From the moment I saw the first trailer for Keylocker, the turn-based rhythm JRPG from developer Moonana and publisher Serenity Forge, I was sold. The neon aesthetics, cyberpunk designs, and bombastic music planted deep roots from the start. And now that I've actually gotten my hands on it, my initial impulses have proven largely accurate. I love everything about Keylocker, except for the actual act of playing it.
I love that you play as BOBO, a member of the lowest caste on a futuristic Saturn where music is outlawed. I love the music show minigame that is legally distinct from the likes of Guitar Hero. I love the NPCs with their goofy problems and captivating designs. I love that every single Chrono Trigger-style fight brings up a G.R.I.D.S. – Gradual Riot Inconveniences De-escalation System – conflict bar before getting into the thick of it.
But Keylocker's movement and combat, which together represent roughly 90% of the game, actively continue to frustrate me in a way that will actually probably appeal to a certain subset of gaming sickos.
Play the hits
While wandering around the map to progress various quests like digging up an alpaca or delivering ice cream before it melts, enemies such as, just to name a few examples, robotic clerics or vultures can attack you and your team. These encounters can be deadly from the jump, and more than once I was wiped out before I could even do any serious damage.
Helpfully, you can just avoid them if at all possible as enemies typically only fight you if you walk into them, or otherwise actively engage them. There's nothing random about these encounters, usually. But once you're in the thick of things, you better hope that you have good timing because anything less than perfection is going to cause you trouble.
Keylocker takes the "rhythm" part of its description quite seriously. Every single attack or defensive move you make typically has some aspect that requires precision timing. Charging up your EP with your music can require you to play a simplified tune using arrow keys in a particular order and rhythm while attacking with an axe or any other gear must be timed to a specific animation.
This isn't exactly surprising given the themes of the game, nor is precision timing for actions anything new. But Keylocker can be absolutely brutal and punishing if you don't get it right. Not only are your attacks and defensive measures less effective if you get anything less than perfect, but enemies will do more damage to you if you fail to dodge their attacks correctly.
The entire game's combat feels a bit trial and error, and mostly error, at least initially. If you're using a particular attack or skill for the first time or facing an entirely new enemy, it feels inevitable that any initial attempts will beef it more often than not. While getting into the feel of Keylocker does seem to somewhat be the point, there's more friction than flow involved in a way that can be grating.
Cyberpunk'd
There are ways to ameliorate Keylocker's wild combat difficulty, however. You can turn down the difficulty setting, for a start, so that misses are less of a burden and successes are even more powerful. There are skills to unlock, equipment to wield, and while practice might not make perfect, it certainly will make you twitchier in a way that is beneficial.
And yet, even with my complaints, I still find myself drawn to the unusual boiling cauldron of ingredients that make Keylocker, well, Keylocker. Combat will never be my favorite part of it, but it's become less of a hassle with time. Movement both in and out of combat is still clunky despite my experience, but in the kind of way where it eventually becomes comfortable like an old car that makes horrible noises on left turns – but you know just how to steer the wheel to get where you need to go anyway.
Keylocker is an experience I struggled with mechanically, found fascinating otherwise, and would do it all over again if I had to. Nothing is for everyone, and Keylocker is likely to only appeal to an even smaller segment than that, but for those folks it does work for, it'll really work for. It's far from technically perfect, but it's ambitious in all the right ways, and that goes a long way.
Keylocker is out now on the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. To see what other indie gems we've been enjoying so far, be sure to check out our Indie Spotlight series.
