Athenian Rhapsody (PC) Review

What does it mean when a game looks incredibly similar to an indie title with a cult following? Does it make it a knockoff? A carbon copy? A love letter to source material? I know many folks asked themselves about the uniqueness of Palworld when it came out, despite it being a Pokemon meets Fortnite meets gun game. Regardless of choice, there’s much to be said about originality when new games emerge from the woodwork and very clearly contain the essence of indie darlings.

Athenian Rhapsody looks dangerously similar to Toby Fox’s Undertale and Deltarune. When I first began playing, there was a part of me that wondered if I would be tested with choices of pacifism and genocide, silly writing, fourth-wall breaking thematic, and an incredibly catchy soundtrack. A quick Google search yielded many Undertale-inspired fangames, like Undertale Yellow and DELTATRAVELER (both of which are free, by the way). Why would a player want to pay for another EarthBound-like when we already have free versions and Deltarune’s final chapters hopefully releasing while we are all still alive?

Here’s the thing: In no way does Athenian Rhapsody attempt to describe itself as the next Undertale. It’s not attempting to compete with Toby Fox or Looking past the core mechanics of defeating/befriending enemies and EarthBound-like RPG gameplay loop, it boasts harder battles and a greater importance on friendships beyond Deltarune’s party/ally system. You can somehow catch IBS and sniff rocks, too. THANKS, THUNDER GOOBER! WE LOVE THUNDER GOOBER! It’s wonderfully, oh so delightfully, unhinged in all the right ways.

The key difference pushing Athenian Rhapsody away from its source material is its Rhapsody system – a glorified save system that allows the player to trade their save files with their friends like trading cards to compare their progress, differences in choices, and possibly delete their progress altogether. You thought you had agency in the RPG by simply befriending/killing enemies? Now you can test your IRL friendships by sharing your save files to see if your friends are just as genocidal as you, you bloodthirsty cornball.

The Rhapsody system is a novel idea, albeit one that is incredibly brave to implement. Athenian Rhapsody is a game of many decisions and branching paths, meaning that it would be VERY difficult to have the exact same playthrough as another player unless you both decided to do the exact same things side-by-side. The issue is that you have to finish the game before you can share your Rhapsodies, so it ends up being a test of commitment over all else.

I don’t mean to knock Nico Papalia’s idea when I say this, but I fear that not enough players will appreciate the nuances of the Rhapsody system given that it bears fruit once the player has finished the game. I say this because way too many players (myself included) have massive backlogs of games, some of which we’ve played for a handful of hours before moving onto the next. Some RPGs take over 50 hours to complete, meaning that the critical mass of those who purchase the game won’t make it to the final boss that is most likely attempting to replace God herself.

That said, I remain firm in saying that it’s a bold idea to let players share their Rhapsodies with other players after the fact as a way of memorializing playthroughs. The few of my friends who completed Undertale often told stories of their playthroughs without having to show for it beyond saying that they were somehow able to defeat Sans at the end of a genocide run. Now, Athenian Rhapsody’s depth can be previewed by other players, giving them opportunities to share their endgame progress and the opportunity to show off their wacky decisions and any secrets they have uncovered.

I’m pretty confident that it will be quite difficult for two players to have carbon copied Rhapsodies given the number of secrets, branching paths, dialogue trees, options, and characters to recruit. There are sixteen characters to recruit in Athenian Rhapsody, but only one can follow you around on your Rhapsody and participate in battles if you choose (except for one specific duo, as no one wants to journey alone). While I managed to recruit all of characters during my run, several of them are tucked away behind sidequests that are easily missable. But, should you choose to interact with each NPC and figure out what else there is to do beyond the main quest, you’ll find quite a bit to uncover.

Athenian Rhapsody’s gameplay loop is similar to that of other EarthBound-likes: You wander around, fight an enemy, equip items, that sort of thing. During the turn-based battles, you can attack and kill your opponents or you can strike up a friendly conversation in an attempt to befriend them and end the battle on a pacifistic note. During the enemy’s turn, you have to survive a bullet-hell minigame that skews more WarioWare than straight-up Undertale. Some enemies will throw fruit at you, others will attempt to eat the black box where your character stands, while others will shoot lasers across the screen.

If you were successful in recruiting a friend, you can tag them in during your battle. While tagged in, you control them during enemies’ bullet hell attacks and can use them to attack/use abilities in your place. Their abilities span offensive, like a regular attack that increases in damage if health is low, and defensive, like a shield that can absorb a few hits. They’re great in a pinch and helped elevate the power fantasies of the characters I had befriended.

The bullet hell minigames are pretty dang creative, but far more difficult than anything I encountered in Undertale save for a few boss fights (I’m looking at you, sans!). Boss battles prove especially difficult, often relying on a mixture of attacking AND talking to get the option of friendship to emerge. It was a great test of skill coming out of recently replaying Undertale, especially seeing as this difficulty was not reserved for hidden boss battles or the end game.

