No Straight Roads: Encore Edition Reviews

nah this fucking sucks I thought it was gonna be filling my craving for hi-fi rush but instead this makes ur dick limp playing instead its boring the music sucks the artstyle is fine, for a game about reviving rock music surprisingly not much rock involved, the boss fights are also fucking jank and uninspiring hella boring, 2/10 never playing again.

well it did scratch the hi-fi rush itch. if like hi-fi and want more get game

I will use this review to tell my experience with this game as a whole as I followed it for quite some time. This game has you playing as Bunk Bed Junction a rock group who wants to start a rock revolution after. NSR the game's main antagonist bans rock music in favor of EDM. Setting out to take them out for good you go on a musical boss rush to restore rock to the city. [h1]Soundtrack[/h1] By far the best part about the game is it's soundtrack, it is crazy good and honestly one I find myself listening to outside of the game itself. Each song has and EDM and Rock version that both have their own merits and strengths, It is a rhythm game after all and what is a rhythm game without it's soundtrack. You will find plenty of other reviews praising it for the music and this one will be no different [h1]Game-play[/h1] Playing along to the beat is tied to the gameplay, but not so much that it prevents you from playing out of tune, you just might not get the most out of it if you do. Sadly this game is a bit clunky and some fights may seem impossible to keep up with what timings you need to use for certain attacks, I would say the game is a bit held back by it's controls as they are simple and don't allow to much expression. However given that it is a shorter game it serves well enough for a fun time. [h1]Graphics/Style[/h1] The characters are where this game shines aside from the music, I hope we see them again in a future title. Each one has a well thought out theme and songs to go with them you will be sure to have a favorite by the end and the little lore bits you get along the way help flesh them out well. I give it a perfect score for backgrounds and spectacle and I want another game featuring it [h1]Completion/100%[/h1] It took me around 22 hours to 100% the game completely, and would take a lot less to beat it without hunting the achievements, there is one or two that might give you some trouble, only because the game-play can be a bit stiff at times. I would say it's a great game to play once, and if you are feeling funky and want to tackle the extra challenge it can be worth the little extra time too. [h1]Verdict[/h1] It is overall a very short game as you can see by my playtime, it's sort of a bosh rush and the fights don't go on for very long. If you can get it on sale I highly recommend it as I think most will have a great time playing through it. even at it's base price-point it isn't outlandishly over priced, if you want a fun little rhythm game with a great OST this is a must buy. I hope we see more from the devs, as you can tell they put a lot of heart into this one.

[h1] If you want to clear your mind and have fun with a good music - that game is all you want! [/h1] That's game is not about [i] storyboard [/i], that's game about a great friendship, also you can play together with your friend, good advantage. Awesome and catching music [strike] (still listening DJ West encounters on a work lol) [/strike], challenging, cool characters design... it's feel like a old cartoon which everyone like in childhood. But... a big minus - no screen spliting. It's really hard to play with friend in it, you barely can see your characters on a screen, especially when someone walk too far. This game is worth your attention.

I feel like I don't have much more to say about NSR than a very long and also well put together review before me, but I do want to at least pitch in. I saw this game on YouTube initially and watched through all the boss fights, which you think would make me less interested in playing the game as I spoiled myself. But it actually made me want to play it mainly to see what was BETWEEN all the boss fights. Sadly, my expectations were not met in this regard. Starting the game off, I thought that the robot enemies in the Arena Tutorial were simply tutorial enemies as their design screamed "generic, but trying to get the point across". Then I saw them appear in Sayu's stage which at least made sense as you were essentially in a virtual world, and the concept of LITERALLY breaking firewalls by smashing through these gates made sense thematically for her SPECIFICALLY. Then they were used again, and again, and again, for each bosses prelude, you might call it. And this was very dissapointing. In addition the actual core mechanic of parrying and being in sync with the music was incredibly off, despite the proclamations from the game that this was a part of the WORLD itself. It just baffled me, the use of the same Gate design felt so out of place in every boss besides Sayu, I was expecting Eve to at least be crashing through fancy doors (same for Yinu), but that was not the case. DK West's songs felt completely cringeworthy lyric-wise and mechanic wise. It was incredibly easy to win despite hitting so many obstacles, and Zuke's line delivery sometimes just being talking more than singing was, again, not pleasant to the ears. Somehow the actual navigation between sections in the sewer hub was not intuitive at all with the directional keys. The skill tree also seems a little like an afterthought (again, if there was just MORE to the game, like more levels with more variety of enemies and rewards, perhaps levels that are in between the boss fights but not a straight-up lead-in to the boss fights, to allow for more Fan Acruing to progress through the skill tree, I think it would have worked well in that sense). The fight against Tatiana was somehow the MOST repetitive and felt like it had the LEAST variety of attacks (I understand that she does not really have extremely unique phases because she is the most human-looking of them all, so whereas Yinus mom transforms. or DJ Sub grows large, or Sayu changing forms, etc... it wouldnt make much sense for Tatiana to fully transform), and the ending with the Satellite and basically doing the same thing 5 times over (dodge asteroids, fight robots, cutscene of artist taking over the district, repeat), was a horrible attempt at trying to give the player a Last Hoorah (al-a HL2's Super Gravity Gun ending to the game). Despite all the negative points, as many have said before, this is a game I SO desperately WANTED to like and enjoy, and I LOVE the music and character design and lore and hidden things to find and origins of the artists, the voice casting is excellent, but the game ITSELF, the actual PLAYING of the game itself, is subpar. It's basically like a 5 layered cake with frosting that looks super fancy, but is just the kind of frosting you can easily decorate with but tastes like nothing, with no kind of filling whatsoever. There isn't even a cherry on top. I cannot in good faith reccomend this game.

