With puppet soldiers in your hands, become Tractatus de Monstrum, the living book bound to explore the Labyrinth of Refrain and its secrets!
Nippon Ichi Software brings yet another rpg title from its library in our hands! From the creators of Disgaea, Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk makes its appearance in all popular platforms, including Steam, PS4 and Nintendo Switch!
This dungeon crawler has its charm and surely will make it into many people's wishlists, fairly so too, but let us say that it goes a bit deeper than the all around reviews! So jump in and sit tight, because this time we shall also dive alongside Tractie, the living book, into some pages about the game it originates from!
PLOT AND DEVELOPMENT:
Labyrinth of Refrain takes us back in an era that witches and magic is hunt down and yet, our main character or more likely hostess of the game, is indeed a witch.
Dronya and her young apprentice Luca are requested to explore the Labyrinth of Refrain, which is placed in the center of the City of Refrain through something called Well of Kalazah. But of course such a place is forbidden, closed off due to its high miasma levels, deadly even for such a powerful witch such as Dronya herself. In all of this lays one solution, the living monstrous book, Tractatus de Monstrum (or Tractie for short) which is able to control puppet soldiers bestowed by the witch to get to the deepest parts of the labyrinth.
Dronya and her young apprentice Luca are requested to explore the Labyrinth of Refrain, which is placed in the center of the City of Refrain through something called Well of Kalazah. But of course such a place is forbidden, closed off due to its high miasma levels, deadly even for such a powerful witch such as Dronya herself. In all of this lays one solution, the living monstrous book, Tractatus de Monstrum (or Tractie for short) which is able to control puppet soldiers bestowed by the witch to get to the deepest parts of the labyrinth.
Although the story has a good base its development is a bit slow, not necessarily a bad thing since the voice acting is wonderful! It surely is a grim and dark story, decorated with the feeling of an eerie classic dungeon crawler rpg. Its scenario makes you want to find more about the labyrinth yourself and what might be down there.
Character-wise, the humor they have in their dialogues is a bit childish at times but overall they are solid characters, with moments of shine and although some more prominent than others, the game does a good job in bringing out the backstory of everyone tying it together with their present goals and situations.
Character-wise, the humor they have in their dialogues is a bit childish at times but overall they are solid characters, with moments of shine and although some more prominent than others, the game does a good job in bringing out the backstory of everyone tying it together with their present goals and situations.
ARTSTYLE AND GRAPHICS:
If you like Disgaea and Etrian Odyssey, you will most likely enjoy the art and design of Labyrinth of Refrain. Its art is bright and colorful when it comes to characters, the anime-style it develops fitting everything it goes for while also followed by grim, dark fantasy inspired monsters and locations. The way that the characters pop out through every little background and battle, while on the other hand the enemies blend with their surroundings, is something very charming the game has.
As far as graphic goes, there are no models of the characters except some sprites flying in which is a bummer, so I can only touch upon the battle graphics since the overworld/dungeon graphic are included in the art section of this part. They are nothing 'wow' or jaw dropping, they are simple yet effective, although some more flare on their part would totally not hurt.
SOUNDTRACK:
Although nothing spectacular or fully out there, the soundtrack of Labyrinth of Refrain is a well orchestrated bundle of tracks... Buuuut that is about it. They are well done, fitting with the quirky art style, plot and humor of the game itself. But sadly, at least for my tastes, they were upholding a very mediocre status in my head. None of the songs made me want to go search it, listen to it again, simply I accepted it was a background music for while I was going through the dungeon floors or the cutscenes. Sometimes I would even get tired of it if I am being completely honest, so my brain would go into auto pilot mode, especially during grinding sessions. So, at the end of the day, it was a decent soundtrack, just not something I would listen to a regular basis or go out of my way to search again.
GAMEPLAY AND CONTROLS:
Like every good and typical dungeon crawler, of the ones that stay true to their tested formula that is, Labyrinth of Refrain implements the floor and area mechanic as well as puzzles around each dungeon. The controls are simple and the mechanics actually more complex than you think! Hitting in specific order, ways, with weakness or not, to activate the resonance boost is a lot more troublesome than what the tutorial explanations make it out to be.
