In musical theater, sequels are few and far between, and when they do exist they usually aren\u2019t very good. For example, you\u2019ve probably heard of Phantom of the Opera<\/em>, the massively successful show from Andrew Lloyd Webber, but you probably don\u2019t know anything about its sequel, Love Never Dies<\/em><\/a><\/span>. There\u2019s a reason for that\u2014it kind of sucks! So when 2023\u2019s <\/em>Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical<\/em><\/a><\/span> dared to test its luck with the release of the Orpheus <\/em>DLC<\/a><\/span>\u2014set after the base game\u2019s conclusion\u2014I was surprised to say the least. What shocked me, however, is just how much better than the original release Stray Gods: Orpheus<\/em> manages to be.<\/p>\n Upon its release last year, I found Stray Gods<\/em> to be an extremely tedious and messy game that failed in almost every way to fulfill its goal of melding RPGs with musical theater. In my review<\/a><\/span>, I wrote that the game \u201cnever understands the intricacies of how musicals tell their stories,\u201d and that it gave \u201cthe impression that while the team had a passion for the idea of a roleplaying musical, nobody had the necessary skill set to execute it.\u201d Much of this fell on the star-studded cast\u2014made up of voice acting heavyweights like Laura Bailey<\/a><\/span> and Troy Baker<\/a><\/span>\u2014who may be able to act but can\u2019t convince the audience that they can sing, not that they were given good material to work with. To the credit of developer Summerfall Studios, Orpheus <\/em>pares down the base game\u2019s lofty ambitions and feels like an attempt to address all of its pain points to make something better.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/figure>\n Following the conclusion of Stray Gods<\/em>, which follows the Greek gods in a modern-day world where they all sing like professional pop stars, Orpheus <\/em>picks up on the loose threads of its titular bard. When we last saw Orpheus, he was alone in the underworld, brooding by himself. The DLC gives him a chance to go back to the land of the living, which sends him into a bit of an existential crisis about what he is doing with his life. What follows is a brisk one-and-a-half hour character study. If you played the base game, you may be shocked that Orpheus gets top billing in the DLC, but it is the best decision Summerfall could have made.<\/p>\nHaving the perfect lead goes a long way<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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