Unbeatable

When I was 15 years old I was exposed to one of my favorite musicians through a Borderlands 3 trailer. Which is weird, but I guess that’s the magic of good advertisement and choice of music. It was loud, bombastic, catchy, and full of something awe music-heads call “free spirit”. A specific feeling you get when you simply don’t care. You aren’t worried your lyrics will upset someone. Anxiousness doesn’t hold you back from screaming into the microphone. Keep the pace going even if it shifts back and forth. Just blast what you can out there and hope you and the audience have a good old time. The song I’m talking about is Let Me Live / Let Me Die by Des Rocs, and it’s always the song I think of when I’m laid back and kicking ass. The reason I open the review up like this is because we’re back to the wonderful world of rhythm video games. Good music in games has always been a thing, but one day a developer wondered what would happen if we let the player interact with said music. That’s how we get stuff like Guitar Hero where people who don’t have the time to learn guitar can feel like a musician, or programs like in Mario Paint. Where you can stitch together and hope some of it combines to make a half decent song.

I’ve covered a fair amount of rhythm games over the years. Hi-Fi Rush, Everhood, it’s sequel we will try to forget exists, Metal: Hellsinger, and the NecroDancer games. Last year to be specific saw the release of Rift of The NecroDancer. A game I thought would be alright as Brace Yourself departed from making the innovative dungeon crawling rhythm action roguelikes they made in the past in favor of a traditional rhythm game. Only to end up being really good and one of few indie games I like to casually boot up for fun. Just two weekends ago I plugged another five or so hours in. Bopping my head to the music and attempting to beat my high scores. Rift is a game I have grown to adore more with time, and become interested in what other games lie in the genre. One day I was trying to find a video to watch while eating, and popping on my recommendation feed was a trailer for a game called Unbeatable. Clicked on it and was then presented with some snappy advertisement. “A game where music is illegal and you do crimes.” There’s action, you get to beat up cops, play baseball with a microphone, and it’s also an anime. Showcasing a vast majority of songs it had to offer within a few seconds all of which contained carefully composed lyrics. I had just witnessed what was to me one of the most competently made game trailers in a long time. A project I knew would be a standout for 2025.

Developed by D-Cell Games and published by Playstack, Unbeatable asks the question of what would happen if you combined Bocchi the Rock, Hi-Fi Rush, and all the rock related stuff that’s come out over the years? The game released late last year, and what I expected to be high fan fair ended up becoming a divide between critics and players. On one hand you have people who love Unbeatable. Having supported it during its six year development time, and playing the crap out of the impressive demo made ages ago. People who don’t want to be let down by criticism, and enjoyed the game for what it was. There’s nothing wrong with this and I’ve done dozens of titles in the past. Learning to enjoy games on my own terms. On the other you have criticisms that are, to be honest, pretty valid. All aimed towards the story mode, how it was put together, and bugs that I’m surprised none of the devs or playtesters managed to spot or try to fix considering they took six years of their own time to make this. What I’m saying right now sounds harsh, but trust me when I say I like Unbeatable. There is a deep thought provoking narrative here that explores identity, self acceptance, and doing what you love even if you’re not perfect. Beautiful moments that shine brightly when allowed to. If you’re someone who loves Unbeatable because of how its message resonated with you then I stand with your beliefs! I recommend this game despite its faults, but goddamn those faults are sorta hard to ignore. Unbeatable is a messy albeit wondrous experience, and today we’re talking about why it deserves your attention. 

Story

Once upon a time there lived a popstar named Eve. Loved by thousands for the music she made. For connecting with people and getting them through times of trouble. One day she was getting ready to perform the greatest concert of her life alongside a close friend and husband. Mile long lines stretched out of the stadium. Dozens of fans trying to obtain seats to witness what her band has to offer. All was going well, but then the outbreak occurred. Monsters appeared and began attacking the crowd. Eve and her husband died during the attack, and the stadium was sealed off and deemed ground zero. The monsters named the Silence only appear when music is played. Afterwards a regime formed. They took this catastrophe as an opportunity to establish power and influence over the people. Harmony And Resonance Management, HARM for short. They seized control, outlawed music, and punished all who dare try to challenge their beliefs. Usually in the form of brutal arrest, escortment to one of their facilities, and endless weeks of unethical labor. A sad truth to the matter is that the formation of HARM didn’t solve any problems. Their founding and rise in power brought more issues than health. Numerous protests demanding HARM to be disbanded, but they are the status quo now. Nothing changes. Everything stays the same.

