[THIS REVEIWS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BOTH LABYRINTH OF GALLERIA AND REFRAIN]







Some say this witch is a fool. A smiling idiot worthy of scorn. But you know. Only you remember her. Only you know her story. For this story has always been about the labyrinth of Refrain, the Witch Brigade, and You.


The Labyrinth of Coven games are some of the best dungeon crawlers I've played, and it only is a duology. Both games made me cry profusely from some of the best story telling I have ever read with the voice acting making these scenes even stronger. To clarify: I started off with Galleria because friends I know of recommended me to play Galleria and that was the best recommendation yet. Galleria warms you up to its gameplay better than Refrain despite its depth in the late game. I have much to say about Galleria for its story and gameplay at the time, but maybe when I replay it and finish it again I'll redo my Labyrinth of Galleria review by the time I am writing this. But enough about Galleria in this reveiw. How is Refrain so strong both gameplay and story-wise?


While this game to me is perfect just like Galleria, in terms of gameplay this game tells you to go kill yourself if it's your first time to the series. This is the first game and it shows. No gore protection from equipment, no secret crests, you have half of the reinforcement skills and the facets you got like in Galleria, money is scarce, and stockpile chains are smaller. Of course it also has the puppet reincarnation system where it is massively simplified for having 12 skill slots making your reincarnation chains much shorter and sweeter (which tbh is a sigh of relief from hopping on google sheets to plan out reincarnations in galleria). Some puppets are absolutely broken like gothic coppelias, aster knights, marginal mazes, and theatrical stars.To put it in short: this game is simple and because of this it is deceptively easy. While you will wipe the floor with regular enemies RNG is either gonna screw you over with gore hits from multiple smaller enemies or a boss at the end of a dungeon will kick your ass making any new player to this genre feel frustrated. Not to mention the mistranslated pacts that have wrong in-game descriptions. Regardless, I had fun just I did with Galleria playing through the game. It wasn't that difficult for me cause all of my puppets were soul clarity lvl60 so I was sitting comfortably with some bosses that could actually put up a fight. Sure, the game kicked my ass multiple times and I had to pay what is essentially my puppet army's medical bills, but I was prepared for how rough it can get. Don't get me started on the grinding too. Pre-post game grinding was hell because how little you get stockpile values and it was much slower compared to galleria. Even locking a 666% boost exp pact that is only accessible with puppets that have lucky even numbers. These all sound like red flags but it didn't really faze me despite being warned beforehand. The biggest highlight of why I love this game so much are the dungeons. It has some of the best dungeons in a dungeon crawler I've seen. Every place you visit is dying, stagnant, and just hostile to you which is what dungeons should be with residents that live in these place that make it more alive along with the interesting lore of Chaos Witch Furia and her impact on these said worlds. It's just really fucking cool when you gotta dig a bit and put the pieces together for what happened. Amadeus, while short, is said example of how you can make a great dungeon in a dungeon crawler.


The story is by far amazing. If you dropped the game because of the story then it's understandable. It gets rough in the middle of the main game and even worse. Thankfully, it gets less brutal after that but it's still just as bad. The cast of refrain is great and Dronya is a deep character rooted by awful trauma with a desire to survive and be free who is a legitimate, vocal minority along with other gay characters. All the twists, much like Galleria, wowed me and made me praise this game just as much. You see so much suffering and pain, but you push on because you, the player, wanted to see this world live due to your love for Mezzaluca. It's a story about how we didn't let a world end because we cared. How Dronya, Isara, and you loved Mezzaluca so much you wanted a world where she was happy. You tore through the post game because you knew things could be better for a grown up Mezzaluca; it wasn't good enough to leave one timeline of Tanis in shambles. Truly it was a love that transcended space, time, and worlds. You even took care of her after it was all over, and your actions would soon give rise to the events of Galleria that you would even be willing to look after her daughter (Nachiroux) herself. It's so nice to play this game after Galleria and getting to experience these events in reverse. You did a pretty good damn job for defending multiple worlds and timelines where everyone was happy.

tl;dr: Gameplay is flawed. It is deceptively easy with RNG mechanics, some weird design decisions, and tough bosses along with difficult requirements for the post game despite its simplicity. In addition, a lack of QoL can make a slog, but if you're willing to soldier on through grinding and the challenge it is worth it. Has the best dungeon story-telling and gameplay loop I've ever played. Story is absolutely perfect from what I've read next to its sequel Galleria and I say both are equally good.

Truly this series my greatest of all time.