(5/10)

This makes a really rough first impression, starting off with one of the most bizarrely structured intros I’ve seen from a JRPG, its low budget immediately apparent with the shoddy presentation, and following up with dungeons that I had to drag myself through to stay interested in continuing. Still, I pushed past the first few hours and by the end I guess I didn’t hate it? It does have some good qualities that aren’t apparent at first, which could’ve made for something more compelling if it weren’t let down by its other aspects

The game revolves around a bunch of students trapped in a virtual world called Mobius that’s meant to be an escape from harsh reality, and your group called the “Go-Home Club” tries to fight the Musicians keeping everyone captive and break out. The story itself’s kinda lackluster, but where it shines more than I expected is with the characters. Each get their own scenarios where you can learn more about their trauma and what secrets they’re hiding about themselves, eventually figuring out their true personalities in the real world. In addition you can actually decide to side with the Musicians early on and become one of them as Lucid, secretly working with both teams throughout the game. Some are handled better than others, but it generally does a good job fleshing out not just the main cast between dungeons, but also the villains who get their own scenarios too. I enjoyed this part of the game the most

Though there’s also another aspect called Causality Links, where you can actually talk to any NPC in the game and form a bond with them for passive skills. But instead of just a handful, there’s over 500 walking around each with their own name and quest. Conceptually this is interesting, but unfortunately doesn’t work well since that’s far too many to keep track of and their interactions are shallow. So beyond a couple I didn’t bother with this part much

The combat’s fine if too simplistic. It’s turn based, and you can see how everyone’s turn plays out before you chose it which lets you set up stronger attacks and combos (it won’t show if you miss your attacks though which does happen very often). But there’s not much variation to speak of aside for a few basic skills you’ll unlock as you level up

Unfortunately it gets pretty repetitive simply because of how bad the dungeon design is. Every single one is just a maze of the same environment asset that gets progressively more tedious as it forces you to take the most long winded paths toward your objective. You’re likely to wander aimlessly if you aren’t staring at the map since the pathways go on forever, and it’s made even worse that you’re running into the same type of enemies the entire game. On top of that you have to go through all these dungeons twice if you opt to join the Musicians…

I did like the music at least, especially with how the dungeon tracks only switched to vocals whenever in battles which made them less fatiguing to listen to. And despite the lackluster 3D visuals, the menu and character art was cool

I’d hesitate to recommend it given its flaws, but wouldn’t say my time was wasted. If you can get past the frankly awful first few hours and it's poor dungeons then this might be worth checking out. I’m curious to see how the sequel improves on it

(Update: The sequel's a dramatically better game to the point I would just skip this one and go directly to that lol)

Reviewed on Sep 03, 2022


5 Comments


1 year ago

I'm maybe 3 hours into it and so far you impression is spot on. I like the art and music but the rest is kinda....but i'm gonna push through.

1 year ago

@FallenGrace Yeah, it has its positives but it’s not a good game imo. Struggled to finish

The Caligula Effect 2 is far better though, honestly if this isn’t clicking I’d just move on to that since it’s mostly standalone

1 year ago

I saw the reviews that the 2nd is much better...but I'm stubborn lol. I can't say I hate what I played it's just a bit dull but the idea is interesting even if the execution feels poorly implemented.

1 year ago

Nope I take that back, I just can't, the first dungeon goes on forever.....

1 year ago

Don’t blame you lol