The Caligula Effect: Overdose a bunch of great ideas with a poor execution

Have you ever played a game where you could sense its untapped potential and wished it had a better development budget? For me, The Caligula Effect: Overdose is that game. It's a JRPG remake of The Caligula Effect, developed by Historia and published by FuRyu and NIS America (the original was developed by Aquria and published by Atlus). The story is written by Tadashi Satomi, known for his work on Persona 1 and Persona 2. The term "Caligula Effect" refers to the desire to do forbidden things, which ties into the source of trauma for some characters. Overdose improved many aspects of the original game, adding new routes and characters. In this review, I’ll focus on Overdose while still mentioning the original game where relevant.

Story​

The game begins with the protagonist (who can be male or female, depending on your choice) being asked by a girl named µ about their regrets and fears. While your answers don't affect much, it's meant to set the tone for role-playing. Shortly after, you're in a school auditorium, preparing to make a speech as the representative for the second-year students. However, you notice something strange: the first-year representative is the same person as the third-year representative, and nobody but you seem to notice that. With that realization, people start glitching, and everything start feeling off.

The protagonist starts to panic, and during this cutscene, other characters who seem to notice the oddities as well are teased. After leaving the auditorium, you meet µ again, who reveals that you're in a virtual world called Mobius created by her, where people live out idealized versions of their lives, with altered memories to make them think it's real.During your discussion with µ, Aria another idol who created Mobuis µ with interrupts and argues that trapping people in artificial happiness is wrong and µ should also realize this. This confrontation saddens µ, who then runs away. When her fans deeply devoted to her notices this, they become hostile, and this leads to your introduction to the game's enemies: the Digiheads. Digiheads are people who have become overly reliant on Mobius, essentially brainwashed by µ's music and unable to think for themselves. While escaping, you meet Shogo Satake, another person aware of the simulation. When you both get cornered by Digiheads, the protagonist's powers awaken. Aria instructs you to focus on the trauma or regret that brought you into this world, transforming those emotions into weapons, a power known as the Catharsis Effect (which basically means “The process of releasing negative emotions such as grief and anger, thereby relieving the adverse psychological impact of these emotions”).

Here is the catharsis effect of the protagonist it's a dual gun and whenever a character that unleash their catharsis effect they get "stabbed" by that black thingy in their chest which leads to a certain flower to bloom, and it's different for each character, and they actually mean something for example in the case of the protagonist we have "Torch ginger" flower which symbolize strength, unity, and passion.
Afterward, Shogo introduces you to the "Go-Home Club," a group of individuals who know Mobius's true nature and want to escape to the real world.Opposing the Go-Home Club are the Ostinato Musicians, who create music for µ to keep people in a brainwashed state. The musicians are aware they’re in a virtual world but choose to remain. In Overdose, you have the option to join them, learning more about their backstories. This new route didn't exist in the original game, where you could only learn about the musicians through their lyrics or main story content. Here is the protagonist in his musician form, he goes by the name

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Lucid

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Gameplay​

Battle System and Dungeons:The Caligula Effect is a dungeon crawler where you're placed in mazes (MAZES I SAY) and encounter enemies during exploration. You can attack enemies on the field to gain an advantage in the turn-based battle. The combat system is one of the game's most unique aspects. Each party member can perform three actions per turn such as attacking, guarding, or healing, and you can control when they execute these actions. You can counter enemies by breaking their guard,dodging their attacks or even counter it, but it has to be timed correctly.

To be able to do that, The game offers the Imaginary Chain mechanic, which allows you to see a preview of the enemy's actions and the potential outcomes of your own. However, this isn’t foolproof, as the outcome depends on a percentage that indicates the likelihood of success. While this adds an interesting layer of strategy, the system can feel broken at times. For this reason, I recommend playing on hard difficulty (Tbh even hard feels easy), as normal is far too easy.

As you can see here the top left is the where you adjust the attack timing, the black bar is the attack animations. The red bar indicated where the attack hit, and the gray one is the cool down from that attack
The is also the Risk system which defines how easy it is to knock up your enemy .if the Risk level reaches the Break status then the enemy is susceptible to juggling, and you can combo them to oblivion

Causality Link:The Causality Link feature lets you learn about each character’s backstory, mainly revolving around their real-world trauma. Aside from the main characters, there are 500 NPCs you can interact with, though their quests are often simple and not worth the time. You can also recruit some NPCs to fight alongside you, but they are not that interesting and their quest rewards aren't worth the trouble. Joining the Ostinatos adds depth to the story and allows you to play both sides of the conflict, which I highly recommend since you don't really lose anything by joining them.

Yes it's as confusing as it looks

Music​

To be honest, the music in this game deserves its own section. Why? Well, because it’s actually part of the story... kind of. The music you hear in the game is the same music the characters hear (aside from a few OSTs wait, what am I saying?). Anyway, during each Ostinato arc, their main theme will be playing. In dungeon exploration, you’ll only hear the instrumental version, but once a battle starts, the lyrics kick in. The music is sung by µ, and, as I mentioned earlier, the lyrics reflect the feelings of the musicians.
When you enter a boss battle against a particular musician, a remixed version of their song is played to match the intensity of the fight (

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Remember you can be musician as well

). Since µ is a J-pop idol, the music is definitely J-pop, which can be hit or miss for some players. Some people love it so much they joke, “I bought a banger music album and it came with a free JRPG,” while others might get tired of the constant loop.

What really interests me is how they managed to create music with lyrics that fit each character’s story so well.I mean, here is the ling for the lyrics of the first musician song

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Peter Pan Syndrome

Peter Pan Syndrome (ピーターパンシンドローム) is the character theme of Kagi-P, sung by Reina Ueda and composed by 40mP. A remix and an instrumental version exist in Caligula Original Soundtrack. Please note that the following romaji is unconfirmed and may thus contain inaccuracies. Japanese Lyrics Source...

caligula.fandom.com

Presentation​

The presentation of The Caligula Effect is, unfortunately, quite lacking. While the character designs and Catharsis Effect weapons are certainly cool, and the menus and artwork are visually appealing,

The status artworks looks cool ngl
the in-game graphics and animations leave much to be desired. For a "modern" game, the graphics are just not up to par—honestly, some PS2 games look better. This can be a major turn-off for a lot of players, which is unfortunate given the game’s other strengths.

Overall​

The Caligula Effect: Overdose is a game with a lot of great ideas that don’t always reach their full potential due to execution issues. The story is captivating, and the unique battle system is engaging, but the subpar visuals and sometimes broken mechanics can be a turn-off for some players. The music is also hit or miss, depending on your taste in J-pop.If you can look past the rough edges, this game offers a unique and enjoyable experience. For those like me who prioritize story and gameplay over graphics, The Caligula Effect is worth checking out.