Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk is a first-person dungeon-crawler RPG using a party of 5 characters chosen from 6 classes. Later it seems like you can have 5 groups of 3 characters acting as one party with a mix of classes together. "Become the living book, Tractatus de Monstrum, and command a brigade of puppet soldiers as you navigate the twisting passageways of the Labyrinth of Refrain. When at your base, prepare for your journey by upgrading your brigade! Create new puppet soldiers, assign them different squads and formations, synthesize better equipment, take requests from townsfolk, and get assistance from Dronya in the form of Witch Petitions. Once you've entered the labyrinth, be sure to search every nook and cranny as you jump over barricades, solve puzzles, and smash your way through walls to delve further and further downward in search of treasure and rare artifacts. But be careful, the more riches you obtain, the more vicious the dungeon becomes. Can you survive long enough to bring your haul back? Fight past terrifying monsters by giving orders to your puppet brigade. Change their formation, use special skills, or call for an all-out attack! The battles you face will be challenging, so your success depends on your preparation and your strategy."
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This review contains spoilers
I originally got this game on Switch around 2019, I remember bouncing off of it due to being stuck on a specific story section (don't remember what exactly). Now here I am giving this a positive review after finishing the post-game labyrinth on PC. What gives? Well, I bought the sequel (Labyrinth of Galleria) a few months after it came out west last year and LOVED that one, though I never finished it due to burnout. I then got the urge to play through Labyrinth of Refrain again and saw it on sale for $15. These are my thoughts about it after just finishing the post-game labyrinth and getting the true ending.
Pros
- The visuals for the dungeons are quite nice and distinct from each other, this is one of the big draws that Refrain has over Galleria for me. Refrain's dungeons are alternate worlds all connected to the main story in some way, while Galleria's are more so One Big Dungeon with the exact same tiles except now blue/red/yellow-tinged. The standouts for me were: Verdant Phenom, The Astrom Kingdom, and Dusken Tanis.
- The voice acting and general story/characters are compelling, it kept me going through some of the cryptic bits that the game has. I found that Neldo and Madam Dronya/Velnya were my favourite characters during my playthrough. Neldo because I found him generally intriguing while with Madam Dronya/Velnya, I found her asshole-ness charming and gave me a big reason to continue through those cryptic parts. I wanted to see where she went and how her actions would steer the plot.
- You can do a lot with the upgrade systems of this game. There's the ability to transfer your existing puppet soldier souls into a new body, these reset their level to 1 but it increases the stats gained on level ups. You can also transfer into a different Facet (think a Job from FF) to get their passives for a build you're planning out. You can also upgrade weapons/armor/accessories with other gear pieces you're not using. This can get very number-crunchy!
Cons
- This game can be very cryptic at times on how to progress in the main story. I got lost and turned around repeatedly in the main story, Amadeus Necropolis and the Three Towers of Umbra are the big offenders here. I had no idea I had to interact with Porte on a "daily" basis in Amadeus, by daily I mean "interact with her 3 times and leave, repeat". I had to get that pointed out by the friend I was playing the game with. Getting to the third tower in Umbra was also a massive pain in the ass, it's behind a dark room maze that I had to google a map for because I kept getting turned around by the constant walls I was breaking down.
- Some of the story scenes might be too much for some, there's 2 scenes of sexual assault in the main story. I was able to get past these, others might be repulsed by them. I thought they (the writing staff) handled the subject matter well personally, I thought I should mention it as this can be a massive negative for some.
Overall, I think I can recommend Labyrinth of Refrain if you're looking for a good DRPG to start with. With a twisty dark narrative and satisfactory dungeon exploration. It regularly goes on sale on PC for about $12-15 USD. At that pricepoint, it is a very easy recommendation for me to make.
Pros
- The visuals for the dungeons are quite nice and distinct from each other, this is one of the big draws that Refrain has over Galleria for me. Refrain's dungeons are alternate worlds all connected to the main story in some way, while Galleria's are more so One Big Dungeon with the exact same tiles except now blue/red/yellow-tinged. The standouts for me were: Verdant Phenom, The Astrom Kingdom, and Dusken Tanis.