If you’re worried about the game’s difficulty, save it for a souls-like. Athenian Rhapsody contains a “Chill Mode” that can be toggled out-of-battle to make the more difficult boss battles a smidge more manageable. It makes it so that taking damage makes the character temporarily invulnerable against other attacks for a few seconds. I turned it on several times during my playthrough because of how some bosses would attack multiple times in a row and fill my screen with deadly bullets. For a game of this difficulty, Chill Mode is an excellent addition for players who want to see it through to the end without needing to worry about retrying bosses over and over again until they finally get it right.

I’ve alluded to several in-game puns and memes during this review, but I want to drive home that this game is written exceptionally well. The random moments and humorous conversations rarely failed to get a chuckle out of me as I was playing. The fact that I was blessed with IBS at the halfway point should tell you that Athenian Rhapsody is quite unhinged in all the best ways. Like Undertale and Rhythm Sprout, it utilizes absurdist comedy to maintain unpredictable silliness in and out of battle.

My one critique of Athenian Rhapsody is that it lacks an evident story, at least one that drives the player forward to keep them invested in the Nico Papalia’s Athens. When I think of Undertale’s story, there wasn’t much of a “lore” in-game beyond the character falling into a new world and needing to undo a dark power keeping monsters underground. This helped remind me that there was a constant force pushing me forward and a general goal with a nebulous antagonist waiting for me at the end (even one that I didn’t expect to see).

To that end, Athenian Rhapsody feels more like a game about nothing. Imagine Seinfeld, but in video game form. Much of what I was doing felt aimless; I was coming across several characters seemingly upon happenstance. Sometimes they attacked me, sometimes they said something truly absurd. Sometimes both. I knew that the EXP system in Athens had turned monsters into bloodthirsty and competitive beings. I wasn’t sure of my impact on the game until the very end when it drove home the idea that this game was about me over everything else.

There’s nothing wrong with a game about nothing, mind you. Seinfeld was an exceptionally well-written sitcom of the 90s that lacked an overall plot and involved a cast of characters that were ridiculous. Larry David did a great job in getting viewers invested in the meaningless lives of Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer. Athenian Rhapsody lacked an anchor to keep me invested in the game’s universe. Punchlines were immediate rather than being drawn out over multiple biomes and events. While I appreciated the uniqueness of my NPC pals, I felt like I was missing out on memes because I was only able to keep one character in my party at any time.

The past few weeks, I have had Athenian Rhapsody’s soundtrack stuck in my noggin. Arpbug’s tunes sounded reminiscent of SNES to Genesis to some realistic classical music. I loved how every single companion got their own theme song – Gilroy’s music was my absolute favorite. I’m unsure if there’s a track as catchy and memorable as “Megalovania,” but there’s enough incredible music to warrant a listen on your preferred streaming service. I cannot wait for Arpbug to release the entire soundtrack so I can continue listening long after I’ve completed this review and I’m onto the next one.

I had no trouble getting to the end of Athenian Rhapsody. I have no idea which ending I got other than I am 99% sure was the true pacifist ending. However, I am also pretty sure that I missed a small handful of secrets. It took me around 11 hours on that runthrough, but I have been told that different runs span anywhere from three (?!) to thirty hours of playtime. I have no idea how one could finish the game so quickly, but I’m also just as curious to how there is 30 hours of content that can be achieved in a single playthrough. I know that Undertale takes over 30 to explore every possible ending, but I’m unsure as to how one could spend 30 hours in a single Rhapsody.

I enjoyed the heck out of Athenian Rhapsody. I made it to the end of the game without switching to another game despite having a ton of other games on my docket. I was caught in wanting to explore and befriend every single person I could. I also wanted to see if I could find as many secrets as possible during my playthrough; I found quite a bit and was pleasantly surprised by the bosses I had to defeat/befriend. I’m just torn in how others will appreciate the depth that Nico Papalia has managed to achieve in this EarthBound-like. I don’t get the same level of longform punchlines and anchored storytelling that I get from Undertale’s cast of characters. I’m not expecting Athenian Rhapsody to be the next Undertale, but it wouldn’t surprise me if other players expect continuity in some fashion.

I don’t consider Athenian Rhapsody to be anything like Undertale despite some of its similarities. It’s very well written, often getting me to audibly laugh because of its absurdist humor that surprised me time after time. I truly appreciated having agency to play as I liked in this RPG and the novelty of the Rhapsody system is enough for me to be excited about seeing other players play through to the end. While I have some reservations about the way the story has been constructed and the implementation of the Rhapsody system, there’s enough for players to enjoy if they are interested in a truly silly RPG.