[Indie Spotlight] Rhythm and Storytelling for your ears | Review - Concerto on White (Demo)
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I was fortunate enough to be able to try out the Android demo for the upcoming Concerto on White, and I was pleasantly impressed by its blend of rhythm-based gaming, musical simulation, and visual novel style storytelling.
📖Story
Concerto on White starts off your character as a newly accepted — rejected rather — applicant of a prestigious musical university. But somehow this decision gets mysteriously overturned and you find yourself still enrolled. It’s our first day, and we meet the professor and his teaching assistant for our first music class. Of course, part of the gameplay is experiencing slice-of-life-esque adventurous campus life in this prestigious music academy, and I’m also seeing traces of date sim elements, especially with the female characters. However, the game isn’t a slice-of-life experience as it may seem, as it plunges the player into an intriguing larger-than-life mystery early on.
📕🎶Gameplay
The gameplay consists of two main ideas blended into one harmonious composition. The school academy life, and actual rhythm game gameplay. The school academy life is where you can attend classes, interact with your schoolmates, and practice music, all presented in a chapter-style visual novel storytelling. Currently, the story is not voice-acted, so you'll need to read the dialogue. The soundbits are amazingly done though and uses each character's special instruments as their dialogues slowly overlay on the screen. The rhythm game segments on the other hand are accessible as also part of the story chapters and during free-play mode.
🕹Controls
The rhythm game mechanics are quite novel in its design and concept. Fun, engaging, and quite relaxing too! Unlike any typical rhythm games, players are required to actually play the melody with the right notes, although the process is still very simplified. On the left side, which looks like a vertical set of Piano keys, you swipe it up and down to align the proper key to the center reticle, and proceed to hit the corresponding colors on the right side that represents the pitch, either blue, green, or red (pressed outside).
This means your left hand is constantly adjusting the keys up and down while your right is hitting the correct notes at the right time. The whole mechanic is quite confusing at the start, and I needed a second run of the tutorials to finally get it. Once it clicks though, it’s as easy as any other rhythm game. I was only able to experience the easier pieces in the demo — so no finger bending songs and difficulties to conquer yet — but so far I have enjoyed the short-lived experience.
🚧Early Access plans
Mastery of the gameplay is important, as it is required to proceed with the story mode. Although I hope they can include a skip or easy mode, for those who’d want to focus on the story only or are having a hard time progressing. This suggestion is likely to be made by many players, especially considering that Concerto on White is scheduled to release on Steam next year in Early Access form. Initially, the game will feature five story chapters, each lasting 10-15 minutes. The long-term plan is to expand it to a total of 21 chapters in the full version.
Concerto on White boasts a partner system where the characters in the game will serve as accompanist when you play depending on the piece, in both the story and the free play mode. They all represent a certain musical instrument and a genre. The Early Access plans to include 3 partners, with 10 being the target for the full version. Each partner will have their own musical pieces that you can play, 20 initially then expanding to 50 upon official release. The game also plans to include an editor for custom pieces, so the total piece number is practically open-ended.
⚖️Conclusion
There’s not much known about the game beyond that, and it’s exciting to see what’s to come, especially with how the story will play out and with more musical pieces to play. Concerto on White promises a captivating fusion of rhythm, storytelling, and musical exploration. It's a game worth keeping an ear on. As the game heads into Early Access on Steam next year, it leaves us eager to discover how this harmonious composition will evolve.
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