Music Week: Music as escape in A Musical Story Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Music Week: Music as escape in A Musical Story Play the demo on the 19th. Feature by Christian Donlan Features Editor Updated on 15 Mar 2021 1 comment What better game to look at during Music Week than a narrative rhythm action adventure? Look at that font. 70s poster font. Gig font. A font with flares. Lurid and a bit goofy, it tells you so much about the game. More, even, than the title: A Musical Story. No, that's probably not fair. A Musical Story is a musical story. A musician lies in a hospital bed with no memories. So you use music to recreate them. It's a narrative rhythm action game and it's already pretty special. A Musical Story Developer: Glee-Cheese Studio Producer: Digerati Availability: Out summer on PC, iOS, Xbox One and Switch, Steam demo on 19th March The heart-rate monitor is the ultimate baseline. When it appears on screen at first, I find myself pushing buttons in time to it before I've even been told to, before there are prompts. From there, a game builds: a piece of music plays and you match the button presses that appear on screen, using just the right and left bumpers. Right, left, both, sustain. It's simple but you get a lot out of it. Watch on YouTube And a story starts to emerge, one drop at a time. A dream of being in a band. A soul-sapping job at a bean canning factory. Nights in front of the dead TV with a joint and angry dreams of the bean company mascot intruding. Match the music - drums one second, distorted guitar the next. Pink Floyd vibes, a touch of Santana, lumpy, looping prog. Things start to come together. A competition flyer, the chance to be the best band out there. A road trip beckons and a van needs restoring. All of this told with gorgeously simple art, indie comics art, vibrant colours and lots of darkness. Headbands, brows furrowed in concentration, the music dominating. Where's it all going? I can't wait to follow, anyway. In A Musical Story, music is both an escape and, I suspect, a cure. A demo will hit Steam on the 19th giving you the first ten chapters. The game itself will follow in the summer. Can't wait. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More Features Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Feature What games get wrong about horses And what they could do about it. 28 Feature Shout out to all the Overwatch supports - where would we be without you? Merci. 55 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 3 Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Genshin Impact Path of Gleaming Jade dates, login event rewards Including other anniversary rewards and how to claim them. Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store