The Caligula Effect

amazon The Caligula Effect reviews

Sony’s PS Vita system is still a “dead” system compared to Nintendo’s direct rival 3DS due to the extremely limited number of game titles. Nowadays, several Vita game titles are appearing every month. Still, mostly they usually come with the PS4 or PC versions with a small price difference, so few people buy the Vita version unless they need it entertainment on the go. Not only that, the number of exclusive games per year of this Vita is so low that it is enough to count on one hand because developers in Japan are no longer interested in this system, but if they do, they are only available in the domestic market.

That’s why Atlus announcing the release of Vita-exclusive The Caligula Effect in the West was a rare surprise. Persona’s publisher is interested in this game because they see its great potential through the name Tadashi Satomi, the writer behind the success of Persona 2: Innocent Sin, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, and the first Persona title.

However, according to the writer’s personal feelings, The Caligula Effect is far from reaching the level of the ancient legends.

The point where The Caligula Effect makes a deep impression on players is the unique combat system. The developer blends tactical and role-playing elements smoothly, creating a novelty for the player. Japanese role-playing genre. At the beginning of each battle phase, players will choose from three actions for each character, and especially after deciding, you can preview this sequence of steps.

However, there are still cases that miss or the enemy can block, leading to the next attack sometimes not going as the player wants, creating a small surprise. The game-like preview feature is an interesting mechanic. It allows players to develop different attack methods from existing skills, as long as they have to time the skills precisely.

However, this mechanic has a small minus point when players are only interested in this feature if they face powerful or challenging enemies, which rarely happens in The Caligula Effect. So most of the time in the game, you need to “spam” a familiar attack skill to overcome weak enemy types instead of planning in detail as the developer wants.

Another point that makes the combat mechanism stand out and the main feature of The Caligula Effect is the music. Every time you enter a battle, the music automatically changes to a version with lyrics that create excitement for the player due to the characteristics of the plot. Hence, the songs throughout the game are full of “Japanese idols” and have a cheerful look, easy to hear. However, this makes the picky game players if they are not familiar with this type of music because they repeat quite often.

There is a combat system that is not so bad, but unfortunately, the design of the screen and the script in The Caligula Effect are both outdated compared to today’s games. Almost every chapter in the game repeats a familiar motif: After a progression in the story, the player discovers a new “dungeon,” adventure, and finds a composer for the music μ, which then ends with a boss battle. In a word, the game belongs to the type of “dungeon crawler” commonly found in Japan but from a third-person perspective.

Those who have played through Persona games should be familiar with these situations. Still, the way The Caligula Effect inspires players is unmatched because most players will have to experience it. Through poorly designed and tasteless, lifeless dungeons. Besides, the number of enemies is similar; only the appearance is different. Such repetition makes it difficult for players to stick with this game for a long time.

The Caligula Effect has many new and potential ideas, but the developer implements them quite half-heartedly and sometimes turns them into redundant features because of too big ambitions. One of the most recognizable redundant points in the game is befriending NPCs called Causality Link. Surely when looking at this name, fans of Persona will easily associate the Social Link system, and if you hope The Caligula Effect has the same appeal, you are wrong.

Instead of encapsulating in a group of people familiar with the main character like Persona, the Causality Link system shows greater ambition when allowing players to befriend more than 500 NPCs who are students at Mobius. Accordingly, once the affection level with these NPCs reaches a certain level, you will be rewarded with side quests or new skills. However, to make friends, you have to repeat actions such as talking to each NPC to see meaningless dialogues that easily bring boredom.

In addition, the side quests also constantly overlap in terms of mechanics such as: finding lost objects, talking to someone, or killing enemies on demand. With the “quantity compensated for quality,” it is easy to see why this feature is not attractive to players. If the developer had lowered the number of NPCs and focused on building the plot, things would have differed.

Besides, The Caligula Effect also has limitations on PS Vita that make things even worse. Although the image in the game is nothing special, the frame rate is always unstable, especially when there are many enemies on the screen. Sometimes, the loading time of the game screen takes a long time, making the player more frustrated.

where can you get a The Caligula Effect online

The Caligula Effect: Overdose – PlayStation 4: Buy it now

The Caligula Effect Premium Bundle – PS Vita [Digital Code]: Buy it now

The Caligula Effect: Overdose: Buy it now

The Caligula Effect: Overdose (PS4): Buy it now