Athenian Rhapsody: The Weirdest Indie Game I’ve Ever Played (But Good Weird)

Dive into a truly unique adventure full of unforgettable characters, ever-changing battle mechanics, and the wildest sense of humor we've ever seen.

Psst! Earlier this year, we also got to interview Nico Papalia, the solo dev behind Athenian Rhapsody. Read the article here!

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Written by Tink Edwards

I feel like I should put some sort of disclaimer here. Two, actually. First, I’d like you to know that Earthbound is my favorite video game of all time. The wacky characters, the beautiful sprite work, that amazing soundtrack. Aaaagghhh, it’s so awesome! Now that I’m on your good side, I’ll hit you with the second disclaimer. And this is a thing that might ruin my career.

I’m not a huge fan of Undertale.

Please, put down the knife! I have cats to provide for! Honestly, I love most of Undertale’s elements, but the package as a whole left me wanting… more. Undertale creator Toby Fox clearly loves Earthbound, and its influence can be seen everywhere in that game. But, as my time with it ended, I felt a bit empty. I blame the same-y combat and dodge mechanics. I really, really wanted to love it, though. 

I’ve spent a lot of time in the years since its release trying to recapture the feelings I get when I play Earthbound. That warm and fuzzy (pickles, ahaha) feeling you get when you look back fondly on yesteryear. Nothing ever hit the spot.

Then I played Athenian Rhapsody.

…Huh?

The short of my review is this: if you like Undertale, you’re probably going to LOVE Athenian Rhapsody. If you like Earthbound, you’re probably going to LOVE Athenian Rhapsody. I love Athenian Rhapsody.

It’s Fresh and Hip – A Little TOO Hip

The game opens boldly, with a little personality quiz to help dictate the kind of game experience you’ll get, set to a grooving tune reminiscent of something you’d hear in Mother 3. I don’t know how wildly each playthrough varies, but developer Nico Papalia promises that no two runs are the same. Replayability and rhapsody sharing (I’ll get to that in a bit) are two of the big draws of Athenian Rhapsody. I spent over a dozen hours with the game and saw various places where the story could branch off into a different direction entirely, so Papalia’s claims don’t seem too outlandish.

That brings me to one of my few hangups with the game. The world and its characters are so incredibly out there that I was often befuddled as to what was going on. Every character has something fun or funny to say, but much of the dialogue is written in such a way that my elder-Millennial sensibilities made it hard to comprehend.

That’s definitely a me problem, and it didn’t hurt my experience in any meaningful way, but it sure did make me feel my age. It’s like I was playing something not meant for me, but there was so much charm and care oozing out of every scene that I didn’t mind.

Always Something New

The world Papalia crafted is mesmerizing. It’s super weird and pretty to look at, and the thing that’s most impressive to me is something I’ve craved from video games for a long, long time: VARIETY. There are a few sprite assets used multiple times, but the sheer number of original character and world designs I stumbled upon is breathtaking. 

There are going to be a ton of comparisons between this, Mother, and Undertale. And they’re all warranted. The sense of discovery and silliness you get in those games is present here, times ten. Every area is uniquely intriguing, and every character you meet looks interesting and usually has something humorous and/or deranged to say. It made my time in Athens fly by (the game world is Athens, by the way – maybe I should’ve mentioned that sooner).

So, all those characters I was just gushing about? What if I told you a big chunk of them had their own stories and side quests that led to them joining your party? If I had told you that, I bet it would be exciting. Because it is exciting! Every time I stumbled upon some wacky weirdo with a quest, I wondered how I could get them to join me. And just about every time, they DID join me. Depending on which character you currently have in your party, you get unique dialogue and quest options in the world. They always have goofy things to say while you’re adventuring together as well. It’s all just so silly and charming.

“But What About the GAMEPLAY?”

The game plays like your standard 16-bit single-player RPG. Sort of. While exploring the world, you’ll run into enemies roaming the land, and they’ll initiate battles. The battles are extremely reminiscent of Undertale’s fights, with the option of either fighting them traditionally or talking through them and finding some peaceful way out of the encounter. The way Undertale handled battles is interesting, but I felt it wore out its welcome early on. Dodge the enemy bullets. Talk to the enemy again. Dodge more bullets. Eventually spare the enemy. That’s all well and good, but man, after a while, I was exhausted.

Athenian Rhapsody’s approach fixes my issue with the Undertale battle system. Yes, there’s a lot of bullet dodging, but each and every variety of enemy you fight has a unique “bullet hell” segment. Some of them are absolutely bonkers. I won’t spoil them here but know that I REALLY want to because many of them are so off-the-wall insane and hilarious that I would very much like to talk about them.