This then leads to you, a young woman who awakens in this world where music is illegal. With no recollection of who you are, how you got there, and what you’re doing there in the first place. You lay beneath a sakura tree, and follow a short path to then be greeted by a girl. Wearing a bow that keeps her blue hair together, soft voice, and the orphan of Eve. Quaver is her name and she decides to guide you back to her mother’s home. Today is her mother’s death anniversary, and Quaver notices you’re carrying a guitar. Normally someone who carries an instrument is to be reported instantly to HARM, but Quaver instead asks you to drive her to ground zero. You break in using a backdoor, step onto the stage, and play a song. Suddenly HARM units swarm around you, the Silence appears, and Quaver clings onto your shoulders as you jet down the highway. The two young lads barely manage to escape, and the next day two twins named Clef and Treble are arrested for what you did. Quaver feels guilty, you try to sneak in to save the twins, and both you and Quaver become prisoners. Thus begins the tale of a rock band who’d fight HARM with the music. Quaver, Treble, Clef, and Beat (that being you). Beat is the voice that’ll guide them in these trying times. A symbolism of hope in a world where fascists want you locked away. A girl who is needed right here and now, but yet you struggle to recollect who you are. Why you do this aside from it being the righteous thing to do. Why are you here, and what is your purpose?

Gameplay

The game is divided into two sections depending on whether you play through the story mode or hop straight into arcade mode. The arcade mode is what you come to expect from a rhythm based game. Smack notes at the right time, attempt to not miss too many, maintain a score multiplier, & achieve a high grade. Unbeatable is stylized kind of like a fighting game. You have two rows for which notes will travel down, above and below. Notes will either come from the right or left, and different notes will act differently. Some need to be held down for a small period of time. Some will bounce into the air and need to be hit in the second row. Some need to be jumped or ducked under, and then there’s big boys you mash the button away to. The story mode contains a couple sections where you fight an individual. The structure of note appearance changes and you must adapt. Missing too many notes leads to Beat’s health bar breaking down, and if this bar breaks it is game over, or that’s what I like to assume because there weren’t any occasions I lost. A bit we will come back to later, but otherwise the rhythm based gameplay loop is fun and if you desire more of it outside the main story you can hop into arcade mode. Replay songs you went through, unlock new songs, and change things up by cranking difficulty up.

In the story mode, rhythm based sections are divided using cutscenes and minigames. Such as going on side quests for NPCs, chatting with locals in the area, playing baseball, and at one point you’re a bartender. All to offer downtime and characterize the main cast. Story mode is pretty light on gameplay. It’s a narrative focus game, and recent events have proven there is discussion to be had. To avoid the hassle and not rot your brains out I’m gonna assume half of you aren’t part of video game discourse specifically on Twitter or Reddit. As we are all functional humans who have lives outside of video games and know how to formulate our own opinions. Overall I think the story mode is enjoyable with breathtaking bits and scenes. Let’s just hope your efforts pay off, you can keep yourself together, make it through, and be the beat that keeps on going.

Thoughts

While writing this review I realize Unbeatable is a difficult game to talk about without diving into its narrative. The first episode out of six does a decent job setting the world, but doesn’t do all that much to explain who the characters are and why they matter. To grasp what the story is trying to achieve you gotta sit the whole way through. Let it fall into place, walk away, and just wonder what you witnessed. Which is exactly the feeling I had upon finishing the last music section and rolling credits. There will be massive spoilers beyond this point, so if you don’t want this game to be ruined for you then check it out yourself.

Are we good? Okay, we’re good.

