warning: i'm going to be talking about pedophilia

this game was developed by a pedophile. the creator, omocat, has an online shop where they released merchandise with "shota" on it. for those unfamiliar, this is a japanese term meaning attraction to little boys. they've also discussed the main character in depth on their tumblr blog as "a boy who likes to jack off" and he's TWELVE...

they have apparently apologized for this, however, apologies only go so far. please don't support a developer like this.

for more in depth info you can google "omori pedophile"

There are a lot of RPGs in the world, but I'm not sure any are quite comparable to Caligula, in my mind. A lot would compare it to Persona due to the presence of character episodes (think social link) and the idea of 'people in high school do thing'. Not entirely inaccurate, given Tadashi Satomi's work on it-- but I think it does a lot to set itself apart.

The game has a low budget and doesn't always handle the issues it tackles with the sensitivity it should-- the first dungeon being a glaring example of that-- but it tries in a way most RPGs really don't. It's no excuse for the fatphobia and transphobia, no, but it's good that despite that the character who is bombarded with those hateful words is shown to genuinely be a good person.

And that's true of all the 'villains' in Caligula, really. There's almost no one I would claim is purely bad. They're very human in that way-- neither perfectly good nor perfectly evil. They're just selfish-- they want what they want for themselves, and the fact that the opposing group wants something else is what drives their conflict.

I don't reccomend Caligula without somehow looking up the triggers for it-- and like I said, not everything is handled perfectly. It's a very flawed game, but unlike many other flawed RPGs out there, its flawed with heart-- it's a low budget endeavour done for, honestly, a handful of people. It will probably never be the next persona or win any awards-- but I think that's just why I like it. It was made because someone wanted to make it, and Caligula oozes with that passion, even flawed as it is.

The Caligula Effect is a work of art. It's a game created from passion and a true desire to put out a game that's meant to Say something, to make you Feel something. Compared to the overblown cinematic AAA games that people tout as Art, it might not seem like it, but if you go into it with an open mind, you'll find that the sincerity of everyone who worked on it will resonate with you in one way or another.

The Caligula Effect is a game produced by Takuya Yamanaka and written by Tadashi Satomi (Persona 1, 2, and DDS), with character designs by Oguchi. Overdose is an updated rerelease of the original Vita game, remade on a completely new engine, with 4 new characters and an option to side with the Musicians to find out more about them. It's a turn-based rpg, with dungeons modelled after locations in the city, and relationship values you can build up in battle to unlock character episodes with which you can find out more about your high school party members.

"But wow, that just sounds like Persona!" and you might be right in the shallowest sense of the word! Especially since the writer IS the guy that gave birth to it! But far from being a "shallow/worse Persona clone" as many reviewers claim it to be, it's more of a criticism and rejection of what modern Persona games represent- but we'll get into that in a second.

The setting of the game? A virtual utopia called Mobius, created by Mu, the virtual idol (a vocaloid, essentially) who wanted to ease humans from suffering after hearing and singing their songs through the well of human consciousness that is the internet. In Mobius, everyone gets to live out a painless life, and endlessly relive idyllic, happy, high school days. You play as the President of the Go Home Club, a "club" of students who recognize Mobius as a fake reality and all have their own reasons for wanting to go back. The main antagonists are the Ostinato Musicians, a group of composers who write songs for Mu to keep Mobius going endlessly, and who all have their own reasons for wanting to stay despite knowing it's a fake reality.

It's a very multifaceted and unique take on the 'trapped in an ideal world' trope, asking questions like what drives people to such extreme escapism? Is it just to destroy other's happiness for the sake of your own? At what point does coping and enabling your comfort come at the expense of others? Every character is flawed, every character is a bit of an asshole, but they're very well-rounded and feel down-to-earth in just how relatable they can be. It's ESPECIALLY refreshing due to the fact that they all superficially, and initially, come off and present themselves as various common character tropes across anime (and especially Persona games). You have the meatheaded jock, you have the tomboy girl who loves food, you have the beautiful and elegant heroine type, you have the peeping tom, you have the 'Princely' cold handsome guy, and so on and so forth. The precision with which The Caligula Effect turns these tropes on their head and completely changes your perception of them is truly something to behold, and worth playing this game for that alone.