Outside of battles, exploring the world is breezy and ever-entertaining. There always seems to be something to interact with. Those interactions often pay off, at the very least with a little joke or throwaway line. And there are secrets. So many secrets. At one point, I saw a solitary house back up in the woods. I wondered, “Huh, can I get there? Maybe it’s just part of the scenery…” Sure enough, after some exploration, I found the path that led to the house. Inside, there was an amusing encounter and yet another character who wanted to join my group. That is how you pay off exploration. It harkens back to games like Suikoden 2 and Final Fantasy VI. Give players a reason to snoop around, developers!

How Does It Sound? How Does It Look?

I’m a huge fan of Keiichi Suzuki and Hip Tanaka’s work on the Mother 1 + 2 soundtracks. Toby Fox’s Undertale soundtrack is pretty good too, though tracks like Megalovania are a bit much. Athenian Rhapsody’s music is more in line with the latter, but there’s a good bit of variety there, and I found myself bobbing my head along to some of Arpbug’s tunes. The basslines, in particular, have that Mother vibe I enjoy.

The sound design and effects are the star of the audio show. It’s goofy in a lot of ways, like how you can change the UI navigation effects to sound like ducks quacking or 90s Toejam & Earl-inspired hip-hop record scratches. Out of nowhere, you’ll hear a voice sample from some character. It caught me off guard so many times and never ceased to put a smile on my face.

Visually, the game shines. The astounding amount of art on display is something to behold. It’s like Papalia made some otherworldly designs, stood back for a minute, and went, “No, TOO NORMAL!” And then cranked out some of the strangest creations I’ve ever seen in a 2D video game. The weirdest thing is that these bonkers designs actually work together and blend into the world naturally. Nothing is so abstract that it feels like it doesn’t belong. That’s an impressive feat. The fact that Papalia was able to make an anthropomorphic ladybug with a big letter G on its chest look completely normal… It feels like a tiny miracle.

What Is a Rhapsody, Anyway?

While the visual design works in nearly every way, another of my quibbles with the game is how unserious it is most of the time and how the story the game is telling makes sense in small chunks, but it’s difficult to decipher what exactly you’re doing. How did you get here, why are you traveling through this world, and what the heck is this rhapsody you keep talking about?

A rhapsody in our world is both an expression of enthusiasm and, maybe more in line with Athenian Rhapsody’s themes, a form of Greek epic poetry. The game certainly feels grand in many ways, and the winding narrative does feel poetic. But if you’re looking for grounded storytelling, you won’t find much of that here.

It DOES exist, to be fair. There are a few moments where Athenian Rhapsody gets real with you. It encourages you and gives you positive affirmations. That’s the main reason Earthbound resonates with me so strongly. I appreciate those kindnesses. When they pop up in Athenian Rhapsody, they’re a welcome escape from the constant tomfoolery found in the game world. I wish there were more poignant moments like that throughout the narrative. I’m an emotional guy, and those things make me well up. Please don’t laugh at me crying at a video game. Thanks.

But yeah, rhapsodies. A rhapsody in the context of the game is all of the above plus the physical embodiment of your journey you receive upon completion of the story. Think of it as a postcard you send to a friend during a long vacation. It recounts your adventures, shows small and large achievements and goals you might’ve reached, and gives you a tangible memento to remind you of your journey. It’s a cool thing to have.

Like with postcards or stamps or whatever, you can share your rhapsodies with friends and compare adventures. I played the game for review and wasn’t able to do much sharing, but I’m most definitely interested in checking out the rhapsodies my friends make weeks and months from now.

The Final Verdict

As you might’ve guessed (you didn’t have to guess – I told you within the first few paragraphs of this review!) I loved my time with Athenian Rhapsody. Yes, the story is borderline incomprehensible to my ancient brain, but I constantly found myself hungering to know what was going to happen next, even if I didn’t understand any of it. There are what feels like thousands of secrets and references to find, and the world is so inviting I think people will have a blast wasting time in Athens trying to discover it all.

The quirky dialogue, battles, music, sound, and story all come together to form the most unique indie gaming experience of my lifetime. There are a few tiny things I wouldn’t mind seeing changed, but Athenian Rhapsody stands tall as one of the best experiences I’ve had in gaming in a while. If I had to give it a number score, it’s an easy 4.5/5. That’s a STRONG RECOMMEND.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to (pixel) dive back in for another almost upsettingly-weird adventure through Athens.