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Caligula Import Impression Thread (Temp OT till the weekend)

P

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
nzF5VO1.png


Just using this as a temp place for folks to talk about their impressions with the game till the real OT goes up on the weekend. Only did a claim for it today since no one did for the JP version.
Due to general health at the moment and seems like lack of interest in the import version from the community might not bother putting in time to finish up the post release OT. Since the import OT wasnt claimed in advance before release, should not be an issue. If I do change my mind about it, might just appear one day out of nowhere lol.

Some info on the game for those not familiar.
Original Story 2/23/16 at 7:43 a.m.: FuRyu has announced Caligula, a new RPG for PS Vita developed by Aquria, directed by Takuya Yamanaka, and written by Persona and Persona 2 scenario writer Tadashi Satomi. It features character design by Oguchi and music by Tsukasa Mako.

Caligula will launch for PS Vita on June 23 in Japan for 6,980 yen. Pre-orders include a swimsuit costume product code, visual booklet, Caligula full album CD, and a special event participation ticket.

Set in the virtual reality world of Mobius, the story of Caligula follows nine men and women that aim to return to the real world. It is a “next generation juvenile RPG” that focuses on modern pathology and trauma. Its title, “Caligula,” refers to wanting to see things we’re not allowed to see, or doing things we’re not allowed to do.

Caligula

The protagonists are locked up in Mobius, a virtual reality world in which all human beings become an ideal high school student and spend their days repeating high school life. Everyone within Mobius has forgotten the real world. For different reasons, each of the protagonists realize that Mobius is not the real world and form a “Going Home Club” with the desire to return home, and start looking for a way back. However, there are some members who suffered in reality and sought salvation in Mobius, and carry a darkness that can not be shared with the others.

Mobius is an ideal world created by the vocal software “μ.” People escape the despair of reality in Mobius, and those saved by her song are granted their every dream. In Mobius, there are men and women regardless of age that become high school students and live out a three-year student life on a loop.
Click to expand...
*More info at the Gematsu link

Am currently playing it along with Coven. So not that far in to do any sort of indepth impressions yet.

Though early on this is a nice looking game, though folks who are overly concerned with things like FPS and whatnot do us all a favor and turn around and head back out the way you came. As this game is not the kind of "silky smooth" that unrealistic expectations would demand. Reason for the blunt statement is we have already seen enough complaints about framerates and whatnots from the various videos of the game itself. Would prefer actual conversations about the game rather than dealing with "pages" of whining by people who would not be buying the game anyways. This game is on a handheld with memory issues, curb your expectations. Now with that out of the way lets get to talking about the game.

The 3D and 2D portraits are quite nice not to mention actually look like each other which is a large plus quality wise. The 2d animated sequences though at times the artwork is a bit odd. Though some angles of the artwork look a bit weird, but overall its still cool that they added it into the game during the start. No idea if it will continue on into other parts of the story yet.

Sound quality of the title seems to be mixed quite well. As the voices come through clear and music doesnt get in the way of the voices so you go thinking that you should play with headsets to be able to hear the voices like poorly mixed games.

Still am going through all the intro story bits, but am looking forward to the combat and such seeing how the devs Aquria are the same folks behind Hollow Fragment, know how to make a good combat system and it looks like this one might take cues from that in the sense with all of the skill usage and whatnots. If it wasnt for them I literally would not have bought this title due to Furyu being a red flag as is.

As mentioned am also going through another game at the same time so am sure there will be others here who would be progressing a lot faster but thats good as it will be giving others different views of the game hopefully.

Anyways will update the post or do new ones when there is new info to share with folks. In the mean time heres a bunch of various media to watch.

1st Promo Video
2nd Promo Video
Samples of the Songs in the Game
Gameplay Footage
Imaginary Chain Footage
Gameplay w/ JP Commentary
 
S

Saphirax

Member
Now I know why the skill icons during combat looked familiar.

I only watched a little bit of someone's stream, but the combat looked fine.

I'm going to lurk here for more impressions :p.
 
P

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Saphirax said:
Now I know why the skill icons during combat looked familiar.

I only watched a little bit of someone's stream, but the combat looked fine.

I'm going to lurk here for more impressions :p.
Click to expand...

