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. To date, so very JRPG, however in its eastern-inspired fantasy world and penchant for respectable 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 sluggish to a crawl at occasions, there is a good sense of journey throughout the title’s 40-ish hours. There are numerous moderately massive environments to discover, every of them peppered with enemies and treasure chests, and so most of the time, reaching your eventual vacation spot feels fairly rewarding.
Having mentioned that, Monochrome Mobius can battle to carry your consideration as you journey from place to put. Its turn-based fight system is not dangerous, nevertheless it’s arduous to establish the hook. Every social gathering 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 simply deal extra injury, or take extra turns. However in apply, the motion ring is solely tough 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.
Should you’re available in the market for a largely typical JRPG, and you’ll abdomen some low price range presentation together with barely flawed gameplay, you may do so much worse than Monochrome Mobius. It is a type of video games that looks like a heartfelt effort, and that could be simply sufficient to outweigh its issues.