// gaming

Critical Role’s ‘Rockbeasts’ Is a Trippy ’90s Band Sim Featuring Iggy Pop

October 14, 2026 · cpstestersofficial@gmail.com

Rockbeasts is a rocking band administration RPG set within the Nineties with rhythm recreation parts, besides each character is an anthropomorphic animal. Developer Lichthund introduced in Critical Role as a collaborator and co-publisher, and that experience exhibits instantly. This choice-and-consequence-driven narrative journey is true of their wheelhouse, and it is shaping as much as be one thing particular.

After roughly 90 minutes with an early slice of the sport, I instantly got here away wanting extra, satisfied this might attain the heights of 2025’s extremely rated narrative journey Dispatch. From the stellar characters and soundtrack to the strong dialogue and administration mechanics, Rockbeasts left me totally impressed. The sport is scheduled to reach on Steam, Nintendo Swap, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Sequence X|S, and PS5 in January 2027.

What Is ‘Rockbeasts’?

Performance setup menu in 'Rockbeasts' — Efficiency setup menu in ‘Rockbeasts’

In Rockbeasts, you play an unnamed supervisor who drives from New York to the fictional city of Buxville, situated “someplace within the Midwest.” Ready there’s a struggling four-piece rock outfit with actual potential, however completely no capability to understand that potential on their very own. The band is an eclectic group of passionate, proficient people with fully clashing personalities, and managing these personalities will definitely be the largest problem in Rockbeasts. Growing the music and selling the band appear fairly simple by comparability.

Paz is the lead guitarist, a deer who’s skeptical however earnest in her craft. She is devoted and has little interest in compromising her inventive integrity to make it within the business. Vernon is an egotistical ostrich serving as lead vocalist and songwriter who butts heads with everybody. He loves cash, consideration, and the sound of his personal voice above all else. Hopefully, there is a bit extra to him than that as the sport goes on.

Carlton is a sea bass who performs the bass, which ought to provide you with a way of the humor you are in for, and he additionally serves because the timid voice of motive. He hates battle and being within the highlight, however he comes off as probably the most regular member by a large margin. Then there’s Keith, an out-of-control rabbit drummer who’s chaotic, risky, and keen about his instrument. He likes to drink and brags about as soon as ingesting Iggy Pup beneath the desk, however there are hints of dependancy points you’ll have to handle.

‘Rockbeasts’ Is an Genuine Portal to the 90s

The artwork type and character designs carefully resemble the marvelous animated Netflix sequence BoJack Horseman, however with a little bit extra grit. The anthropomorphic solid carries an expressive and eccentric allure to it that makes each character, huge or small, stand out. The environments and backgrounds are crammed with small particulars that make the world really feel alive with out drawing an excessive amount of consideration away from the characters. Rockbeasts has a definite visible id that elevates the presentation.

The soundtrack is an actual showstopper as properly. Carried out by the band vgtbl.pl, Rockbeasts‘ authentic tracks seize the choice rock and grunge scene of the ’90s in a manner that seems like a distant reminiscence of my childhood with MTV blaring within the background. As a recreation constructed round music, this was a vital factor to nail, they usually did simply that. The music anchors your complete expertise and authentically sells the period.

Including to Rockbeasts‘ achievements, the voice performing is great throughout the board, and the dialogue is charming and actual in a manner that absolutely immerses you on the earth. There is not a lot by way of animation, so the sport has to promote each member of the band by means of dialogue alone. Important Position’s involvement first turns into apparent when you hear Matthew Mercer, Sam Riegel, and Liam O’Brien among the voice cast, and I am certain they play a key position within the partaking dialogue as properly. Iggy Pop, taking part in a radio DJ canine named Iggy Pup, is the primary voice you hear whenever you boot up Rockbeasts, and he fully units the temper for this rock ‘n’ roll story.

The Administration Layer Runs Surprisingly Deep

The planner menu from 'Rockbeasts' — The planner menu from ‘Rockbeasts’

Even within the early-game demo I performed, the administration techniques in Rockbeasts have actual depth. You juggle time and assets to e-book gigs that construct the band’s status, feed the band to maintain their well being up, e-book studio classes to enhance their efficiency, and purchase and improve gear for higher sound high quality. You possibly can bribe radio stations to place your songs in rotation and construct hype, or take the band to the bar to enhance their temper earlier than an enormous present. There are a number of extra parts that I skilled throughout my playtime, in addition to others that have been visibly locked behind development.

Each choice you make in Rockbeasts prices assets you do not have a lot of, and that fixed battle is what retains the gameplay partaking. Time, money, temper, well being, hype, and focus factors all pull towards one another consistently, and you will have to make sacrifices to push the band towards your splendid. Will you deal with band observe and ensure the band’s music is so good it is unattainable to disregard? Or will you deal with promotion and drawing crowds to make as a lot cash as potential, irrespective of the associated fee?

The rhythm recreation mechanics are the weakest a part of the gameplay. You press button prompts as they scroll throughout the display screen in a single lane, which will not be a lot of a problem for any rhythm recreation vets. These sections seem throughout observe classes and performances, with timing calibration out there in case your show has lag. On regular issue they’re simple to go, although chasing the scores that unlock one of the best rewards offers a bit extra of a problem. Though they are not the crème de la crème, they’re brief and rare sufficient that they by no means drag the expertise down.

My one actual frustration with the gameplay was navigating the environments with a controller, which felt cumbersome at occasions. Deciding on and interacting with objects grew to become a problem every time a number of have been on-screen collectively, and I spent longer than I ought to have preventing the cursor. It is a small gripe that a number of months of polish might easy out earlier than January.

Lichthund and Important Position Nail the Alternative-Pushed Narrative

Striking a deal with a venue owner in 'Rockbeasts' — Putting a cope with a venue proprietor in ‘Rockbeasts’

The narrative layer is simply pretty much as good because the administration facet proper off the bat. Dialogue choices and decisions steer the band into totally different trajectories, and the central rigidity is the one most bands face. Do you retain them true to themselves and their craft with the next likelihood of failure, or sacrifice who they’re to make it huge at any price?

I didn’t run into something actually divisive within the early-game demo, however the decisions already carry weight. Deciding how the band celebrated a profitable gig meant knowingly upsetting one member irrespective of which choice I picked. Different decisions are mechanical, similar to convincing one other band to surrender their studio time, the place I might both bribe them with $100 or try a reminiscence puzzle with an opportunity of failure.

Rockbeasts makes the scope much more obvious on the finish of every act, when your decisions are stacked towards gamers worldwide. In Telltale fashion, you get to see what share agreed with you or completed the identical targets. The recap shows the place there have been branching decisions that might lead to a story shift. On the finish of Act 2, I noticed that 3% of gamers failed to fulfill the venue proprietor’s standards to carry out the gig, an goal I had assumed was assured. If the total recreation is crammed with branching paths of this stage, it can make the replayability layer much more strong.

Rockbeasts is now considered one of my most anticipated indie video games of 2027, and the 90 minutes I performed solely scratched the floor of what Lichthund is constructing. The mixture of a deep administration RPG, a choice-driven narrative with Important Position’s voice performing and writing pedigree behind it, and the distinctive anthropomorphic characters in a nostalgic ’90s grunge scene all come collectively in good concord. The rhythm sections aren’t probably the most partaking and the controller navigation wants a bit extra tuning, however the remainder of the bundle, from the genuine soundtrack to the immersive dialogue, paints one of the artistic and well-realized video games of its style. I am already counting down the times till the band’s mainstream debut in January 2027.