Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson

If there has been one constant in my life, it has been music. It has been there with me through the amazing times, but mostly it has dragged me through the worst. Despite my love for the medium, I cannot play a single instrument, so when a video game comes along that allows me to fulfil that fantasy, I will always grab that chance with both hands. Enter Ritual Studios’ Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson, a game that takes my love for indie and rock music and allows me to harness the power of legendary instruments in order to save the land from the evil Rick Riffson.

In this turn-based RPG, you play as Rob, an amateur musician who decides to join Super Metal Records’ Battle of the Bands contest, a competition that’s secretly a ruse to trap the best musicians in the world with deceptive soul-binding contracts. Luckily, you are warned in advance, and you set out on a quest to use the contest to change things for the better. It won’t be easy though: when Super Metal Records finds out about your plans, they make it nigh on impossible for you to even make it to the battle of the bands.

On your journey to the competition, you encounter monster-instrument hybrids and evil goons working for Super Metal Records. They will do everything in their power to stop you from making it all the way to the Battle of the Bands, mostly by using their musical powers. Luckily, you have your own arsenal of instruments to take them on, ranging from an acoustic guitar all the way to electronic gear. Along the way, you collect riffs that you can play, giving your music the ability to fight back.

Combat is turn-based, with you able to play up to three riffs per round, ranging from attacks to applying status effects, or even increasing your own defence. You also have a crescendo that you can build up, which will allow you to unleash the full power of your instrument of choice upon your enemies. These crescendos play like your typical rhythm game fare, with you entering the correct button prompt at the right time.

These battles are easily the highlight of Fretless, with their awesome music and colourful visuals. You even have the chance to increase your attacking damage – or defensive prowess – by pressing A right on the rhythm during your attack. It’s a neat little addition that really makes this game stand out and amplifies its musical influences. Attacks also carry over, so if you damage an enemy enough to kill them, the rest of the damage will be taken by another member of their team, which I thought was an inspired choice.

Losing a battle isn’t too frustrating either. You just get put back into the world of the game right before where your fight started, so it doesn’t do the roguelike thing of having to start all over. Even if you lose to a boss, you don’t have to sit through the entire pre-battle cut scene again, as you can simply choose to skip it. A tiny bit of frustration did creep in at the increase in difficulty between the regular fights and the boss battles, though. While I could easily beat all of the monsters and goons before me, bosses could feel slightly impossible at first. It’s not a bad thing to have difficult bosses, but maybe the contrast between them and the regular enemies could have been a bit less.

To boost your combat prowess, you can collect items which you can use to upgrade your setup. These range from pedals that give you certain effects to items that boost your existing riffs to collecting completely new riffs that you can switch in place of your existing riffs. The game kind of feels like a deck-builder in that way, with you picking and choosing which riffs to prioritise.

The whole world of the game is just lovely too, with everything infused by music. The items you collect all have musical significance, but it’s smaller touches as well, like flowers making plucking noises when you run through them or spiders sliding up their webs making this kind of screeching sound. It’s clear that the developers simply adore music and wanted to make an ode to how much music betters our time on this Earth.

The pixel art is fantastic as well, with people’s faces being very expressive. There was one boss who had threatened us to leave them alone, but when I did find their final hiding place, they just squinted their eyes in frustration. It’s little touches like these that elevate Fretless into the upper echelons of indie game releases for 2025. The story never feels forced, as the events that take place make sense considering every character’s personal goals and ambitions. It’s funny too, with dialogue regularly having me chuckling out loud.

But the real star of the show, unsurprisingly, is the music itself. When you’re wandering through this world, the game’s music is fun to listen to, but during combat it evolves into a different kind of beast. My favourite thing in the whole game is that your combat music will depend on which instrument you’re playing at that moment. Guitar riffs become epic, synth waves make me nostalgic for the eighties – and early 2000s indie – and the bass just slaps so hard. You’ll quickly have favourites of your own, and I can’t wait for this game’s soundtrack to release. I might just have to pick up the vinyl release…

Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson definitely feels like a love letter to music in general, whether it’s the giant devil horns bursting out of a lake or the epic musical battles you engage in. Rob is a loveable character who gets in way over his head very quickly, but he’s backed up by wonderful music-loving friends all over the place. The game will take you to surprising places, but you’ll have a blast with every one of them.