The first episode of Unbeatable doesn’t do anything to explain who Beat is as a character. There is no background to work off of, and at first I thought the game would explain around the second episode. Slowly pull the rug from under the player’s feet and explain the secret past of Beat. The game did do this, but not at the pace I was expecting. Bringing upon a criticism I and a majority of players have with the story mode. The pacing is kind of bad at times. Not just bad, but it feels like the developers didn’t know how to structure or present certain bits at times. Again, hard to describe what I’m trying to say but the story mode despite being well written feels unfinished at the same time. There are problems that are easy to spot, but surprisingly none of the developers or playtesters manage to catch. Not frustrating, but questionable as Unbeatable spent six or more years in the works. Six years of making multiple original songs, gathering voice talent, drawing every colorful set piece, animating, and designing how the rhythmic gameplay loop. This isn’t to say Unbeatable is a bad video game, because messing around with arcade games showed me the devs knew what they were doing. It’s fun! It’s a very fun game when it wants to be one.

The music is incredible and fits exactly with the themes and moments the game wants to explore. Whether it be through the lyrics, rising in sound, and knowing when to blast words and screams into your ears. Then calming to offer tracks that aim to not excite you, but make you feel. You’d know that feeling if you’re experienced with music. A distant memory you want to grasp onto for just a bit, but know you have to let go of at some point. Smacking monsters at the right time is satisfying, and despite having monsters come from technically four different directions the UI is good enough to always give you a good view on what to react to next. Either zooming out so you got a clear view, or snapping towards where the next wave is coming from. There are some moments where the stylized UI and camera cuts are jittery. Leading to you losing focus or missing a beat you could’ve catched normally. However, there are settings to reduce the amount of jitters * make the rhythmic gameplay smoother to play. Unbeatable is easy to pick up but hard to master. What you exactly want for a rhythm game such as this or Rift of The NecroDancer. At times I’d just replay songs over and over hoping to achieve a new high score or grade level. The rush in excitement of when I finally do so, and hoping over to the next banger song. The game even has a good sense of progression as you unlock new songs and content.

The arcade mode is good and you’re buying Unbeatable for just that then I say your purchase is well worth it. What we need to be critical about is the story mode and the ‘unfinished’ parts of it. For example, occasionally when characters are talking one will interrupt another. One will speak but then stop when another character speaks over them. This is expected from any game that has dialogue, but what happens instead is both characters speaking at the same time. Both dialogue sequences go off simultaneously, which leads to overlapping with sounds. Not just audio, but the dialogue text boxed will overlap too. Making it hard to tell what one character is saying. What I assume happened was that while making this game the developers were struggling to figure out how to script dialogue and sound files. Around chapters four and five you realize they handle it better. With either better timing or shortening the dialogue of the character who is interrupted. It is expected for later chapters to be better as development goes on, but if they figured it out with time then why didn’t they go back to fix the prior more rougher sections? It’s troubling, because this is a very obvious problem to spot out. Something that should and could be fixed upon seeing it, but that’s not what happened. They kept it and now it looks awkward.

You have battle sequences where you have to fight two or more NPCs at once, but similar to the dialogue sequences they overlap. Chase sequences where you’re supposed to press one of two buttons at the right time, but it’s visually difficult to tell when the camera is bouncing back and forth. Not as if that matters as the game performs the action for you. Objects like wall posters flickering, and I can’t tell if it’s a visual bug or part of the artstyle. Companions who are supposed to follow you, but get stuck in world geometry. There is inconsistency of what rhythm sections will score you. You may perform a large bit and not get a score, but a short ‘beat the cop’ bit grades you based on what notes you landed. Then you have the general structuring and presentation of the story. The pacing is bad not because it wants to take its time. I’ve played longer games than Unbeatable and for me a game’s runtime should depend on how long the narrative needs to work. I think it’s due to how Unbeatable has all these sections where you wander around until you reach the next bit. Acting like there’s things to do as you make towards the next story point, but none of it does anything. All the character building is in the main story cutscenes and sequences. Our cast doesn’t grow outside of them and it feels as if the devs are afraid to make things too linear. They’re afraid of their story being too strictly linear, so they jammed all this extra stuff in. Even though said stuff isn’t much and their game would've benefitted with tighter focus.

