Few genres have rules as simple yet vary so greatly from person to person as rhythm games. While it is a very straightforward genre where you tap or hold buttons in time with notes appearing to the rhythm, hitting those notes is easier said than done, as your body often struggles to keep up. Of course, once you get used to it or become what people call a "hardcore veteran," it becomes as natural as breathing, but there are always those who break out in hives at the mere mention of music. Others might be tone-deaf, rhythm-deaf, uninterested in music, or have slow reflexes, causing them to get exhausted and frustrated by the endless wave of falling notes.
Because of this, indie and mid-sized developers—aside from long-established rhythm game studios with built-up recognition—began targeting players who were interested in rhythm games but stayed away due to the perception that they were too difficult. They took various approaches, such as minimizing the required button presses or appealing as character-driven games featuring cute, charming characters. Others capitalized on offering diverse music tracklists paired with narrative and mood, striving to become memorable series that linger in fans' hearts.
'Estella', presented by Taiwanese indie developer Imanity at this Steam Next Fest, is a title that tries to address this direction in a different form. With eight lanes surrounding a central combo counter, players must look at the lane where a note drops, aim their mouse at that lane, and then press a key on the keyboard to clear it.
Since PC rhythm games have traditionally used keyboards, controllers, or gamepads, 'Estella' caught the eye of many rhythm gamers when it appeared at BIC last August with its mouse-integrated control scheme. Trying to give it a quick spin before returning from covering BIC, I ended up having to leave without playing it properly due to my train schedule, which was quite disappointing. For someone longing for a novel rhythm game, adding another control mechanism seemed like a way to experience fresh chart designs. On the other hand, there was also concern that adding a completely different control scheme on top of an already chaotic rain of notes might induce motion sickness.
However, 'Estella' as presented at Steam Next Fest felt a bit different. It was like how someone holding the steering wheel and driving doesn't get motion sick. Setting aside the "rhythm" element for a moment, the act of aiming with a mouse is already familiar from shooter games that many gamers play.
Unlike shooter games where you simply aim and click with the mouse, aiming with the mouse and then pressing a key feels a bit unfamiliar at first. And while square notes appearing on screen may look different, the concept of clearing rapidly appearing shapes is already common in software like Aim Lab, so getting used to it takes little time. Once you get the hang of aiming with the mouse and firing with the keyboard, even players who struggle on intermediate difficulties in other rhythm games can put up a surprisingly decent performance.
Just as with topology, adapting to mouse aiming by drawing parallels to shooter games is a matter of individual variance. Since the rhythm game audience and shooter game audience don't overlap all that much, it's hard to expect everyone to adapt quickly. Thus, Estella prepared another safety net. Like several other music games, it adopts a system where you won't get a game over even if you miss all the notes, letting you finish the track to the end—and goes a step further by generously counting even "Bad" judgments toward your combo.
For core rhythm gamers, "Full Combo" is always on their lips, but for casual players taking a light dip into the genre, getting a Full Combo is extremely difficult. The pressure of knowing that making a single mistake ruins it is surprisingly heavy. Once you endure that pressure and stress to experience the catharsis, things change, but for those who haven't experienced it, fear comes first. And as the word "catharsis" implies, it's not something resolved by simply getting a Full Combo on an easy difficulty. Therefore, Estella boldly counts Bad judgments as part of the combo, and those Bad judgments are tuned so loosely that even notes that would normally trigger a Miss are nudged into a Bad judgment instead. This allows players to somehow keep up with slightly harder songs and taste the joy of a Full Combo, even if just barely.
Of course, if getting a Full Combo were easy for everyone, there would be no skill differentiation, so the game includes solid counterbalances. While Bad and the tier above it, Great, have somewhat forgiving timing windows, the Perfect judgment is quite strict. Additionally, Critical Notes—which must be hit with pinpoint precision to unleash score multipliers—have been added, satisfying high-level players competing over razor-thin margins. Furthermore, taking advantage of the aiming mechanic, the game incorporates special notes where players must avoid aiming their cursor in that direction altogether. This prevents players from simply mashing mouse and keyboard inputs at random and getting lucky, encouraging them to get into the rhythm and focus more intently.
However, Story Mode is a bit different. Framed as a challenge to experience the narrative, repeatedly committing Misses results in a game over. An HP bar similar to arcade games is displayed at the bottom of the screen, depleting with every series of Misses to heighten the tension. While most rhythm games allow health gauges to refill quickly once a combo starts after a mistake, Estella's Story Mode gauge fills slowly, creating pressure to avoid mistakes right from the start. Nevertheless, due to the nature of the control scheme, simultaneous multi-note presses never appear, so eliminating that variable makes note memorization relatively manageable.
Despite the Steam store page stating that Korean is not supported, 'Estella' added Korean support starting with this Steam Next Fest demo. However, getting a clear grasp of Story Mode was still difficult. The Steam page describes it as the story of a girl embarking on a journey in search of a golden comet, and the game portrays her adventure through dreamlike music, illustrations, and 3D graphics that occasionally evoke a retro feel. Yet because much of the script was missing, understanding the full context was hard to achieve.
Aside from Story Mode, Free Play mode is also currently lacking in volume. In particular, the number of tracks is small and the difficulty curve is uneven, making it intimidating for rhythm game beginners to jump in blindly. Once played, one can recognize that various safety nets are well-designed so that even novices can manage intermediate difficulties and above, but diving in without prior knowledge is never easy. Nevertheless, with its thoughtful considerations for beginners, its attempt at a unique control scheme, and its dreamlike world design, 'Estella' is a title worth keeping an eye on for anyone interested in rhythm games. With the demo still available even after Steam Next Fest has ended, trying out its rhythm firsthand would be a great way to experience it.
