Title: Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: Nippon Ichi Software America
Release Date: February 14th, 2023 (NA)
File Size: 3.8GB
Review copy provided by NIS America
After 5 years, NIS have released the sequel to Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk! Actually the game originally released in Japan all the way back November 26th, 2020 for PS4 and Vita (despite the latter being discontinued in Japan by then), and only finally released the Switch port a year later on November 11th, 2021 in Japan. Well it took a bit over a year after that for the localized version on Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC to be released in the west. So how does this fare compared to its predecessor? Will you enter the wardrobe and survive the labyrinth or get turned into minced meat? Let’s find out!
Introducing our main protagonists; the young Eureka, and her new mentor Marta Macaronage!
Like Refrain, this game is a classic first-person dungeon crawler, also similar to games like Atlus’ Etrian Odyssey series. Story-wise, this time you play as the young girl named Eureka, who took up an ad for a job to find lost items at this manor. After a long trip, she arrives and meets an old woman who calls herself Madam Marta, but Eureka adorably calls her Madam Granny. It turns out her knack for finding lost items is more for the purpose of exploring the mysterious labyrinth that you reach via the magic wardrobe (but not Narnia in this universe, sadly). The items to find? Curios (the plural “s” is silent), which are mysterious artifacts of great interest to her and her boss the Count.
But young Eureka isn’t the one to go into the wardrobe, as humans can’t go and come back through said wardrobe without becoming minced meat (the wardrobe is funny that way), and that’s where you come in! You actually manifest as this one-eyed blob flame… thing, who is connected to this object called the Lanterne de Fantasmagorie (or as Eureka calls it, Fantie!). This object is what’s used to enter the wardrobe. Eureka becomes soul-bonded to Fantie, and Eureka sort of in her mind enters the labyrinth as Fantie. but Fantie is merely the controller so to speak, the actual main explorers and fighters are your puppet soldiers.
This is the first taste of the dungeon with a pre-made puppet party to start with (you make your own right afterwards).
After the tutorial where you’re given a temporary party of pre-made soldiers, you’re given 3 soul pacts by Marta to create your own party from scratch. You can choose from three classes and two genders of each, along with three different appearances for each of those and a number of color options. Then you name them (you can rename them later for a price), decide their skills, their fav thing, their preferred stats and stat growth rates, etc. Once that’s done you’re ready to go… after some lengthy (fully-voiced!) portrait cutscenes.
If you’ve played these sorts of games before then you’ll know what to expect. You take one step at a time, and each step is like a turn. The enemy (at first they’re invisible but soon you unlock the ability (Fantiebility) to see them as black orbs) then moves a space alongside your move. You can collect items from gold chests by manually opening them, as well as barrels, crates, and sparkly spots by simply walking over them. These are normally your basic items mind you. Anyway another thing you’ll find scattered are mana spots. These will be either green orbs which give a decent amount or a green spot on a wall which are usually less I think. But both times you’re shown a roulette and get a random amount that’s quickly looped so you can try to aim for a high number if you pay enough attention.
A battle with one of the characters performing a critical hit, striking menacing damage and looking adorable all at once!
Combat is your usually turn-based fare. Your characters naturally have advantages or disadvantages depending on their class and weapon choice seemingly. But of note is how some characters do more when in the front row while others do more from the back row. Each character also has your typical magic meter, here called dorum. Each character seems to start with a healing dorum skill called Instant Aid, and you’ll NEED it. Labyrinths lack healing spots, so you’ll have to make do with what limited healing items you have. Speaking of, puppet soldiers can lose parts which you can heal but for a price. I find that the labyrinth is VERY difficult for what you have on hand, but there is a way to remedy this! Marta offers something called Petitions. These are special things you can buy with the mana you have, and for only 333 mana (you begin with 1000), you can reduce the difficulty. I find this makes the labyrinth FAR more manageable. You can also buy more Fantiebilities as well as they show up in the Petitions shop.
As you progress in the game, you start to unlock abilities that literally open things up more for you. Chief example is the ability to break down most walls. Some walls even stay broken permanently. However, the ability costs 3 Reinforce points (the number on the top left of the dungeon screen), but as you start with 100, and you gradually regain some as you go on, it’s not a great concern unless you’re a human wrecking ball or something. A word of caution are the bottomless pits, which a number can be on the other side of walls. If you fall, you will take a lot of damage and could even be trapped with little else to do but die. Remember, if you’re running low on health and/or dorum points, you can always just head back to the entrance where you came from the wardrobe and freely exit the dungeon with your mana and such gained. You lose a big chunk of mana and even risk damage to your puppets if you all die in the dungeon. Again I recommend using the easy mode if you’re not a huge veteran of these games.
Here’s a look at the customization options for when you create your puppet. Lots of options to choose from!
Visually the game looks alright. The character designs of Eureka and Marta look wonderful, however for some reason, despite the game likely being made for the Vita hardware (it looks like it), the labyrinth only runs at 30fps. Battles run at 60fps though so that’s good. I do love that when your puppets deliver a critical hit in battle, an adorable chibi version on themselves pop up and hit the opponent. Audio-wise the game is very extensively voiced in cutscenes and the voices of Eureka and Marta are very well done. There exchanges between the two are really enjoyable and I’m eager to see how things develop between them. All of the puppets get a choice of three voices per gender so you get a nice pick to fit your tastes hopefully. The music’s alright, it’s a the usual “spooky”, Halloween fare you’d expect from NIS, it gets the job done.
Overall this is a good game of course and especially for veterans of the DRPG genre. There’s some options for you if you need and easier time which is a must as these tend to be traditionally difficult games if you tread lightly. The game does a good job of teaching you the ropes and helping you follow along. You get a decent amount of customization options for your puppet party as you’re given parts to build your army up. The characters are fun, and yeah, I definitely give it a high recommendation.
You’ll Love:
+ Puppet customization options are nice and varied. With choices of genders, voices, colors, skills, growth rates, etc.
+ Eureka and Marta are great characters and the voice-acting is fantastic to match.
+ Options including an easy-to-purchase easy mode for dungeons from the get-go are greatly appreciated.
+ Has screenshot and video capture support.
You’ll Hate:
– Nothing major, other than the oddity of the dungeon exploration only running in 30fps when it really doesn’t look taxing in the slightest for the Switch. Battles are a smooth 60fps. That’s the only major critique.
– Actually one other minor critique is how LONG cutscenes can drag on for before you can even save and quit in-between. So be prepared for that.
8/10
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