Everyone's reasonings for why they want to stay in/leave Mobius are also incredibly compelling and unique with how much it touches real world issues. I'd rather not mention any in explicit detail because they're all on various levels of spoilers, but it tackles such issues as self-harm, mental illnesses, suicide, sexuality, transgenderism, social anxiety, abuse and so on. Considering that Takuya Yamanaka was a psychology major and wanted to go into counselling before deciding to develop games, and Tadashi Satomi was known for turning Jungian Psychology into a game series, their combined knowledge REALLY shows in this game. It's very very very hard not to find at least one character to resonate with (mine would be Thorn and Kotaro).

The only real complaint, and warning really that I can give is that the way it handles Some of those issues is a little...offputting, especially in the beginning. The game's trans character gets misgendered and outed constantly for a few dungeons near the beginning, and a certain character is very violently fatphobic for a bit too (of course there's a reason for that). Though both issues get resolved eventually, since this happens in the very beginning when you don't get any of the character subversions or the really meaty parts of the plot/character stories, it can be really hard to force yourself through. The game overrelies on slapstick humour and wacky anime tropes for the first 3 dungeons (4 if you're going Musician route, which you should, because you don't miss anything NOT going on it while you miss a HUGE chunk of the plot if you don't go on it) and doesn't truly pick up until the 5th dungeon (7th on Musician). Luckily the game isn't very long and neither are those dungeons, but it can still be a bit of a chore to force yourself to get that far. Luckily once you're over that hump, the game REALLY picks up, hence why I rate it so highly regardless.

As a side note, the game also has incredible music and voice-acting, some of the best I've heard in recent memory. Every single seiyuu TRULY seems to love the role they play, and you can tell through their performances. From Mifue's breakdowns and angry rants, to Thorn's change in pitches, to Shogo's embarrassed attempts in customer service, to Kuchinashi's panic attacks, to Ike-P's bombastic declarations, and ESPECIALLY to Mu's singing, the characters truly come alive in ways that make up for the lacking models. Mu's singing is especially noteworthy here because every single Musician has a character song that plays in their dungeon, each composed by a different real-life vocaloid producer, and sung by Mu's VA Reina Ueda. Every song sounds wildly different from each other, not just in tone, but pitch, delivery and intonation, and it's hard to believe Onboro and Tokimeki Reverie were sung by the same person. If anything else, I highly recommend looking up the soundtrack and listening to it, it's something else.

Overall, this game is an incredibly hard sell. Not just for it's lacking visuals (due to lack of budget) and overall clunky beginning, but because it's really kind of hard to appreciate this game on a purely surface level! You really need to dig deep into how each character is presented and figure out contradictions between how they truly are vs how they present themselves. It's genius just how much character details you can get out of simple conversations or innocuous WIRE answers (the in-game texting where you can ask your party members pre-set questions), and just how much each Musician and Go Home Club member's foil pairs tie into each other. If you're willing to put in the work to get over the wall in the beginning, and really open yourself up for these characters, then this game will truly astound you. Please play the Caligula Effect, or if you gave up on it in the beginning, please try going through it again. The game might truly surprise you.

I've played Persona 5 about 5 times.

It's a fun RPG! It's stylish! The music is good! But ultimately, Persona is a series that lives and dies by its story. It is an incredibly story focused game, and it has to be, given the long highschool segments.

The story does, of course, have its moments. The first dungeon is an amazing look at how sometimes those with power abuse it, and the effects it had on both Shiho and Ann. It hits, and hits hard. But after that point, the dungeons start to fall off. They don't feel like realistic issues-- sure, I've experienced parental abuse... but not by a famous artist who killed my mom, and certainly not by my rich evil father. It's close to real, but too far to hit for me.

And then... much like it's predecessor, Persona 4, it feels like the characters start walking backwards. Ryuji was sympathetic to Ann in the first dungeon, and now he sexualizes her every other word. Same with Morgana-- Yusuke is weirdly horny too in a way that doesn't seem to fit his character at all. It sacrifices it's message for anime tropes, and by the end of it it's no longer clear what the message is.

Persona 5 is enjoyable, technically. It's easy to turn your brain off and enjoy something tropey and flashy with no real substance. But it's not a good game, unfortunately-- and it's popularity strikes a worrying precedent for the next Persona game.