At first glance, this game looked so cute, fun and playful. I was really excited to give it a shot...And then the game play and story started to go off and then I stopped enjoying myself. First, the game play, the only real plus of it and that's not saying much. It feels like someone's first game with the strange level designs, pacing and the controls feel a bit unresponsive. Though it is two player, and if you play single player it is fun to swap between Mayday and Zuke and the different game play designs are unique. The very beginning of the game had a lot of promise...Buuut, that was about it, honestly. The music's alright, though despite it being a story about rockers, you barely ever hear any rock music. And the story feels so...hateful. You play as two rockers, trying to bring Rock back to a world that is populated by Electric Dance Music, or EDM for short. The characters seem so patronizing and egotistical, which is a MASSIVE downside for me. Considering that it would actually make a bit more sense if the roles were reversed, which it feels like they are in this game in the worst way! Then we get into the controls and beat of the game...which is a colossal problem when the beat of the game doesn't match that of the music OR the controls. Add in kinda floaty and unresponsive button promps and weird maneuvers with rules that are not explained very well at all, and you got a disaster waiting to happen. This game isn't for me, personally. And while I played it, I don't think I could recommend anyone this game either. It's depressing to say, but no straight roads ended up having a lot of dead ends. I'mma hit it with a 3/10

This game is SO fun!!! The characters are so well designed and colourful, music is integrated so well into the gameplay, and the story and writing are so much fun. The game controls like a dream too, which is great because the boss fights can get pretty challenging. Definitely a game I'm going to be picking up and replaying over and over again! HIGHLY recommend this one.

I still recommend this game if it seems interesting to you or if you heard the music elsewhere and enjoyed it. It's a sweet short adventure with simple story and great music. However, the rest of my review will be critical. Gameplaywise, NSR tries to be a Devil May Rhythm Souls Heaven. However, the attacks feel clunky, Zuke's chain or combo system is unintuitive, and his attacks feel unimpactful, while using finishers as May is weird to control, requiring you to press a button with a small delay after your original combo. While enemies attacking in tact with music is a cool idea, in practice it only works 50% of the time, with some enemies and attacks being clear and interesting, and others coming out of nowhere. Camera doesn't help either - enemies sometimes attack you out of nowhere, and this especially goes for boss arena attacks, and double for last battle, where not seeing the enemy because camera didn't turn to face the boss causes you not to know that there is a new attack that you can parry. Some of the bosses were over before I even knew it. 1010 in particular has a very weird attack, where a parryable attack follows immediately after normal, but you don't know from where, so you have to fish for it if you want to try it. In a way, it's much easier to just use transformable guns instead of trying to attack bosses directly, which, in my opinion, is detrimental to the identity of the gameplay. Also, having time as a part of score is somewhat weird. In the end, I have no desire to replay the levels and get better, as I didn't feel like mistakes were truly mine. I like the artstyle, but I feel like it's slightly overdone. Bulky limbs and simplistic colors look weird when combined with more detailed textures (such as bruises). This artstyle works in gameplay and dialogue portraits, but not as much in cutscenes. It reminds me a lot of Sonic Riders, which had the exact same stylistic distinction and exactly the same problems. I feel like some of the boss characters are overdesigned, having one too many ideas or elements, but that's not a huge deal. The game looks good, but then you have background characters just being empty, almost untextured templates, which look out of place. Outside of that, the game looks good. Story is very, very simple, which is not a bad thing, but the game tries to combine it with elements of political messaging, which are sticking out like a sore thumb. However, game never really pushes down on them, which, despite making them not as irritating, makes them stick out even more. I also didn't really like the motivation of some characters, as it, once again, is very flat and played way too straight. This goes double for all of the relationship discussions - they are very much on the nose, without anything interesting. To summarize, it's an ok game, but should be considered with a lowered expectations. The game doesn't know what it wants to be story and gameplay-wise, but has some interesting ideas that are worth checking out for yourself.

Time bugged because of playing offline on Steamdeck, actual playtime 33 hours. A fun, charming, and lovingly crafted game with a great soundtrack and a few quirks which hold gameplay back a little but not enough to ruin the experience.

Extremely underrated game. The art and message of this game is wonderful and inspiring to a fellow musician. I used to listen to the OST for 3 years before purchasing this game and I continue to listen even after completing the main story. The replay value of this game is great considering the different modes. The only downsides of this game is that I've encountered a few buggy animations and sequences as well as the gameplay leans more towards hack and slash rather than what I expected for a game that revolves heavily around music, but this doesn't bar me from recommending this game or enjoying the game in general. Thank you Metronomik and the artists (visual, vocal and musical) for providing this lovely experience. I even bought an Eve plushie :)