- The voice acting and general story/characters are compelling, it kept me going through some of the cryptic bits that the game has. I found that Neldo and Madam Dronya/Velnya were my favourite characters during my playthrough. Neldo because I found him generally intriguing while with Madam Dronya/Velnya, I found her asshole-ness charming and gave me a big reason to continue through those cryptic parts. I wanted to see where she went and how her actions would steer the plot.
- You can do a lot with the upgrade systems of this game. There's the ability to transfer your existing puppet soldier souls into a new body, these reset their level to 1 but it increases the stats gained on level ups. You can also transfer into a different Facet (think a Job from FF) to get their passives for a build you're planning out. You can also upgrade weapons/armor/accessories with other gear pieces you're not using. This can get very number-crunchy!
Cons
- This game can be very cryptic at times on how to progress in the main story. I got lost and turned around repeatedly in the main story, Amadeus Necropolis and the Three Towers of Umbra are the big offenders here. I had no idea I had to interact with Porte on a "daily" basis in Amadeus, by daily I mean "interact with her 3 times and leave, repeat". I had to get that pointed out by the friend I was playing the game with. Getting to the third tower in Umbra was also a massive pain in the ass, it's behind a dark room maze that I had to google a map for because I kept getting turned around by the constant walls I was breaking down.
- Some of the story scenes might be too much for some, there's 2 scenes of sexual assault in the main story. I was able to get past these, others might be repulsed by them. I thought they (the writing staff) handled the subject matter well personally, I thought I should mention it as this can be a massive negative for some.
Overall, I think I can recommend Labyrinth of Refrain if you're looking for a good DRPG to start with. With a twisty dark narrative and satisfactory dungeon exploration. It regularly goes on sale on PC for about $12-15 USD. At that pricepoint, it is a very easy recommendation for me to make.
this game is kinda slop but like awesome slop
I had high hopes going into Labyrinth of Refrain and for the most part It did not disappoint, there was a moment while playing this where I thought Refrain could genuinely surpass Mary Skelter and become the best DRPG I've ever played, unfortunately all of that went out the window when I got to the postgame, It was already on it's way out leading up to the end of the maingame, the common battles had devolved into mindless auto attacking, press Y and fast forward, and even then they still take forever. the gameplay really peaks during the bossfights which are a ton of fun and ask a lot of you which makes it feel awesome when you win! But personally I don't feel like there's enough of them and getting from one boss to the next can also take a while. However the game really challenged me when I got to the postgame, everything positive I felt about the game just disappeared and I honestly wanted to drop it, nothing could have prepared me for the amount of grinding I had to do to get through it, and even when I did, it didn't feel worth it. For what it's worth the maingame is fine and the story and it's characters are incredibly engaging and had me at the edge of my seat for most of it, so if you don't care about 100% I would highly recommend Labyrinth of Refrain, otherwise... Maybe think about it and do your research, this game will test you. 6/10
This review contains spoilers
Never forget they stole Maylee Dronya from us.
Horrendous early game that leads to a complete cakewalk of a mid and late game when your units are built so stupid strong you're just instakilling and gore hitting on every single attack, post game bosses are hell though and will drive you insane with their gimmicks and overstated bodies, exploration was also fun especially when you unlock the move that just lets you destroy any dungeon wall.
Story wasn't really my thing, the twist was nice but overall it just felt edgy for the sake of being edgy, it doesn't help that 90% of this game's story is character building flashbacks which after you know the twist essentially contribute nothing to the progression of the main narrative.
Story wasn't really my thing, the twist was nice but overall it just felt edgy for the sake of being edgy, it doesn't help that 90% of this game's story is character building flashbacks which after you know the twist essentially contribute nothing to the progression of the main narrative.
midest mid with the greatest gameplay (even forgot to put in completed here lol)