When Bowling For Soup sang “High School Never Ends”, they didn’t mean it as an aspirational song. However, in The Caligula Effect Overdose, out now in the United States from NIS America, that’s exactly how a self-aware Virtuadoll interpreted paradise.
While my colleague Ahmed already did a preview of NIS America’s 2019 lineup, I also had a chance to go hands-on with a couple of their titles earlier this year at PAX South. The Caligula Effect: Overdose was the first of those games.
The story centers on an ideal virtual world called Mobius where humans live out a perpetually blissful high-school life. Shockingly enough, a subset of these people become dissatisfied with never getting out of their teen years have begun to see through the illusion and seek a way to escape. These teens call themselves the “Go-Home Club” and are opposed by the “Ostinato Musicians” who support the Virtualdoll μ (pronounced “Mu” as in the twelfth letter in the Greek alphabet).
Mu just wants everyone to be happy. In high school. Forever.
Since the game takes place entirely within a virtual construct, and involves characters who are aware that they are in a construct where the rules can be manipulated, Matrix-like, for maximum benefit, combat has some interesting twists on the usual JRPG formula. How does it play out? I’ll let my colleague describe his experiences, since they mirror my own.
“You can see how your actions will play out, followed by how opponents will react, then plan an additional set of actions to respond. As a result, I was able to one-strike an opponent, see that his friend would hit me from behind, then was able to move out of the way and hit him after he missed. All in one combat turn. This system isn’t guaranteed to keep you from getting hit, and battles go on, the predictions will become less accurate.”
The 3rd-person combat view looks normal, but can play out differently depending on choices made.
The Caligula Effect was originally released for the PlayStation Vita system in 2016 in Japan, and 2017 in North America and Europe. The Caligula Effect: Overdose is an enhanced remake featuring upgraded visuals using the Unreal Engine 4, a new playable protagonist, new endings, and more supporting characters.
The game is available now on the Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4, and Steam. A limited edition physical copy featuring an official soundtrack hardcover art book, “tear-resistant” poster and a collector’s box is also available for the Switch and PS4 editions.
For more information about this and other upcoming releases from NIS America, be sure to follow them on Twitter.
