Music brings joy to the masses, helps people through the toughest times, and just generally is a massive force of good in this world. It’s just never been particularly important to me though, despite many attempts to get me into music from friends and family growing up. After years of pretending I cared about bands like Nirvana and AC/DC just to fit in, I finally realised that I was happier listening to podcasts and pretty much ignoring this art form outside of Karaoke sessions and nights tearing up the dance floors of the North West. The reason it’s important that you know about this weird quirk is because of how impressive it makes Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson, which is an RPG love letter to rock music and guitar YouTubers which I have fallen madly in love with.
In Fretless you play as Rob Scallon, who in the real world uploads incredibly cool music based videos online for the masses. In this world though Rob is an up and coming musician trying to help make the messed up world he lives in a better place. Thanks to the corporate overlords at Super Metal Records, the best artists are being drained of their talent quite literally. Using this musical energy their CEO has created evil instrument based monsters and unleashed them across the land, and only by winning The Battle of the Bands will you be able to stop him. Especially for an RPG, Fretless is actually rather light on the story, but that just allows its combat to take centre stage.
Fights against the various tuneful terrors of this world are turn-based affairs, and involve you using riffs. Each turn you can use three riffs from the five in your hand, and these can deal damage, block incoming attacks, and much much more. Once you’ve selected your riffs Rob will start shredding on his guitar to take down the enemy, and each attack you’ve chosen can be boosted by hitting the A button at the right time. You can similarly reduce the damage taken from enemy attacks by blocking at the right time. By blending the strategy of Slay the Spire with the compelling timing elements of the Mario RPGs, Fretless has created some of the best battle systems in recent memory – and I don’t say that lightly.
For the first few battles of the game I was blown away by this combat, and before I even had a chance to breathe Fretless was throwing new combat options my way. To prepare for battle you’ll need to select the riffs you want in your deck, and with only sixteen slots to fill will soon become an issue. There are so many clever build options you’ll be able to experiment with, especially when new weapons get added into the mix.
The basic acoustic guitar Rob uses is more than adequate for performing soulful ballads and killing bloodthirsty trumpets, but some will find it a little bit simple. Thankfully there are three other weapons you’ll be given on your adventure, with completely different powers to take advantage of. Bassists will love building up “Slap” to boost future attacks to ludicrous levels, but the moment I was presented with the rainbow lights of the Synthesiser I knew I found the instrument for me. With riffs focused on stacking brutal status effects on enemies I was able to destroy everything that dared to delay my Battle of the Bands appearance, and I had a blast doing so.
Above all else though, it’s the special attacks in Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson that really steal the show. Once you’ve built up the energy to unleash these, you’ll be thrown into a Guitar Hero style rhythm mini game to help calculate your damage, and it always feels badass to shred your foes to shreds.
For those more interested in shaping Rob into the most powerful protagonist possible there’s all sorts of gear in Fretless to play around with. Pedals provide passive boosts that when combined with the right deck will ensure you’re unstoppable, and you can also customise your instruments with extra parts (tuners, strings, all sorts) to improve them too. For an eight hour RPG there is so much more depth here than is reasonably required, but that’s absolutely what makes the game so special.
Some RPG fans will start to get worried when hearing about the runtime of Fretless, but its shorter than average length (around eight hours in my experience) just ensures that the clever ideas it has are positively overflowing. Even outside of combat you’ll be presented with everything from trading sequences to stealth sections on your adventure, and the sheer variety of the game blew me away.
For others though it’ll be the music themed world that delights the most in Fretless. The environments you’ll journey through are so alive with musical elements, and because of this it’s a joy to explore every new area. With flowers chiming beautifully as you brush past them, it’s hard not to smile as you wander from your home village to Dropdee Beach and other cleverly named locations.
As you’d expect from a game featuring a plethora of guitar gods, the music in Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson is just sublime. It’s much more varied than I was expecting too, with plenty of calmer themes and funkier beats for those less rock inclined. In battle especially the music fits so well, and timing your attacks to the beats of this soundtrack just feels fantastic.
There was one aspect of Fretless that worried me more than anything else, and that was the fact it somewhat sold itself as the guitar YouTuber game. I was worried that tons of online personalities were going to talk about music and I’d be lost along the wayside, and that didn’t happen at all. In fact until our lovely Editor-in-Chief mentioned that there were real life musicians in this game, I just assumed everyone was a fictional character.
I still can’t quite believe how much I love Fretless, but that doesn’t mean it’s without issues. The most noticeable of these is how fast you’re given new weapons and riffs, which is just overwhelming. It’s cool to have so many combat options early in the game, but I often found I avoided new weapons and attacks because I just didn’t feel ready to experiment with something new yet. The only other issue that I struggled with throughout the game was the lack of guidance it gave me, which led to me spending far too many minutes wandering around locations looking for the way to progress.
Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson is one of the best RPGs you’ll play this year, and it won’t steal months of your life thanks to its short but sweet runtime. With so many ideas, plenty of depth, and so much musical charm, Fretless is a game that you simply must play even if you’re a podcast preferer like me.