Criticizing this game based on how you interact with it as a video game is gonna lead to cruelty. As you can see right now, my mind is burning trying to explain why playing the story mode feels rough. A shame, because the story is good. That’s why I kept going, because despite it not being well structured and badly paced it is a very artistic, passionate, and thought provoking tale. One that made me feel emotional by the end. It’s why I still like and recommend Unbeatable. To be a work of art sometimes you have to mess up to achieve your vision. Unbeatable is a story about identity, self acceptance, and learning to do what you love even if you’re not perfect. Portions of said message are represented through how the game uses music as rebellion against facism. Now I often don’t talk about politics, because the world right now is stressful. What I learned though is facism will always take power when given the opportunity to. This is what HARM is in this game’s story. A political group who saw an opportunity to take power. That opportunity being an outside attack, so they used it to set themselves up as a force who will protect. The people aren’t questionable on who they are, because at this moment they need protection. So HARM, a group of fascists, are elected and slowly you begin to witness their corruption. Forcing people to work beyond their limit in prison camps. Pouring mass amounts of funding to militarize policemen and equip them with high tech weaponry. Filling streets with advertisements telling people to submit or else. This is the status quo, and if you challenge said quo you are an outlaw. Hence you create a society who live in fear.

You even have a scene later on with a lead officer named Crest. A man who is afraid to quit the force, because his whole life has been spent working towards an honorable position. He thinks if he were to quit now not only will it lead to losing his honorable status, but it’s him tossing out the responsibilities weighing down on his shoulders. He is afraid that abandoning the status quo, the fascist ideals, will leave him with nothing. That there is no way for him to work his way back up, so he follows along. He follows along despite consciouslessly knowing what he is indulging in is morally wrong. He was built upon fear. Beat and her friends use music to stand up against HARM. They shout, scream, rally people at concerts, and continue to do so despite HARM being on the move for them. They use their talent to showcase what can be done and give hope to the people. Art can be political and it always has been. Real life musicians use music as a way to expose corruption and unjust ideals. Such as American Idiot by Green Day, MMC by Des Rocs, or Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater. Songs about the US government, culture, or how the over indulgence in capitalism has led once family friendly corporations no longer standing with good messages and only doing so for profit. Unbeatable is loud and proud when it comes to how one stands against the oppressor. Shining through despite imperfection & ideals. 

The narrative works well on a political level, but it also works on a personal level too. The final episode of this game is where you get the biggest plot revelations. When everything adds up and you see what makes this story so special. Beat is not of the world this game takes place in. She is from our world. A normal person struggling to get by in life. She dropped out of college due to the final burden it put upon her family. Her mother dies of cancer and she is unable to find any healthy ways of coping with it. She struggles to hold up a job, is unable to pay for her apartment, and grows more distant with her older sister everyday. The only thing that gives Beat joy is her guitar and music. Her ultimate dream is to be in a band, perform in front of people, & bring joy. Life is miserable and this is the only way out for her. So imagine how it felt when her band mates said her skills aren’t great, she’s unattractive, and they would be better off without her. This then shatters Beat’s dream and walks out furiously. She wasn’t perfect enough and when all was lost she then got hit by a car. Transported to a world that needs a musical icon to save them.

Even in a world that needs a hero, Beat faces multiple problems. Disconnection from her band members, and the constant thought of not being good enough. One of the lines Unbeatable opens up with is “This is not a love story”. This is not a game where Beat tries to win back the hearts of her previous band, or earn the love of someone else. It’s a story about her, the music she loves to create, and being happy with who she is. The world is working against her, but that doesn’t mean the world doesn’t want Beat. She is her own person and she gets to decide whether life is worth living or not. To enjoy what she loves even if she isn’t perfect at it. To find value in what she’s achieved thus far, so even if her work isn’t perfect she shouldn’t kick herself down. She gets up and works towards making it better in her image. Beat learns to accept herself, her identity, who she is, and form relationships not with people wanting value but people who genuinely like you for who you are. This game’s narrative structure could be better, but the ending is what made it all worth it to me. The final musical number, Beat saying goodbye to the next connections she made, being thrown back into the real world, and continuing to make music by herself. I like this game. I loved it at certain moments. There are aspects that could be better, but what Unbeatable does well is done with so much heart. I recommend Unbeatable despite its problems, because the story has something meaningful to tell and I believe anyone should be able to connect with it. I give Unbeatable an 8.5/10 for being pretty good.

8.5/10, Pretty Good