Labyrinth Of Refrain 2
Maryanna Vernia
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk[1] is a dungeon crawler role playing video game developed and published by Nippon Ichi Software. It was released in Japan in June 2016 for the PlayStation Vita and in September 2017 for the PlayStation 4. The game was then released internationally on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows in September 2018.[2][3] It was followed by Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society.
The player walks through the dungeon using a first-person view, which allows the player to navigate it in fixed increments. A dungeon is presented using simple 3D computer graphics. After a random encounter, the party of the player battles a group of monsters, which are presented as 2D sprites, in a turn-based battle. Because the player character is a book, the witch in the game creates dolls that do the fighting for the player. Dolls are sorted in six classes, so-called Facets: Aster Knights, Shinobushi, Theatrical Stars, Peer Fortresses, Marginal Mazes, and Mad Raptors. Wielding two-handed weapons, an Aster Knight is balanced in defending and attacking. Shinobushi specialize in speed and dual-wielding swords. Theatrical Stars use special weapons called Spell Bells, allowing them to support other characters in the party while not doing direct damage to opponents. Peer Fortresses are the tanks of the game. They have tough armor and can take heavy hits. Marginal Mazes use special spells called Donam, which they use for support of other party members. They also perform flame, mud, and fog-based attacks by using special weapons called Eclipse Stands. Mad Raptors use weapons called Hyakka Yumi that shoot out flame, mud, and fog-based attacks.[4]
Set in the town Refrain, Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk revolves around a cursed underground labyrinth where people cannot survive very long. Despite that, a certain witch named Madame Dronya comes along with her assistant Luca and volunteers to explore the labyrinth. She is the owner of a legendary book called Tractatus de Monstrum (Youro Rekitei), which role the player fulfills. Together with the witch as their owner, the player challenges the dungeon. Soon, the player finds a strange place called Antechamber, which connects the initial Dungeon to another world. Each of those worlds, presented as Dungeons, are connected to even more different worlds by Antechambers.
While the player travels through different Dungeons, they see fragments of Madame Dronya's past and learns that they are supposed to find three special keys that will open the gate to the realm of the dead, where the deceased can potentially be revived. During her adventure, Dronya sometimes gets into situations which end fatal for her. But somehow, time turns back to moments before these things happen and the situation gets altered in the process, allowing Dronya to survive them. Madame Dronya is eager to revive one person that she lost in the past. But Baba Yaga, who was a teacher of Magic for Dronya and other girls, wants the keys for herself. Dronya is able to trick Baba Yaga and lure her into a trap, killing her in the process.
She manages to find all three keys and enters a realm under the well of Refrain, but when she tries to make her wish come true, the spirit of Baba Yaga returns, revealing herself as Calamity Witch Furia, who wrote the Tractatus de Monstrum and planned to possess a world-destroying entity called Velkuvrana to become the immortal ruler and destroyer of everything. It is also revealed that Dronya was a puppet that contains the spirit of Velnya, Dronya's former self. She died trying to save Luca in the past and the guilt ridden Luca went to Baba Yaga who told her to put Dronya's Spirit into a puppet. Dronya had no memories of this and sends Luca and the Tractatus de Monstrum to the surface of Refrain, where she has to fight a monstrous fusion of Baba Yaga and Velkuvrana to save their world. Baba Velkuvrana, not having fully matured, gets defeated by Luca and her puppet soldiers.
Luca wants to use the keys to revive Velnya, but they have to pass a trial to fulfill the wish - moving up a long staircase to the surface without looking back for even a single time. Before they reach the surface, Dronya learns that the memories she made as Dronya - her life together with Luca - would fade after her resurrection. She uses her power to command Luca to move upstairs without looking back and turns around to leave the world without forgetting about all the happy times she spent with Luca. She vanishes while wishing to be reunited with her beloved Isara (Luca's deceased mother and Velnya's lover) in the afterlife.
