Backbeat (2023) Roadmap & Trophy Guide

Offline trophies: 24 (1, 6, 11, 6)
Missable trophies: no, there’s a level select
Glitched trophies: none
Difficulty trophies: none
Platforms: PS4, PS5
PS4/PS5 crossbuy: yes
Region stacks: no
Autopop: no

Introduction

Backbeat is a strategic puzzle game with a funkish twist. It was developed by indie studio Ichigoichie and is set in 1990s America. You have four characters to control, four threads in time, each of whom is responsible for a specific instrument and has their own unique move pattern. Your objective is to reach the goal area within a certain amount of moves, creating a funk masterpiece along the way. You can rewind as much as you want until you’re satisfied with the result. If you’ve played Peaky Blinders, or heard about this game, then Backbeat is kind of the same, but it is tied to music and rhythm, it is the main theme here.

In total, there are 27 main levels and 20 additional levels. You don’t have to get S-rank for additional levels and it’s possible to get platinum without playing them all but one, although they do make Gearhead trophy easier. Stages up to 6-1 serve as tutorials that teach basic ropes of the game. Starting 6-1, gameplay gradually gets more complicated, a player is introduced to new mechanics and have more things to worry about when aiming for S-rank.

All to all, the game is not difficult and there are no missable trophies. All levels can be replayed as many times as you need to get better results or a specific trick and/or trophy.

General info, terms

Timeline

Timeline is an indicator of your overall activity on a stage, it keeps track of how many moves you have in total, how many you spent and have left, when your characters turn, use power moves and perform solos. It’s very useful and helps you improve your performance to get higher score.

Power moves

Power moves are introduced at stages 12-1 and 13-1. Each character has a unique one.

“Watts” (bass) – Walks in small steps, which allows her to cover more ground.

Josh (drums) – Can break through walls, effectively creating shortcuts.

Toshi (keys) – Can slide through some obstacles (ex., bags of sand, NPCs).

Chaz (sax) – Can force NPCs to move/deter from their normal route.

These are very helpful to get higher rankings and are basically a necessity if you aim to get lots of Style Points (SP). They are actually intertwined with some puzzle solutions, so using them is pretty much a must on some levels. Plus, they can make your composition shine if done right.

You use special ability by holding L2 and pressing X while pointing a direction with left stick. You can’t use power moves whenever you feel like, however. First, your Power Meter needs to be charged up either by resting or making a move. You can check the current status at the bottom right corner, the bar is to the left of a character’s picture. Note, that you also need to have enough moves left on the timeline to be able to perform an ability, as it “eats up” at least half of the bar (in case of Josh, it can take up a full bar). On the timeline, special abilities are marked as stars.

Metrics

Metrics are indicators of how well you perform on a given stage. It updates your potential score after each move so you can rewind/correct your decision in real time depending on what you see there. If a metric drops to zero, you won’t be able to make a move and will have to rest ‘till it refills a bit.

There is a total of four metrics, Stagger, Align, Solo and Assist. However, they are not introduced all together. The first one you encounter is at stage 6-1, and it’s called Stagger.

To quote Cliff, Stagger “allows to keep the flow of music organic by everyone changing directions at different times.” In layman terms, your characters need to turn at different points of the game to keep Stagger meter high. Turns are marked as tiny play buttons on the timeline. It’s easy to follow early in the game and you will have no problem getting S, or even S+ rank until later stages.

Second metric is Align and it’s introduced on stage 10-1 “Give and Take.” Now, you can’t have your characters turn or interact whenever you feel like it, you ought to keep an eye on bar intervals, so that “music progresses in a more pleasant manner.” It helps to keep Align meter high to have characters turn/interact solos when you reach vertical marks on the timeline. If your next move places an action in between them, it’s best to rest for a turn or two until the next bar. Keep in mind, that you also have Stagger, you still can’t perform turns and actions at the same time with several characters. Although, it’s worth noting that the game can be forgiving. If you make a move that hurts Stagger or doesn’t Align well, you still can get S rank, but you need to be smart with it and not overdo it.

Last two meters, Solo and Assist, appear on stage 18-1. They are exactly what they sound like. With Solo, you need to let characters “do their magic” one after another without anyone butting in. Assist, on the contrary, requires you to have two characters (Toshi/Josh, Watts/Chaz, Watts/Toshi, Josh/Chaz) start their solo at the same time. A good move, when going for S-rank, would be to have these two parameters, Solo and Assist, switch back and forth like this: Solo – Assist – Solo – Assist (as an example). Stagger won’t get hurt, if you activate two solos at the same time. And, of course, Align everything!

Don’t get discouraged if you see a metric drops. You can’t keep them all maxed out all the time. It’s just not possible. Like the name of level 10-1 suggests, it’s about giving and taking in order to create something magical.

Style Points (SP)

You get to learn about style points at stage 14-1. SP is tied to your band level. The higher your band level is, the more instrument variants and effects is available for you. To unlock all of them, you’ll need to get at least 12,000 SP.

The way you earn SP is by performing tricks. There is a total of 16 tricks in the game and you unlock them all after completing level 14-1. You can exploit some tricks on one level multiple times to rack up more SP. Getting 12,000 is not particularly difficult, however, if you do struggle to accumulate necessary amount in main story alone, there are enough side missions that can help you get the rest.

Roadmap

Step 1. Just play through Backbeat main story (optional)

It’s recommended that you first just enjoy the game and don’t stress about ranks. Getting S is not particularly difficult here, but some stages might take you a couple of hours to solve, depending on how good you are at puzzles. So, just play, learn the mechanics and all the neaty-beaty tricks and by the end of the main story you should get an understanding of how the game works and how you can make things work for you.

If, however, you feel like jumping straight into action and want to focus on Legend trophy right from the get-go, then, please, refer to my separate guide, that will help you get S rank for all main story stages.

By the end of this step, you will get at least these trophies:

Swan Song
Novice
The art of sound
The father of sole
In the step 2525

Step 2. Replay levels focusing on S-rank

Getting rank S is not difficult. Game is forgiving and allows certain leeway when you work on metrics. While going for high score, you will, most likely, also get trophies for each of the metrics, as you need to have them full for high score anyway. So, after this step, you should have following trophies:

Intermediate

Advanced

Legend

It takes two to tango

Toot your own horn

Oh, how the turn tables

Bona fide Necrodancer

Pure perfection

Step 3. Replay levels focusing on Style Points and tricks, misc trophies

Now, that S-ranks are out of the way, you can focus on getting enough Style Points for Gearhead and other misc trophies. This is basically a clean-up. If you don’t want to replay same old levels, feel free to try side missions. Remember though, that the game rewards SP only starting stages 14-1. Anything before that is not worth going back to other than for fun.