Yeah it should be interesting. The dev is the main reason as at least I would hope that the combat is good. Though I wonder how many of the other generic students will be useful lol Reminds me of all the generic NPC players in Hollow Fragment.
 
P

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Kysen said:
I'll wait for more impressions before diving in. Got burned on some recent imports.
Click to expand...

Voice acting seems to be quite well done too so far. Am curious to see how much of the game will be voice acted. Or if this is one of those deals where just the start is and from there most of the rest is all text with only a few lines here and there.

Dennis said:
What is a "juvenile RPG" ?
Click to expand...

Basically Im guessing what they mean would be like the school type of setting. Which is one of the current popular settings in Japan. Though no idea what they actually call it here or more like have not really paid attention if there is a specific name.
 
Y

YianGaruga

Banned
The stream I watched made it look competent and intersting enough that I'll buy it localized unless it becomes a complete trainwreck later on.

I like how there is no battle theme, but instead the dungeon music continues to play with added vocals. Battles in general seem very seamless.

It did look very dungeon crawly/grindy though, that might put some people off.
 
P

Powwa

Member
What worries me is the performance from the footage I've seen. It looked like it ran around 20ish FPS during combat with unimpressive visuals.

Let's hope the gameplay is fun at least.
 
P

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Yeah for those considering importing you would most def want to read with how skill centric the combat will be. As you will need to read the descriptions of the various skills otherwise you can have "fun" doing trial and error.

From what Im seeing so far this should be fairly interesting. Those who do not like having to deal with a bunch of skills am sure will have issues with the game, since even starting out there are a fair amount of various commands / skills available.
 
P

perorist

Unconfirmed Member
Didn't realize this was out so soon. Definitely waiting for impressions on this one since I have enough to occupy myself with in the meantime.
 
StereoVsn

StereoVsn

Member
Is this by Mind Zero devs? Game looks at least somewhat interesting. Somebody is bringing this to the West in 2017 I think, right?
 
S

Saphirax

Member
Parakeetman said:
Yeah it should be interesting. The dev is the main reason as at least I would hope that the combat is good. Though I wonder how many of the other generic students will be useful lol Reminds me of all the generic NPC players in Hollow Fragment.
Click to expand...

There's a trophy to befriend 100 people? I wonder how annoying that'll be. And yeah, no doubt the majority of '500 students' will be generic, but I do hope there's at least...a few dozen? non-generic ones.


StereoVsn said:
Is this by Mind Zero devs? Game looks at least somewhat interesting. Somebody is bringing this to the West in 2017 I think, right?
Click to expand...

Atlus is bringing it over. It's developed by Aquaria (SAO:HR) and published by FuRyu.
 
P

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
StereoVsn said:
Is this by Mind Zero devs? Game looks at least somewhat interesting. Somebody is bringing this to the West in 2017 I think, right?
Click to expand...

Mind zero was acquire and zero div. Totally different pub house and dev.

I wouldnt have touched the game if it was by the same team that did mind zero.

No idea how they screwed up the game so badly considering its not like they are rookies when it comes to the genre, but did most def seem like they were given a jar of pennies for a budget with that one. Then again they did fuck up totomono when they tried to make it 3d lol

Saphirax said:
There's a trophy to befriend 100 people? I wonder how annoying that'll be. And yeah, no doubt the majority of '500 students' will be generic, but I do hope there's at least...a few dozen? non-generic ones.

Atlus is bringing it over. It's developed by Aquaria (SAO:HR) and published by FuRyu.
Click to expand...

We'll see. Though it seems like its just mostly done by doing conversations / quests with those other students. Guess Ill find out soon enough once all the main stuff starts. Had to stop for a while as the Vita is running out of charge. Charger is on the other side of the room so its charging while Im messing around in Coven.

perorist said:
Didn't realize this was out so soon. Definitely waiting for impressions on this one since I have enough to occupy myself with in the meantime.
Click to expand...

No you must buy it and suffer along with me!
仲間？(ﾉ＿・｡)人(・＿・､)ノ仲間

VA / Music is grand though. Really do appreciate the models and artwork match up for some odd reason lol.
 
