of musical puns. “We have daboutique dabouda, which blew from the 90s. Your money’s called groove, at some point, someone steals it from you, so you have to go get your groove back. I don’t want to give away the literally hundreds, if not thousands, of things I’ve managed to cram into the game. But if you like puns, you’re going to like the game.”
And a game this deep can only be brought to life through a stellar voice cast, and People of Note certainly has one, from the protagonist: Cadence (voiced by Heather Gonzalez, and sung for by LEXXE), to the hardened rocker Frett (voiced by Jason Charles Miller), to the incredibly talented Debra Wilson, Alex Boniello and Erika Lindbeck—to name a few. “We have so many people, in fact, in People of Note, and I can’t wait for you to meet all of them,” said Wishnov.
People of Note has a lot of incredible things going for it. It’s got solid gameplay mechanics, a beautiful visual style, an absolutely BANGING soundtrack and a really impressive musical hook to tie the whole thing together. My only disappointment with it thus far was that the demo I was given was far too short. It sunk its groovin’ teeth into me, and I want MORE!
People of Note releases April 7, 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
