Welcome to our review of The Caligula Effect Overdose, a very elaborate Role Playing Game brought to us by Nippon Ichi Software!
Something’s amiss in the seemingly perfect world of Mobius. Escape from the false paradise and return to reality, or risk losing more than just your identity!
School is back in session! The Caligula Effect: Overdose boasts enhanced visuals and gameplay, including new characters, new scenarios, new endings, and the mysterious “Forbidden Musician Route”! Play as the newly-added female protagonist, develop and execute flawless battle strategies with the Imaginary Chain, befriend and recruit over 500 students to your cause, or turn the tables and sabotage the Go-Home Club’s efforts to return to the real world!
The Caligula Effect Overdose is a role-playing game in many ways and also in certain aspects, it is not. There is so much to say about this game so let us start with some of the bad things! Quite surprising, is it not? Well, the biggest downside to this game is what it advertises as the main part of the story, the friendship parts of the story. With literally hundreds of characters to encounter and to “befriend them all” is a task in itself. Mind you that most of them are just shallow relationships but the ones with the main characters become very deep and elaborate.
At first, this game will feel like a typical A to B walking style of game, at first stuck in the big school in the virtual Mobius world. Soon after, you will encounter more and more different worlds and each time finding an enemy boss (being vague on purpose as to not spoil any of the story here). The worlds feel very virtual and the vibe you get, just right for the story.
Battles are a true work of art visually, it looks amazing and despite not being the best fighting system, there are some upsides to how this game plays! I loved how it was more or less turn-based, but with the ability to perform self-made combinations, my preferred way to attack was 2 physical attacks and recovery to keep my virtual health up. Once you get your virtual friends to help you fight, that is when the action suddenly becomes real fun instead of the stale first impression I got.
Personally, I would describe the game of a dungeon crawler, but a really pretty one. The graphics in this game are very impressive to say the least. Most of the time, you would think you were watching an anime. The Caligula Effect Overdose does things right and the action is also very fluent. From what I heard, the original barely managed to get 20 frames per second while this one maintains a steady 60. For those interested, the Switch version supposedly does a stable 30. This information came from friends with more knowledge on the matter and a shout out to Jaz for the help!
What did bother me about this game though, my lack of being to want to play for very long sessions. I was mostly getting tired of the constant befriending or the fighting that I barely once had continuous gameplay over an hour. To give you an idea, World Seeker had a single 5-hour session just last week. So despite being used to longer sessions, I was unable to keep my attention up. This is a definite negative point for the game.
Overall, I am amused by the storyline though I honestly can not say how deep into this 20+ hour game I will get in the end. Many other games are trying to get my attention in more than one way and despite my feeling that I would continue if this was the slow season of summer, right now, I really doubt The Caligula Effect Overdose can bring enough for me to keep playing.
In conclusion, The Caligula Effect Overdose has its ups and downs. The version we are getting, offers more of everything but that might end up being counterproductive to some. My most beloved aspect of this game is the futuristic virtual look and on a little sidenote, the first time I saw Mobius, I thought I was in Kichijoji (next to Tokyo) again. It looks familiar yet virtual at the same time. Gameplay is decent enough for a passing score, the often boring reading bits don’t do the game any service, but hey, maybe I do not want to make friends with several hundred people?