I don't have a lot to touch upon the controls, they run smoothly, you move with your d-pad or joystick and use your action buttons to perform different skills through the shortcut menu. But now, the gameplay is what I really really want to go into, so without further ado...
It is a pain in the butt, or was for me at the very least! The game is so so interesting, the customization options for the puppets that Tractie carries are cool and nifty, it binds everything it has created in its universe so well that it is a shame to lose points just because of a few gameplay mishaps. But it will.
The missions the game gives you not only they are very, and I do mean very vague, they are so abstract that for half of the time you don't know where you are going for them. You end up using resources only for you to return back to the caravan and jump in... Did I mention that going through the Labyrinth itself is a pain?
The missions the game gives you not only they are very, and I do mean very vague, they are so abstract that for half of the time you don't know where you are going for them. You end up using resources only for you to return back to the caravan and jump in... Did I mention that going through the Labyrinth itself is a pain?
Sadly there is not an auto-move feature or a fast travel except if you have traveled deep in the dungeon you are in, in the first place. There are no indicators of the areas ending on a certain floor that is obvious and some levels are stupidly accessed, it was one of the few dungeon crawlers I had to actively look up guides on HOW to get pass a certain dungeon floor without getting lost, poisoned, damaged or chased down by the MANY and I mean MANY enemies that kept respawning and respawning!
Overall, I was very pleased with its controls and performance, nothing ground breaking but also nothing that made me suffer... Not like the damn gameplay did... It was one of the games that made me put down the controller and say "No, enough is enough, I am taking a break." not only because of the annoyance I had to travel through each area, but also just because of the extreme difficulty spike in-between each area floor. That said, I do believe that people might not have such an issue with it, instead they can learn to enjoy its challenge and find the silver lining through its charms!
TIME TO PRICE VALUE:
The game is by no means expensive, a digital copy as well as a physical one will hold you back around 25€ to max 30€ and it has plenty of content to go around. The DLCs are not too impactful but for sure will make your life a tad bit easier, but even without them the game is completely possible. Now when it comes to playtime, although a long game, taking you around 70-80 hours to beat, the majority of the time is spent grinding and trying to find your way around your missions, more so than enjoying the story and game itself, which is something that drops its value in terms of its price in my eyes.
FINAL VERDICT:
PROS:
-Art and Design (The characters as well as locations, even the enemies, have that special feeling that mixes classic and modern games, truly worthy of praise!)
-Voice Acting (All the cutscenes are voice acted, excellently so!)
-Unique Story (Its plotline is fairly unique, interesting to explore and look into!)
-Smooth Controls (It is a classic formula of dungeon crawler controls, no surprise it is a win!)
-Price (For the amount of content it gives, the price is very well placed, especially given the fact that you can easily find it cheaper during a sale.)
CONS:
-Music Variety (The music is nothing special sadly, it is sure fitting for what it is but it doesn't go beyond repeating tracks or at least the same vibe of tracks.)
-Grind and Combat (The combat although smooth sailing has one big flaw, it is stale, you do the same thing again and again to the point of button mashing. In addition to that the grind fest is real, at least for my standards, instantly making the combat even more tedious.)
-Difficulty Curve and Spikes (Labyrinth of Refrain does NOT forgive you if you take one wrong step. You can repair your puppets and have at it again, but honestly the level gap between each floor and the understanding of the vague mission explanations is just annoying.)
WOULD I RECOMMEND?:
To close this review; would I recommend Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk? As much as I would LOVE to recommend this game... I will sadly have to say no, at least for my own patience and nerves. If you have a lot of patience as a gamer and want a grindy game with an interesting take of characters and story, sure go for it. Personally I do see people enjoying the game and I can understand why, it just wasn't exactly my cup of tea.
Comments
Post a Comment