No Straight Roads
PC, PS4
Hazmer describes it as more of “a rhythm-centric action game” than a rhythm game
Sometimes you’ve just got to march to the beat of your own drum. Such is the case for Metronomik co-founders (and cousins) Wan Hazmer and Daim Dziauddin. Hazmer was one of the lead game designers on Final Fantasy XV; Dziauddin worked as a character concept artist for Street Fighter V. They’d always talked about setting up a studio together and, inspired by his weekly trips to Japanese arcades, Hazmer was keen to experiment with the kinds of parts that music could play in games. “It just seems that music has only two roles in games,” he says. “Either it’s a soundtrack or it’s a rhythm game. I’d like to explore those limitations: for players to play music games without being limited by the motor skills required.”
The result is Malaysian indie studio Metronomik – and its first game, No Straight
Roads, in which you play as a two-piece band who use their musical talents to take down an evil EDM empire. Hazmer describes it as more of “a rhythm-centric action game” than a rhythm game: while the first section feels familiar, as we jog down a linear corridor and musical notes fly towards us, it opens out into a stage upon which a diminutive pianist – backed up by her overbearing and slightly demonic mother – plays.
There’s no punishment for not hitting a certain note. Instead, things play out in a manner similar to bullet-hell action games such as Nier: Automata or Furi. We dodge some musical note obstacles, hit others, and parry the occasional fast-moving purple one before seizing upon an opportunity to dash in and deal some damage. The difference between guitarist Mayday and drummer Zuke is largely negligible, for now: although each character’s moveset will evolve in its own unique way in the final game, they currently both wield a similar three-hit melee combo.
But the ability to transform stage props into useful tools reveals some divergence: Mayday’s is offensive, conjuring up turrets, while Zuke’s is more defensive, summoning fans that suck up obstacles and convert them into ammo for ranged attacks. Switching between the two characters means we can constantly tweak and upkeep the balance of our utilities, and while this demo boss isn’t particularly challenging, we can see how this
light tactical layer could offer multiple approaches to more complex battles.
Good rhythm games are often about the satisfaction of pulling off feats of dexterity: if No Straight Roads’ more accessible approach to the genre is to be successful, it’ll have to inspire the same feeling through different mechanics. And, as the stage morphs into new forms around us, we continue to feel the effects of these alternate dopamine delivery devices. Once we figure out how certain boss attacks sync up to the beat, we’re able to kite falling bombs away from us, and hop over damaging ground-pounds with perfect timing. It comes as no surprise, then, to hear that Dark Souls III was a key influence – not in terms of difficulty, but in the rhythms that players must identify and lock into. So, too, was its approach to storytelling. “There are minimal cutscenes, but there are certain boss fights where it creates an atmosphere where you’re like, ‘Wow, what is the story behind this?’” Dziauddin says, pointing to the Abyss Watchers as one of his favourite examples. “That seamless flow between gameplay and story, that’s what excites me.”
Indeed, that was his personal reason for wanting to co-found his own studio, and begin work on No Straight Roads. “I feel like we have barely tapped storytelling in games. It’s nobody’s fault, but I think most of us are hardwired into thinking that story in games should be cinematic, like a movie.” For him, this is an opportunity to join the boundarypushing indie scene he so admires. “We want to make a story that can only be experienced through a game. And this touches on a lot of themes: it’s about being an artist, it’s about what is fame to you, and all that stuff. So every character, every boss – not just the heroes – all of them have their own reason to play music.” Metronomik’s own reasons for doing so are compelling: this is a game, and studio, making all the right noises.