REVIEW: ‘People of Note’ Is A Musical RPG That Belongs On Your Best of 2026 Shortlist

Great RPGs tend to go hand-in-hand with great music. People of Note, by Iridium Studios and Annapurna Interactive, goes one step further, making a musical into a turn-based RPG. Yet they take this idea and take it even further. Iridium Studios has made a game that tries to encompass as many musical genres as possible, creating a mash-up of sound, gameplay, and character that is simple yet wholly unique.

People of Note‘s story starts off like many musicals, with the main character having a dream. Cadence, a pop singer, wants to win her city’s annual competition, Noteworthy. Winning it will bring her fame, fortune, and the recognition she believes she wholly deserves.

However, the consistent winners, a boy band group, are pushed hard by Councilmember Sharp. After barely eeking her way into the finals, Cadence goes on a journey all around Note to recruit new bandmates to create a sound that nobody has heard before, as that may be her best shot to take home the win.

People of Note gives every genre of music a time to shine. 

What’s fun about People of Note‘s story is that it’s not too complicated. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously. The whole idea of a society whose entire basis is music and music-adjacent items is outlandish. Even then, like music, it does find time to tackle some serious topics.

For instance, favoritism, industry plants, drug usage, imposter syndrome, and how music sometimes divides us. The societies of Note are almost akin to today’s internet culture. Especially in how it tries to show time and again how people will silo themselves into only interacting with like-minded individuals without a care, or borderline aggression, to those who disagree with our views on life. 

Even then, the story itself is free-standing and at times quite personal. Especially when it comes to Cadence and her adventures through Note. But what makes it even more entertaining is how the story repeatedly incorporates genres that could just as easily be forgotten in a modern Western RPG. Like K-pop, Country, folk, and even classical music are all represented in People of Note. They also each have their time to shine. And boy, do they shine. 

While the dialogue and voice acting are stellar, what sets this game apart as an early favorite RPG of 2026 is its music video segments. Just about every genre you interact with has its time to shine. Whether it be with an explorable location themed around that genre, as well as a fully animated music video sung by the key representative of that genre, shown in the game.

The music videos help put People of Note on the best RPGs of 2026 shortlist.

There are so many of these moments, and each one will bring a smile to the face. One that stands out the most is the Country music video. It’s full of many of the country music tropes, but fit into the world of Note. Like eagle screeches, fireworks, camping, and good ole’ hunting. 

The biggest standouts of the story are how each of the four characters that eventually make up the band has their own time to shine as well. Cadence, Fret, Synthia, and Vox, each representing Pop, Rock, EDM, and Rap, come across as very different from one another.

Yet it’s when they find how their music meshes that they grow as a band and a team. Thankfully, all of the music you hear rocks. From the battle music to the songs that play for each music video, they’re all quite catchy and unique. 

They each have their own issues, and they grow throughout the game into better versions of themselves. Granted, a lot of the growth acts similarly to Broadway musicals, where the fixes seem sudden. But being portrayed as a playable musical/concert makes the story’s ease much more palatable.

Similarly, the game’s villains and their motivations are just as, if not more, shallow. Even the twists aren’t all that surprising when you pay attention or are familiar with how musicals portray their villains from the start. Whether it be as allies-turned-villains, or mysterious figures who are antagonistic at first but get worse over the course of the story.

The gameplay, as a turn-based RPG and explorable world, works well to build on how deeply music fits into every facet of life. From punny attack names based on famous lines or song names, to even punny yet fitting names for the instrument-based creatures you face, each is all inspired by music. It all, along with the story, shows how much Iridium Studios loves music and the music industry. 

However, the combat isn’t all too complicated. The shorter playtime of People of Note doesn’t really give the game time to make its own mark on the turn-based RPG genre, but it does do well by taking mechanics from famous RPGs and fitting them into this one game. Like the combination attacks from Super Mario RPG, or the attack timeline from the likes of Final Fantasy X. Each item has its musical twist, however. 

Like an entire round of combat is a stanza, you change the rhythm to increase the number of attacks your party can do in a round vs lowering your opponent’s number of attacks. It’s all like a music battle. Actions and reactions. Set-ups and executions. You’re able to see what the opponent is about to execute, and with the right strategies, you can punish them or reduce the impact of their abilities to dole out more damage to them on the next turn. 

