“You Use Sound to Defeat Oppression” – Keylocker Shows How Music Stands Up to Power

At PAX West 2024, I had the pleasure of visiting Serenity Forge’s Booth. While each game there is special (I’ve said it before: Serenity Forge doesn’t miss), one really caught my eye: Keylocker, developed by Moonana. I’d played the demo before arriving at PAX, but was eager to get a chance to talk with Zsófi Hámori-Gecser, Serenity Forge’s Marketing Associate working closely with the developers on Keylocker (which arrives on basically all platforms on September 18th, including Steam.)

Keylocker’s combat is such a natural blend of Mario & Luigi RPGs and Chrono Trigger, its aesthetic is informed by everything from Earthbound to Cyberpunk, and its story and world have more inspirations than I can count. But, more than anything, Keylocker’s unique take on music as a tool to fight oppression (somewhere, Woody Guthrie’s guitar strums) shines through, and makes it stand out even among those inspirations. Naturally, then, I just had to know about how Keylocker tackles these ideas, what it does with it’s incredible, musical premise, and more.

But, enough of me prattling on. You came here for the show. And so, without further ado, my interview with Zsófi Hámori-Gecser about Keylocker:

She was able to answer quite a few of the questions I had about the game, and

Graves: I’m here with Zsófi at the Serenity Forge booth at PAX West 2024, and we’re here to talk about Keylocker. Zsófi is a Marketing Associate with Serenity Forge and works closely with the developers of Keylocker. But, before we get too far in, let me ask: what is Keylocker?

Zsófi Hámori-Gecser: Keylocker is a turn-based, tactical-combat game. It has cyberpunk elements and rhythm-flavored combat. You play as B0B0, who is born on Saturn. She is a bit rebellious. She’s a singer, but music was banned from the world, and so she is fighting the system to bring back sound to all of Saturn.

Graves: It has a very punk rock flair, with that combination of music and rebellion. Based on what you know of the developers, what do you think Keylocker has to say about the role of music and rebellion.

Zsófi: I think with the cyberpunk aesthetic, they were exploring music itself. The game’s aesthetics are pretty similar to their previous game, Virgo Versus the Zodiac, but with this game, the narrative is very deeply intertwined between music and fighting the system, which is what’s new. The classes in the game, for instance, connect both to different stories and different ways to use the music to fight your enemies. So the connection there is very direct: you use your sound to defeat oppression. It’s very powerful and deep. Even in the side stories.

Graves: Speaking of those side stories, I’m always curious: do you have a favorite side quest in the game?

Zsófi: Well, there is this minigame – definitely my favorite – where you can date NPCs throughout the game. Every NPC has something to say to you, but there are a few you can date. You just give them something to get the minigame started, and it’s a really cute and fun extra. I know that wasn’t as deep as the last question, but it’s true!

Graves: That’s okay, that’s fun! It still tied into the themes, I think. Because it is only through the connections between characters that let the game happen, both from a gameplay and narrative perspective. Let’s talk about that narrative perspective, in fact. Now, beyond B0B0 being rebellious on Saturn, what is she rebelling against?

Zsófi: Well, there is this Emperor of Saturn. He runs a corrupt system, but it is upheld by these powerful, immortal beings. But after one of them ends up being killed by her doppelganger when he comes to save her, that changes things, and from there she wants to bring down the system and bring music back, since now she knows she can. She also discovers some secrets during the first part of the game that help her to do this.

Graves: Just to go back to that: you said B0B0s’ doppelganger saved her. What is that?

Zsófi: Yes… Her doppelganger – Dealer is his name –  is kind of her brother, in a way. They are both doppelgangers, to be clear. They were born at the same time, and were made to fit within this society, but have different life trajectories. Like how B0B0 is rebellious, her doppelganger is just trying to make it by just getting by within the corrupt system. At least until he has to save her.

And when he saves her, it changes things. Not only does it make him rebel, which is good, but it also forces the hand of the Emperor, and these oppressors, to destroy the Scrapyard Zone – where B0B0 and millions of others live – by cutting them off from “the Tube,” which would kill them all.

