The Caligula Effect 2 from NIS America has finally made its way to PlayStation 5. Following directly after the events of the first game, The Caligula Effect: Overdose, The Caligula Effect 2 tells a brand new tale that will immediately suck you in with its intrigue.
The Caligula Effect 2
Without wasting any time, The Caligula Effect 2 introduces players to “Regret”, a Virtuadoll that has created the world of “Redo”. Once you’ve selected your character, you’ll slowly but surely be introduced to the more complex story nuances which can get quite a bit complicated the further you go along.
Your playable character stares up at the sky and notices a crack in it. After talking to a friend about it, you’ll brush it off as nothing but things escalate when suddenly you’re attacked by your fellow classmates. They aren’t just your ordinary classmates though. They’ve been afflicted with some dark energy and are pretty much monsters at this point.
Your playable character soon discovers an inner voice and without spoiling too much, the virtuadoll, χ, emerges from your consciousness. Together with χ, you’ll defeat your opponents and escape with the help of another classmate who hasn’t been affected. This is where The Caligula Effect 2 really gets going with players being introduced to the first of the Obbligato Musicians, Regret’s powerful servants who ensure the smooth operating of the world of Redo.
The Caligula Effect 2’s story revolves around players interacting with each other and the virtuadoll, χ, as they learn about their hidden pasts and their unrealised dreams. Taking down the Obbligato Musicians and ultimately Regret is χ’s goal and your team of characters will form the “Go-Home Club” and try to escape Redo.
The Caligula Effect 2 does its storytelling in a visual novel-esque manner with lengthy character conversations that play out through exploring levels and in cutscenes. If you’ve played games such as Persona before, you’ll feel right at home here. Some of the story segments can be quite long but the visual presentation is extremely well done despite the game’s lackluster graphics.
Gameplay in The Caligula Effect 2 involves a slightly tweaked JRPG turn-based formula. Players will have to make use of the “Imaginary Chain” to predict their enemies moves and align their own moves with those of their allies and opponents to do the most damage and gain a tactical advantage. Before you select your moves, you can see them play out and shift them along a track based on what exactly you want to do.
For example, you can time one of your character’s attacks that launches an opponent into the air with another character’s attack that can deal massive damage to opponents who have their shield or guard broken. Combining attacks in this manner is essential to winning battles and some battles can be quite tough if you don’t apply strategies like these.
On top of the standard attacks, characters also have special attacks that they can pull off. These are incredibly flashy and it’s always satisfying to see these attacks dealing massive damage to opponents. Χ can also assist you in battles by performing a song which can grant you increased stats or other bonuses which really help you even more in battles should the need arise.
The combat system is excellent and learning how each character works as well as how you can combine their attacks with each other along with χ is incredibly satisfying. You’ll be mixing and matching attacks and special attacks in no time.
Exploring levels is done in a linear fashion with not much room for free roaming here due to the limited size of the maps on offer. This can become a bit repetitive but it’s a significant improvement over the first game with the locales this time around being a lot better in general. Graphically, The Caligula Effect 2 is lacklustre though with the environments not looking like a next-generation title at all.
Thankfully battles are flashy and have quite a lot of effects going on however the environments look rather bland and lacking. Character animations can also look a bit stiff in cutscenes. The actual character designs themselves as well as their visual representations in dialogue look great though with a distinct visual aesthetic that works so well in-game.
The Soundtrack of The Caligula Effect 2 is filled with absolute banger after absolute banger. Right from the first level, you’ll immediately know that you’re in for a treat here. While the graphics themselves might not be amazing, the soundtrack and sound design in this game is ridiculously good with tracks even having altered effects to them in battles. For example, one of the tracks may fade in or out or get distorted depending on what’s happening in battle. It’s something that is done masterfully in-game and the sound team deserves a tonne of praise for this.
The voice acting of the main characters is also really good with veteran Japanese voice actors lending their talents to bring the characters to life. Unfortunately, there isn’t an English dub here. The translation of the Japanese spoken words to English is a tad hit and miss though and if you understand Japanese, you’ll definitely notice this even more. An early example of a more obvious localization quirk is the word “Cyborg” quite literally being said by the Japanese voice actor but being translated as “Machine” in the game. It’s not exactly a game-breaking issue but it is noticeable and in JRPGs, this does tend to happen.
With all of that said, the storytelling in this game is excellent throughout. You’ll be drawn into its world and want to know more about its characters and their backstories. It’s truly well done and the best part is that you don’t even need to have played the first game to enjoy this. This is an entirely separate new adventure with some passing references to the first game that won’t matter too much to newcomers.
Final Verdict
Overall, The Caligula Effect 2 is an excellent game with fantastic storytelling and ideas that has a great soundtrack. It’s a shame that the translation work didn’t extend as far as the music goes because the song lyrics when translated really add to the game’s atmosphere and overall vibe. The presentation might be lacking a bit with some less than stellar visuals but the character designs are top notch and the flashy effects in battle along with the tactical battle system mitigate these issues.
This is an amazing JRPG and one that fans of the genre should definitely pick up. You’ll laugh and you’ll most certainly cry at points throughout this game. The Caligula Effect 2 is a great sequel to the first game and Furyu have done a great job here even with its minor flaws.
For more reviews head here https://invisioncommunity.co.uk/category/review/
You must be logged in to post a comment.