However, the complexity of the combat is akin to the activity and reactivity of the heat of the battle. Failing in a boss fight isn’t a negative. Losing takes you to right before the boss was engaged. Even multi-stage bosses, you’ll just be brought right back to the phase you lost.

Yet it’s how you experiment and react to what you now know that the boss will do that you learn more about how to optimize your abilities. With songstones and modular stones, you can change each character’s attacks, amplify them, make them cost less to cast, or even make them AOE abilities. 

From combat to setting, People of Note is firing on all cylinders. 

Similar to the story, the bosses may be stellar looking and intense, but each is fairly repetitive. Every boss has an AoE attack, an ability to nerf a part of your stanza, a general basic attack, and, normally, a big attack you need to prepare for. Each boss is also a race against time.

Good strategy isn’t the only way to win. As the boss fight goes on, a crescendo gauge fills. As it hits higher levels, the boss will get new attacks, and all of their attacks will be stronger. It’s not like the normal phases of a boss fight, which are all timing-based. Usually, this boost happens about every five turns. 

Some bosses even have multiple enemies you’re going up against. And that same experimentation of strategy also applies to who you may want to take out first. Maybe one foe is a better target to remove sooner, as if they reach their third crescendo, they may be much harder to deal with at that point. With all this testing and reactivity, basic combat becomes elevated, perfect for player expression and creativity to make everything come together to get you the win. 

Even then, there are a lot of accessibility options to make the combat even more approachable or difficult, whatever fits your fancy. Combat and puzzles can even just be taken out of the equation entirely if you just want to experience the story. However, some of the more complex parts of combat, the timing-based actions for attacking, can also be easier or removed entirely.

Iridium Studios’ People of Note is a unique take on the turn-based RPG genre.

To build on this, attacks and healing abilities normally have a range of damage. Doing poorly, you’re going to do the low end of that range. Doing better when hitting all the notes of whatever action you perform will get you the max amount of damage/healing. Removing the timing aspect of combat just has you deal a base number of healing/damage. Doing so takes it all down to more of a mathematical game of numbers (which is done for its discoverable challenge puzzle battles). 

What makes the whole idea of combat even more fun is how the game approaches non-scripted fights. In many of the explorable areas, there are some enemies highlighted in red that must be fought to progress. Outside of that, you can start a “random” battle whenever you want with just the push of a button. This makes level and resource farming so much more approachable as it’s all at your convenience. Die to a boss and feel weak? Just spam a couple of fights to get a level or two, or more AP to level up abilities to get stronger. 

Yet there is a great touch to the turn-based combat. Every stanza, one of the musical genres will be empowered (or when you execute a mash-up attack, the genres involved will all be empowered). When this happens, the entire battle music evolves, focusing on that genre. If pop is amplified, then the battle music changes to sound more poppy. When multiple are active at once, they come together for an even rockier soundtrack. 

Similarly, these open battles are a great way to get an area-specific record to buy gear from that area’s vendor. Every explorable zone has its own specific vendor that sells some good upgrade equipment, armor, and even songstones. Some of these vendors have the most powerful stuff in the game, too, to help you on Cadence’s journey. 

In People of Note, music is how we all connect, even if tastes can divide.

The final piece of the puzzle is literally the puzzle. Each area and chapter of the game will have puzzle sections. Some of these are quite challenging and really make you think about how any reaction to what you influence in the world may be needed to find the solution. 

People of Note does a good job in making the open area puzzles gradually increase in difficulty, and even delivers a final, highly challenging version at the very end of the game. There are even some optional ones that feel like callbacks to some famous RPG puzzles, like one in particular that acts very similarly to the Besaid Cloister of Trials from Final Fantasy X. 

Again, if puzzles aren’t your thing, you can change an option to make them not applicable to your playthrough if you’d like. Which really is the theme of the whole game. Like making a playlist for whatever you’re about to do, you can take out or add in any song to make the experience your own. For an adventure about being your best self and finding your real dreams, the developers spreading that message through every facet of the game is kind of beautiful. 

People of Note is a great mash-up of the people behind music. Music may have divided the people of Note, yet it also slowly brings them all together for a brighter, more rockin’ future. Simple yet deep combat systems, fun areas to explore, challenging fights, and wonderful music video segments all somehow mesh together to make the world of Note feel alive. You’ll find yourself grinning ear to ear at every step of the way, even when the story can be overly simplistic at times. If you are a fan of music in any way, People of Note is the game that’s for you. 

People of Note is available now on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.