A 2021 musical Adventure Game developed by Australian studio Beethoven & Dinosaur and published by Annapurna Interactive.
Calypso, Colorado. Hometown of legendary folk singer Johnson Vendetti... and his nephew, the much less impressive Francis Vendetti. It's the 20th anniversary of Johnson's seminal album, and the town is throwing a huge festival, where Francis will play his uncle's greatest hits.
Problem is, Francis isn't exactly jazzed about being used as his uncle's soundalike, and seems even less enthused about folk music. His life, however, is about to change, as a neon-soaked rocker from beyond the stars named Lightman has taken an interest in him.
Now Francis is halfway across the universe, going on a rocking adventure where he just might find the real him.
This game provides examples of:
- Arc Symbol: The Musical Key, a series of five specially arranged dots used in the Simon Says Minigame. A lot of creatures actually have it as part of their biology, even ones you don't play music with.
- Be Yourself: The Central Theme and Aesop of the game. The entire game has the player defining just who Francis is, and it can be, if the player wishes, a Coming-Out Story.
- Bigger on the Inside: The closet in Frida's ship opens into what looks like a 1980s shopping mall where Francis can alter his appearance.
- Bizarre Instrument: Francis is introduced with an acoustic guitar visibly modified into an electric one with attached speakers.
- Brain in a Jar: Perhaps the Hypnogogic Zomm's most distinctive feature.
- But Now I Must Go: Violetta after Francis returns home. She says she probably will never see Francis ever again, but there is a connection between them.
- Coming-Out Story: The game can be Francis coming to terms with his/her sexuality, if the player desires.
- Cool Ship:
- The Cosmic Lung, Lightman's ship, which features an opera house all the way from Vienna, Austria.
- Frida's ship, the Ruby Cola, with its Bigger on the Inside wardrobe.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Hypnogogic Zomm, a Starfish Alien with an Ominous Opera Cape, turns out to be an ally.
- Did You Just Have Tea With Cthulhu: Francis will jam with Eldritch Abominations.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Eldritch Abominations are critics and music agents, representing Francis' obstacles to becoming a successful musician.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Francis' reaction to seeing a man cosplaying as the zombie of his late uncle.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Glamourgonn.
- Empathic Environment: Whenever Francis plays the guitar, the background transforms and brightens, making the player want to constantly be playing the guitar as they run right and jump.
- Expy:
- While Johnny "Galvatron"'s band The Galvatrons are inspired by many artists, "Galvatron" stated the main character is "David Bowie traveling off from London on an interstellar trip to create Ziggy Stardust."
- "Galvatron" also states Johnson Vendetti is based on Bob Dylan.
- The Fashionista: There's a whole planet of them.
- Flying Face: The Tastemaker.
- Hidden Eyes: Every human in the game has eyewear that conceals their their eyes.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!: Francis is going down the same path as Lightman, his guide. Lightman regrets not being able to impress the Final Boss because he basically chickened out.
- Immoral Reality Show: Downplayed, due to falling under Offscreen Villainy, but it's made clear every performance has a high risk of death, with Francis' ending up stranded on one planet being a massive ratings booster.
- Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Invoked In-Universe. The game doesn't really have outright evil characters, but some of the people Francis can interact with in Calypso early on are a little hostile towards him, from a snooty busker who thinks he's better than everyone else, to a skiffle band who all but threaten Francis with bodily harm. Even Francis's allies treat him like a nuisance and never bother to explain anything, and Violetta blatantly steals his thunder during the final performance and takes the bulk of the credit.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The Glamourgonn, if only because she will literally destroy poseurs who think they have the musical chops to impress her.
- Journey to Find Oneself: The premise of the game.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Along with creating a glam-rock persona, Francis can choose a planet of origin.
- During his Talk Show Appearance, Francis answers questions about life on his planet, how he came to leave it, and what he did to attract the attention of the universe.
- Noodle Incident:
- How an Austrian opera house came to be on the Cosmic Lung.
- Francis gets to admit to some on his Talk Show Appearance.
- Ominous Opera Cape: The Hypnogogic Zomm wears one, despite being mostly a floating Brain in a Jar.
- Opaque Lenses: Every human in the game sports a pair of these.
- The Power of Rock: The game in a nutshell.
- Replacement Goldfish: Francis' major problem. Everyone expects him to be like his uncle, a folk singer he never met. Even Lightman sought him out to try and replicate the success he had with Johnson when auditioning for the Glamourgonn.
- Scenery Porn: Probably one of the main hooks of the game. Throughout his journey, Francis gets to traverse across several sprawling alien landscapes with gorgeous scenery that wouldn't look out of place spray-painted on the side of a van and Francis strumming on his guitar will often cause the landscape to light up in a glorious symphony of light and sound.
- Shared Family Quirks: Besides their obvious shared talent in playing the guitar, Francis and Johnson Vendetti both have stage personas different from their regular selves that they created for their musical careers. Violetta reveals in the end that the songs that Johnson Vendetti wrote as a folk music legend was for a persona not unlike Francis' intergalactic one.
- Shifting Sand Land: The second alien world, Glimmerdimm. Francis ends up accidentally stranded there without a ride back when booked at a gig in The Lumiere Violente and needs to find a Warp Turtle in a hot, vast desert full of dunes, hot spring vents, and the ancient ruins of a fallen city.
- Simon Says Minigame: The basic premise of Francis' rock sessions across the game.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: A variation having nothing to do with censoring profanity. When Francis creates his new space rocker name, the name typed in by the player is pronounced as a guitar riff every time a character says it.
- Starfish Aliens: LOADS of them, starting with the Hypnogogic Zomm and culminating in the Glamourgonn.
- Talk Show Appearance: Francis makes one of these at one point.
- Took a Level in Badass: Francis, halfway through the second performance. He goes from nervously trying to back out of any dangerous situation to trash-talking a dictator and starting a revolution. By the end of the game, even the guy he's intimidated by back in Calypso fails to scare him.
- Virtual Paper Doll: Francis can change his wardrobe and hairstyle at one point, courtesy of an ally he meets on his journey.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Francis can be as gender fluid as s/he wants.
- Wrench Wench: Violetta, but her real talent is a music producer, and it's implied she's the greatest ever known.
