Yes, we know – usually, the 2.0 iteration of The Tuesday Music Dump is dedicated to catching everyone up on recent OST’s. But we’re in that awkwardly staggered part of 2025’s summer release window – lots of games are coming out, but generally we see a small delay between the release of a game and its OST, so much like math rock, it comes down to timing.
But one game in particular from the last few weeks feels relevant to our readers, whether you’re here for the music or the games – Fretless gets you both. While musical RPG’s, deck builders, and rhythm-based games do exist and have for some time, what Rob Scallon and Ritual Studios pieced together from those genres is a true gift to the gamer / musician, and this goes triple if you happen to nerd out on gear and musical equipment.
We happen to know that a decent amount of our readers fit that description entirely, thus the compulsion to make sure you get a clear look at Fretless, also called Fretless: The Wrath of Riffson – we have a feeling you’re going to love it.
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For those of you either unaware or just haven’t made the connection yet, we should bear in mind that Rob Scallon is one of the original Youtube guitar content guys. To say he’s got riffs would be an understatement, but it would also be leaving out a huge amount of the actual talent he’s developed over the years from experiences like building guitars and pedals from scratch, playing 8-strings through modular synths, and so much more. His fingerprints are everywhere in the game, but in a far-from-self-centered way – you can just see how he collaborated with the devs on almost every aspect, always wondering how they could shake things up.
The game also blurs the lines between sound design and score in the way the most of the game’s sounds are musical in nature, often inviting players to use their ears to guide them. This combination evolves when it comes to the turn-based combat system, where your equipment decides the backing tracks, which you can change significantly throughout your battles with additional items, and upgrades as you tap in rhythm with the animated notes on a fretboard. It’s a lot, but much like figuring out your signal chain or how big you really want your pedalboard footprint to be, it’s time well spent in the end.
Although from what we can tell, not all of that battle music is present in the version published by Playdigious, keep your eye out for spots from industry legends like Yvette Young, Andrew Huang, Rabbea Massaad, Ola Englund, and more, not to mention full-on jams from Cult of Luna and Northlane.
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At some point, we imagine there will be an expanded version or way to experience the game’s full musical package, but with how hybridized the sound design is with the music we could see them needing more time to parse that out as like, a sample pack or something. You can also just download the game on Steam here, which is probably a little faster.
Beyond its fresh takes on the tropes deck building, RPG’s, and rhythm mechanics, what Fretless does most is inspire – we could see so many of our readers seeing what Fretless does and finally get that spark to move their own lofty projects ahead… god, we wish we had the time and energy to kick off a similar idea we had a couple years ago, and it’s worth noting, Fretless didn’t happen overnight. We remember seeing the first snippets and ideas for it and thinking “that’s a great idea… please don’t butcher it, so many people care so much and if you mess this up, please..” but you know what? They didn’t, and we salute all involved. If you find depth in music, and you’re looking for a new take on RPG’s, there’s oodles to appreciate and explore in Fretless.
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