S

Sagely

Member
I'm keeping an eye on this for sure. The premise is really interesting and maybe a little bit self aware? It'd be interesting to see which direction that goes in, but I'm sure I would like it nonetheless as a Persona and JRPG fan in general. The music and art direction are great going by the gameplay footage.
 
P

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
takoyaki said:
(first?)review, Dengeki Playstation (95/80/90/90)
Click to expand...

Wouldnt really say the first since we have had the Famitsu scores since the 15th

Caligula (PSV) – 8/7/8/7 [30/40]

Just didnt bother to add it in here as this is just the import impression thread. All of that whatnots will go into the OT FAQ section.
 
ranmafan

ranmafan

Member
Parakeetman said:
Btw Coven is good also. We are doomed... As both of these can see sinking a ton of time into...
Click to expand...

I know what you mean. I wish I could get Coven too but I've made me choices for up till October now game wise and so I'll have to wait. But it's fun to be this doomed in a way. Amazing time to be into Japanese games!
 
T

takoyaki

Member
Parakeetman said:
Wouldnt really say the first since we have had the Famitsu scores since the 15th

Caligula (PSV) – 8/7/8/7 [30/40]

Just didnt bother to add it in here as this is just the import impression thread. All of that whatnots will go into the OT FAQ section.
Click to expand...

ahh, ok. Didn't see a review in this week's issue/this thread and thought Famitsu review might be next week. Looking forward to more impressions!
 
Y

Yasumi

Banned
That Dengeki review is promising, and Amazon reviews seem pretty positive. Really looking forward to the localization now. Congrats on the solid game, FuRyu.
 
P

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
So far so good game has great voice acting. Event scenes are voiced, other "in game" dialog is text.

Performance is basically what was seen in earlier vids. So initial warning bout fps sensitive folks still stand.
 
S

Sinople

Member
Dennis said:
What is a "juvenile RPG" ?
Click to expand...
"Juvenile" is a term originally used in Japan for literature focusing on teenagers, as protagonists and/or readers. In gaming, it is used to refer to games with young adult protagonists usually in a modern setting, e.g. Tokyo Majin Gakuen, Persona.
 
P

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Apparently in this game if the MC dies its instant game over is what other users are saying. Have not had that happen yet so cant comment on it myself.
 
D

Dennis

Banned
Sinople said:
"Juvenile" is a term originally used in Japan for literature focusing on teenagers, as protagonists and/or readers. In gaming, it is used to refer to games with young adult protagonists usually in a modern setting, e.g. Tokyo Majin Gakuen, Persona.
Click to expand...

I see, thanks.
 
K

Kresnik258

Member
Thanks for this Parakeetman. Really looking forward to this, I loved Aquira's work on the battle system in Hollow Fragment, so I'm really interested in this. Plus the premise is awesome.

Glad to hear it's as good as it sounds (at least if you like this kinda thing).
 
P

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Convos in this game take place similar to the "pseudo" conversations with the non-crucial students are done in Infinity Moment / Hollow Fragment where it is not an actual conversation but just flavor text that pops up then skips to the end of the conversation with a quick fade out. In instances where those types of interactions take place it will raise your friendship level with said student.

In this game it seems skills and passives are tied into the whole friendship level stuff with the various characters / students in the game. As there is a massive web type of tree for the students / characters in the game and tied to those are the skills / passives. Ill try to do a short video of it later just to quickly show what Im talking about.

Since I have not unlocked anything yet am unsure just how much work will be required, though will see. One thing for sure it seems they are using a bunch of the knowhow from their work with the SAO game and putting those mechanics to use differently here. Am glad to see that they are not slacking off with the effort of being creative though and it most def seems that for once FuRyu put $$$ into the development budget as so far this is a pretty solid title. And as everyone expected the music is fucking fantastic.
 
ranmafan

ranmafan

Member
Finally my copy arrived. And good timing too. Needed a nice new game to play after a long week. Looking forward to the next few hours of playtime
 
P

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
ranmafan said:
Finally my copy arrived. And good timing too. Needed a nice new game to play after a long week. Looking forward to the next few hours of playtime
Click to expand...

Should be a good time as it seems fairly solid. So far I was right to put my chips on Aquria as the gamble has paid off quality wise.