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk was first teased by Nippon Ichi Software through their annual Summer greeting card in July 2015 as Project Refrain.[5] A full reveal followed a month later in Dengeki PlayStation.[6] Originally scheduled for a Japanese release on January 28, 2016, the game got delayed to March 17 and later June 23 of that year.[7][8][9] In February 2018, NIS America announced that the game will be localised into English and French and released in North America and Europe in the Fall of 2018. The international release adds versions for Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows. While the game was previously available in Japan for both the PlayStation Vita and the PlayStation 4, NIS America revealed they will only release the version for the latter platform in western territories.[2]
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic.[10][11] The Japanese magazine Famitsu gave Coven and Labyrinth of Refrain a score of 32 out of 40 upon its Japanese release.[12] According to Media Create, the game was the fifth best-selling game of the week in Japan, selling 17,573 physical copies.[19] The game left chart after five weeks, when 42,519 copies were sold. In February 2017, Nippon Ichi Software CEO and the game's producer Souhei Niikawa said in an interview with 4Gamer.net that over 70,000 copies of the game were sold.[20]
After a long journey, Dusk Witch Dronya and her young apprentice, Luca, arrive in the far-off town of Refrain. Masquerading as a simple traveling puppet show, Dronya's true goal lies at the town's center: the Well of Khalaza. It is said that this well leads to a sprawling labyrinth deep beneath the town that is filled with wondrous treasures...as well as vicious monsters, deadly traps, and a thick, poisonous fog. None who have entered the well have ever returned...with one exception. The one man to have successfully explored the labyrinth and come back alive wrote his findings in a book called the Tractatus de Monstrum. Now in possession of this very same book, Dronya seeks to use its knowledge and her brigade of enchanted puppet soldiers to conquer the labyrinth for herself...but to what end? What mysteries does the labyrinth hold?
What dark secrets lie in the shadows of Refrain?
In this dungeon RPG, you play as the Tractatus de Monstrum, a living book owned by the conniving Dusk Witch Dronya, and confront the dangers lurking beneath the quiet town of Refrain. Assemble an army of up to 40 fully customizable puppet soldiers and wield unique skills, deadly magic, combination attacks, and powerful weapons to annihilate terrifying monsters and conquer the labyrinth of Refrain!
In this respect, the game truly achieves greatness. It breaks all of the standards and norms expected from your traditional JRPG, while still staying true to the core values that define the genre. I found it refreshing to play a game that includes my favorite characteristics of a dungeon crawler while still being very original in itself.
For all of the strengths the story has, it is riddled with uncomfortable moments. Put mildly, some jokes and scenarios are simply taken too far. Even as somebody that appreciates dark-humor, I found some of the material to be tasteless and unnecessary. This is especially prominent in an early cutscene where a nun sexually harasses and tries to rape Dusk Witch Dronya. This scene does not do much in progressing the story, and as a result, feels like an awkward attempt to humorize rape. Worst of all, it actually undermines another instance in the game where sexual violence is used as a serious plot progression device. It blurs the line between what is meant to be humorous and what is meant to be serious, and as a result, creates some unintentionally awkward experiences.
With that being said, if you can stomach these uncomfortable moments, you will be well-rewarded. The game has an incredible loot system that in many respects, reminds me of the one in the Diablo series. Each item has a rarity level associated with it: common, rare, epic, and legendary. In addition to this, players can collect mana throughout their exploration of the labyrinth, which is used to purchase new perks and benefits. Players can also choose to take advantage of two unique systems to satisfy their own greed during dungeon exploration. The first one allows the brigade to store mana to increase the item drop rate. The second allows the brigade to stockpile experience, where this experience is then grown by a specified factor. Of course, the risk is if you die, you lose both of these. But at higher difficulties of the game, I found these risks were absolutely necessary to make significant progress, which adds a layer of risk management to the gameplay. Overall, I greatly appreciate these loot and experience systems, as the game contains a lot of grinding. It still is not enough to entirely prevent combat from feeling tedious and repetitive, but it makes the exploration feel worthwhile. In fact, the dungeon exploration in the game is easily the best part.
Combat in this game has both its strengths and weaknesses. While I must credit the developers for experimenting with the typical turn-based formula, the combat has too much going on and takes a solid hour or two to fully grasp. Your brigade (party) consists of five covens, each of which can contain up to three attackers and five supporters. This leads to a maximum number of forty party members, fifteen of which you can directly control in combat. The coven themselves are formed by soul pacts, each of which confer different bonuses to its members. Already, I think you can start to see how this makes combat more complex, which is why I both loved and hated this system. This system adds a lot of strategy to which pacts to choose, as well as where to station characters. This is supplemented by the fact that covens can be placed in either vanguard and rearguard positions, which allow for different tactical formations, like the pincer attack, that also grant unique bonuses to the party. All of these changes make turn-based battle truly customizable, but it comes at the expense of a steep learning curve, which for the most part, only makes a huge difference in boss fights.