A prequel to Utawarerumono: Masks of Deception, the verbosely named Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten is a reasonably typical Japanese RPG. It follows the story of a younger warrior named Oshtor, who, after an odd assembly with a mysterious lady, units off on a grand journey to uncover the secrets and techniques of his household’s historical past. Up to now, so very JRPG, however in its eastern-inspired fantasy world and penchant for first rate plot twists, the sport manages to carve out its personal identification.
Oshtor encounters loads of likeable characters on his travels, and though the narrative does gradual to a crawl at occasions, there is a good sense of journey throughout the title’s 40-ish hours. There are lots of moderately giant environments to discover, every of them peppered with enemies and treasure chests, and so as a rule, reaching your eventual vacation spot feels fairly rewarding.
Having mentioned that, Monochrome Mobius can wrestle to carry your consideration as you journey from place to put. Its turn-based fight system is not unhealthy, nevertheless it’s arduous to establish the hook. Every occasion member comes with their very own set of talents and magical spells, whereas an ‘motion ring’ determines flip order and potential bonuses. The sport’s early tutorials stress the significance of the motion ring, however the mechanic by no means actually comes into its personal.
Theoretically, you possibly can manipulate the ring through the use of particular instructions on the proper time, shifting your characters forward within the flip order so that you just deal extra injury, or take extra turns. However in follow, the motion ring is just troublesome to learn, and typically, it feels as if you are simply higher off being environment friendly along with your current turns, as a substitute of making an attempt to play alongside. The system by no means stops feeling like a missed alternative.
For those who’re out there for a largely typical JRPG, and you’ll abdomen some low finances presentation together with barely flawed gameplay, you possibly can do so much worse than Monochrome Mobius. It is a type of video games that appears like a heartfelt effort, and that is perhaps simply sufficient to outweigh its issues.