Ever wanted to manage a talented yet unorganised and volatile 90s rock band? Good news! Now you can, with ROCKBEASTS from Lichthund and Team17. This is an upcoming (2026) narrative management-sim set in a fictional world of anthropomorphic animals. Today I’m chucking out the PC version, which you can Wishlist on Steam here.
Video Games Killed The Radio Star
The game opens on a flash forward to 2009, where a couple of band members, Paz and Vernon, are being interviewed on the radio. They’re in the build up to performing at the ‘Aid The World’ concert. The radio host, Iggy Pup (voiced by actual Iggy Pop), asks them if they always knew they would make it big. Apparently, the band were on the brink of breaking up back in 1993 when they decided they needed a manager to help them keep things in check. This leads us to the game’s first setting. A Midwest town called Buxville, in 1993.
Gameplay
ROCKBEASTS features a variety of gameplay elements. It’s primarily focused on choices-matter story-telling and management simulation, but also contains several mini-games and a calendar event system. All these pieces marry up nicely to create a rich gameplay experience. Buxville is a ‘small-town’ as far as the story is concerned, but there’s plenty for us to see and do as a player. You’ll often be travelling back and forth to locations all across the 3 parts of town. The life of a band manager is varied and demanding, and this band certainly require managing. You’ll be dealing with ego-clashes, self-doubt, personal issues, and more. That’s all before we even get to the business side of things; from wrangling practice sessions and gig locations, all the way to acquiring new equipment and negotiating contracts.
Being Resourceful
The band have 4 resources that you need to take care of: Health, Hype, Mood, and Cash. Resources are required to take part in Opportunities, which in turn will generate buzz for your shows, and can also get you Focus points. Focus can be used to use special Highlights during a gig. It all sounds a bit complicated when written out, but it flows fairly easily in game. A helpful UI lets you see at a glance if you have the necessary resources for each Opportunity. If you’re short of something, it won’t take too long to figure out how to use relevant Activities to earn or swap for what you need.
Opportunities and Band Activities advance time on the calendar, so you have to choose wisely what to take part in and when. Each day is split into 4 segments, and some Spots (shops, business, etc) are only open at certain times. So far, the time pressure hasn’t felt as anxiety inducing as it is in games like Persona.
Performing
You don’t just plan when and where the band will play, you’ll also be heavily involved with the performance itself. Each song consists of 5 sections, to which you can assign Highlights. Each Highlight has different XP stats and effects, which dictate the amount of overall XP can be earned from a show. Once you’ve planned the song out, you then need to play a rhythm game to earn the XP; the better you do, the more you’ll be rewarded. Other aspects of your decision-making also affect shows too. For instance, I decided to handle an issue with a band-member in a certain way, which locked out a section of Venue capacity, meaning my XP from the show was limited. This is a great example of how all elements of ROCKBEASTS come together to provide consequences for your actions.
The rhythm game itself is not overly tricky, consisting of just 4 directional inputs and one additional button. On PC, this amounted to the WASD keys and space bar. Most of the time I just needed to press the appropriate key in time with the prompts, and occasionally press, hold, and release. If you’ve played other rhythm games in the past, like RockBand, it will all be very familiar.
Graphics & Audio
The art direction in ROCKBEASTS is amazing. The artists have drawn over 100 characters and 90 locations, and it’s all been worth it. The character designs I’ve seen in the preview are all interesting and unique, with a style that’s inspired by 90s MTV animations such as Daria and Beavis and Butthead (along with other inspirations from Blacksad, Zootopia, BoJack Horseman, and Night In The Woods). I really like how the town of Buxville looks at different times of day too, especially at nighttime when it is lit up with street lights and neon signs. ROCKBEASTS really nails its visual vibes.
Rocking Out
You’d hope a game about an aspiring rock band would feature some good music, right? ROCKBEASTS delivers. The 3 songs I’ve heard so far in the preview have been great. In total, there are 17 recorded songs for the game. All vocals are actually performed by the band’s in-game vocalist’s voice actor, which wasn’t initially planned. After Hyoie O’Grady was cast as Vernon, he inquired about the music for the game and sent over some vocal demos. The team at Lichthund were so impressed they had O’Grady record vocals for the in-game music. If the rest of the songs keep on par with the few I’ve heard, I’ll have some more music for my playlists for sure.
Perhaps coincidentally (though I hope it was planned) a song called ‘That Bug’ featuring the lyrics “You’ve gotta squash that bug [that lives inside your head]” plays at the start of the game where there’s also a warning about unpolished and potentially buggy gameplay. This gave me a little chuckle as I loaded it up for the first time.
All the dialogue in the game is voice acted too, and to high quality. Lichthund worked with a company called PitStop to cast and direct the voice work. They’re a company that previously worked on Baldur’s Gate III and Metaphor: ReFantazio. Having a partner with that kind of experience has clearly paid off.
Final Thoughts
I really hope we don’t have to wait too long into next year for ROCKBEASTS‘ debut. It features a brilliant blend of gameplay, a gorgeous art style, and rocking music. The 3 hours I spent in the preview have further sold me on the game. I can’t wait to take my band, Muskrats of Insanity, to dizzying heights and superstardom.
ROCKBEASTS is coming to PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch in 2026. In the meantime, I recommend you check out Goodbye Volcano High and We Are OFK.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this preview.
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