PAX East always has its fair share of interesting games/ideas on the show floor. That being said, I always have to check out a cool looking role-playing game, let alone a cool turn-based role-playing game. Let me introduce to you, Fretless, an RPG that puts you into the lead role of a guy named Rob who attacks monsters with a guitar. You’ll have to be on guard to deal with Super Metal Records and win the Battle of the Bands!
Fretless appears to pay homage to the classic NES era of gaming with its 8 bit graphical style. I love the fact that Rob attacks enemies with his guitar. It’s cool to see him swing the guitar all around and do some major damage with a power chord.
Like in most RPG’s, you will be able to explore all over the place but you might not have what you need at the moment to grab a secret. You’ll find all kinds of attacks and defensive moves, called riffs, as you explore. Some attacks build defense by giving you shields and some attacks use said shields for attacking. The demo gave Rob two guitars to use in battle. You have the basic acoustic model and the bass model. You will have to find workbenches to upgrade your battle deck. You will be able to modify your deck with different riffs for battle. You can also find secret riffs strewn about the world in boom boxes that are reminiscent to Legend of Zelda chests. It felt like the bass guitar was stronger but the acoustic guitar had a batter range of attack and defense moves. Did I mention there’s a dog you can pet and find a bone to give to him so bonus points to Fretless for being pro puppy!
There are also special moves, called Crescendos, and these attacks are really cool. You need to build up a meter during battles to unleash them. I recommend saving them for enemies with large amounts of hit points or boss fights. I saved it for a boss fight against Rick Riffson, the vile head of Super Metal Records and it helped out a lot. I love everything about the Crescendo in battle. Think Mario RPG special moves where you have to have perfect button timing to achieve max damage. There’s even a super catchy song playing the whole time too! Rick Riffson even has a special move that you have to dodge. You will have to dodge his Crescendo move by the same way you perform your super move; by pressing buttons at the right time. The only difference is that the better timing you have on Rick’s move, the less damage his move does. That wasn’t super clear but I mentioned that to the devs and they said they might try to make that easier to see during the fight.
Fretless has a lot of heart and soul but into and it really shows. There are all kinds of things you can do in your journey and you can play the way you want to. If you want a high attack guitar set up, you can do that. If you’d rather use the bass guitar and go ham on enemies that way, you have that right. Isn’t that what music is all about, having the freedom to play your way?
It’s great to see fun, turn-based RPG’s and I’m so looking forward to Fretless when it releases!