----

Need to record some stuff with coven then can record stuff for caligula

Lets see how long ill be up am actually pretty sick atm... lol
 
P

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
1.01 patch added 196 MB? I think it was.

  • Beginner Mode Added
  • World Rewards Adde
  • Stigma Byakko / Hakutaku has been changed to Naruko's preset equipment?
  • Stability and other bug fixes
 
M

mellan_Konsten

Member
Great to see that this game will have it's own impressions thread and that it's being made by you!

This game got me interested from day one and from what I have seen this far it looks great. As usual though, I have some questions..

I really like the idea of people in the game being adults but use teen avatars, is this notable in the dialogue/story/characters?

I have seen that there are small timelines for the different skills (top right corner), how does this work?

Is it easy to see the length of an attack in the skills menu?

Are there skills that takes more than one turn to execute?

I have seen people using som sort of red skill on enemies in the world (before entering combat), what does it do?

Edit: I removed the questions that have been answered.
 
P

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Currently uploading the early footage which also shows off the Causality Link which is the web based tree of all of the students and such in the game. That also contain passives it seems didnt look at everyone but the majority of what Ive checked are passives only for use when I suppose whatever the unlock conditions are met. You can see how massive this is too. Those who have played Path of Exile might have horrible flashbacks about a similar looking web lol.

Caligula - PSV TV - Early Gameplay / Causality Link / Combat Footage

I have not looked into detail what is available.

Also in the video that is uploading you will see me performing combos, upgrading my skills and running around talking to everyone to raise the friendship levels. Which is basically spamming conversation till they stop talking with you for the time being.

Enemies in this game will fall at the spot that you defeat them at, in their specific locations on the map. After a set period of time they will resurrect allowing you to fight them again.
*This actually is one of the things JP players have marked as a negative feature due to the speed that they recover. So am guessing later on it will be a mess in certain areas perhaps if people are bringing it up as an issue.

Thankfully with weaker enemies and such combat is fairly simple of trashing them in combat. And since combat is seamless you dont really waste too much time with loading in / out of fight scenes.

One thing though is the game does have camera issues also, so at times things may be a bit odd when colliding into objects or not being able to see the fight properly as the camera is not fixed when combat starts, so you have to move it around and such. Its not that big of a deal, but just a minor WAT type of situation on occasion. That and this is not an action game so its not like the camera can get you killed either. At worst you may just miss your fucking cool combo you planned and executed lol

I dont want to say combat is rock paper scissors, but it is the easiest to understand terms as certain skills will cancel out or be more effective against certain enemy attacks / actions. Such as counter types vs physical attacks, faster attacks for breaking enemy animations, guard break attacks, knock back etc. So do imagine when combat gets more difficult it will be something to pay attention to. Though the preview system the game has with showing you how all of your actions "should" play out if they hit (success rate shown in percentage) helps a lot with planning / trial and error to see what can / cannot connect.

Seeing how this game also has support / buffs / debuffs too can imagine fights are going to get crazy later on also as Aquria is the kings of "MMO" style fights in the sense of having to make use of such mechanics against stronger enemies. As this game does have "special" named enemies which are stronger than normal ones. In the early vid you will see here which is still basically a tutorial they show off a few, which are easy to beat now to easy you into the game. Imagine later will be bad trying to take them on if you are not familiar with the combat system / skills. Since I have not experienced that yet am not able to say for certain but looking at the type of skills they give the player at their disposal most def I have a feeling things will turn out that way. Even more so since they went all out again with the system just like how they did with hollow fragment.
 
M

mellan_Konsten

Member
Parakeetman said:
Vid finally uploaded

https://youtu.be/RSTD__MYqtM
Click to expand...

My god, you make this game look like so much fun, do you plan to upload more videos (maybe from when you have a party)?

Like in HF most skills seems to be passive, does that mean that you can buff yourself up before battle or do you equip them and they'll stay on until they are unequiped?

Does the "throwing red thing at enemies", work in the same way as the stone in HF?

Kinda off topic: this game must use the same engine as HF
 
A

Aters

Member
Waiting for more in-depth impression on combat and story. I have to admit, school setting makes me nervous nowadays because it usually breeds anime tropes.
 
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