Graves: There are definitely a lot of themes of rulers that have too much power, and have a cult of personality and strength behind them. And, on the other side, you have scrappy B0B0 – literally from the Scrapyard Zone – ready to fight against all that oppression. If we are being specific, what do you think is the message that players are going to take away from Keylocker?

Zsófi: Well, for some of it, you’ll have to play the game! But aside from that, one message that I’ve taken away… I think you have to look through your life and your surroundings and ask questions: Is it good? Is it bad? Is there a difference? Something these systems lie, and they’ve always been built on untruth. And so you have to look through that and find the truth. Well, you have to find your truth. And when you do, you can rebel against things that you learn you must stand against.

Graves: And the way that B0B0 does that most clearly is through her music, which is also her weapon. She starts with a guitar, she’s a singer, and those are also how she fights.

Zsófi: Yeah! That’s huge. There are actually many more weapons and instruments than just her guitar, too. All sorts. And a lot of the actions you can do – attacks, shields, and more – that you have to time. Some of the games have musical queues, some visual, but those rhythm-based things really tie music into it all. It’s all so musical.

Graves: Leaning into that: I know Keylocker has a composer, and a dedicated singer to sing B0B0’s songs. That begs the question: how many songs are there in Keylocker?

Zsófi: In total? There’s… a lot. Over 75 songs. Elektrobear [the Composer] has certainly put in a lot of work.

Graves: And from what I heard, the music is fantastic. Definitely a selling point. I mean, it’s all selling points, it seems like. The music, the story, the art. It’s all great. There are some obvious inspirations – Cyberpunk (both the game and the genre), the Super Mario RPGs, tons of JRPGS – but it’s clearly doing quite a lot itself. But I do want to ask about that: what are some other inspirations that are going into Keylocker?

Zsófi: Well! I mean, you got most of the bigs ones already. Um… There is also Chrono Trigger, specifically, and there is definitely a bit of Earthbound in there. But you got the big ones. Really, though, so much of it is new and fresh, that’s the really exciting part. Just how much creativity the developers have.

Graves: And that makes sense, given the subject matter. You have these themes of music – expression – being a weapon to use against authority. But, more than that, you have expression for players as well.

Zsófi: Yeah, there’s lots of that! Each character has a lot of different skill trees, gear, and abilities to choose from. You get to make a lot of decisions in quests. And you can even change the color palette of the game – and of B0B0 herself – to match how you want to play it. There is a lot of expression in Keylocker. It’s all about that. It’s your game to personalize. It’s how you fight oppression, and how you make the game your own.

Graves: I really like that, how expression can be used to fight authority and power. It seems so true to Keylocker. But I’ve only got so much context; I’ve seen the beginning of the journey in the demo, but as the demo ends, B0B0 is heading up an elevator, seemingly headed straight to both the literal and metaphorical top. So I have to ask: what happens next? Where does B0B0 go from there?

Zsófi: You’ll have to find out! I’ll tell you that B0B0 keeps rebelling, but nothing more. You’ll need to play.

Graves: That’s fair! And I certainly will be, when the game releases on September 18th on Steam, PlayStation, Switch, and XBOX. How was that for the pitch? Did I get those right?

Zsófi: Haha, yes you did! Exactly! I’m really excited to hear what you have to say about it.

Graves: And I’m excited to see it. Thank you again, Zsófi, for your time. 

As a reminder, Zsófi is not part of Moonana, the developer of Keylocker, but rather works for their publisher, Serenity Forge. Regardless, that certainly answered a lot of the questions I had about Keylocker’s story, but in case you are more curious about the gameplay, you can play the demo for the game here.

And, because I know that’ll leave you wanting more (especially after that interview), you can find the full game on Steam here, when it launches on September 18th.

It will also launch on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch, so there is no reason not to keep your eyes peeled for this colorful, cyberpunk ode to music itself.