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[Parakeetman]

that's one big grid.

Thankfully it seems they didnt attach any major skills to it. Since tracking down NPCs and whatnots you would mostly need to pay more attention to their names as a lot of "sameface" goes on with them, which is expected considering the numbers. Plus due to the school setting its not like you can have them wearing different equipment and whatnots like they did in Hollow Fragment which is a "fantasy" setting.

For now in the game it does not seem like there is any sort of actual currency and equipment known in the game as (Stigma) is obtained from the unlocked / locked chests and drops from enemies. Stigma have different quality levels which are displayed by the number of stars. Basically higher rarity better stats / effects. Some Stigma also contain skills that become available for use when equipped.

Video showing the Stigma (Equipment) for your character

Not quite too sure what triggers enemies to also enter combat. Since there have been instances where the fight was with only 1 enemy, but then a second one joined messing things up a bit. Other occasions nearby enemies just ignore whats going on. A bit odd.

 

[Parakeetman]

Added another video showing when you get your 2nd character in the game. Then the third that also becomes awaken to their new powers.

Caligula - PSV TV - 2nd & 3rd Party Member Fight & Event

Currently processing a video of my first fight against a stronger enemy that took multiple turns to defeat. Shows how all of the skills and SP management along with moving your characters around come into play. All of this was done "Trial by Fire" just how I like it so you may see a bunch of stuff not working with attempts I try during the fight. Do reckon will take about an hour more till this vid can go up.

Caligula - PSV TV - First "Real" Fight

Quite important to plan things out also and once you are past the first round where everyone goes at the same time, after that their speed comes into play which is shown in the upper right corner with the action bars that count down. So timing of attacks being chained together will start to fall apart due to the different timing with when other party members can act.

One thing for sure is this is not a game for people who do not like to read or think. As knowing what the skills do along with how harder fights will be you will need to plan things out a bit.

Thankfully since my MC is a bit over-leveled and has some decent Stigmas on he didnt take too much damage when the enemy's attack hit. Seeing how our damage was really reduced had me worried that the damage dealt back would have been quite high. Though since the other 2 supporting characters are lower than the MC am glad most of the hate was directed towards the MC.

This game does have a hate system which am guessing is managed not only by passives and skills, but damage deal to the enemy. Do reckon healing counts also as generating hate. So with that in mind you also need to take that into consideration to not cause too much damage with squishy characters causing the enemy to target them.

Right now with the combat seems like there is (Defense) (Melee) (Ranged) all 3 of which can be countered or broken in the case of (Defense) by certain skills. Also then you toss (Aerial) and (Ground) into the mix for having certain skills effects / procing change depending on that. There is also (Knockback) too.

Overall this is just as I had thought from early videos with the impressions from viewing the combat footage. To do the most damage to stronger enemies you will most def have to try and plan your actions so you can chain together as many skills as possible with your party. Even more so when it comes to using a character to Counter an enemy or Risk Break them. Where then other attacks by party members can be more effective.

***
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.

 

[mellan_Konsten]

...

Have you had time to play more of the game, if so, how is the writing/characters/story and how do they portray that the characters in fact are adults and not teenagers?

 

[coredecepts]

All I've seen of environments is school hallways and city streets. Are there more locations?

 

[Parakeetman]

All I've seen of environments is school hallways and city streets. Are there more locations?

Have not had time to progress more but so far for me its just been the school

 

[Parakeetman]

Nothing spectacular and we dont know how much was actually shipped but heres the Caligula sales numbers. Important thing is that the reception of the game is positive.

[PSV] Caligula (FuRyu, 06/23/16) – 31,243 (New)
*credits to gematsu

This apparently sold more than Coven and Labyrinth of Refrain

 

[mellan_Konsten]

Is parakeetman the only one here that bought the game or are people waiting for their import copies?

Edit:noone is playing this game?

 

[Quocia]

I'm a bit interested, but is there anyone else who played it here?

 

[Parakeetman]

Btw those who plan on picking this up just beware it has crashes in it. Granted I have not run into any yet, a trusted source that I follow shows that it can / does occur. So save often.

In any case you should be saving often with how the game is designed. As its instant game over if the MC dies and it is possible to run into battles with enemies way stronger than you are by accident if you dont pay attention. To make things worse if its a NM type of enemy encounter you are unable to run from it. While you can do "giant killing" to some effect, if the gap in the levels are too high the chances of success will be slim to none due to low accuracy / damage.

Still focusing more on Coven at the moment, but have slowly progressed in the game and gotten to the point where the city map is open allowing me to travel outside of the first school area.

The combat design is just as I had expected, to deal the most damage / be efficient in combat you need to chain together your skills with your party members. This game is also very SP management reliant along with the characters action meter which is displayed upper right of the screen. So for those who just want something easy to breeze through, you might want to give this title a pass. Granted standard enemies are fairly easy more difficult fights in the event if you do not bother to grind you will need to focus with what you do in combat. Even more so if you decide to take on higher lv enemies in order to try for better drops or unlock treasure.

Though against easy enemies the system is hilariously unnecessary as the first set of attacks from a single character can usually finish them off. Though I "think" you get a slight better amount of EXP if you deal out more damage. How high a combo goes doesnt seem to really effect that bonus.

Game isnt super difficult for the most part if you stick to the standard enemies, but the combat system and all the skills I can see making people whine and cry about how its "overly complex" just because they dont want to use that grey mass between their ears and actually attempt to read and think before speaking.

One thing for sure though is due to not being able to buff up ahead of time like how the design was in Hollow Fragment, it makes combat a bit more difficult to go straight into against a stronger enemy as you are at a disadvantage from the get go stats wise. Then taking turns out to buff up puts you at further risk as it ruins the first phase in the battle where your allies action meters are all lined up to connect a continuous attack chain. So with that being said its a bit harder to make use of the buffs than in their other designed title. Reason why I bring up Hollow Fragment is due to not only the same devs, but they have a lot of similar systems involved with the game. Granted things are different but the ideas of piling on the damage with combos, risk breaking and the various skills / buffs people who have played HF will understand.

A final notice for new folks is that you will have to get used to the fact that the camera is a bit too freeform in the sense that you have complete control of it including clipping through walls and whatnots. That basically means its your responsibility to move the camera around so you can see things since the game doesnt really do that for you.

There will be other oddities like clipping through doors and whatnots, but thats more due to how things are designed and otherwise you would get caught up on all sorts of shit on occasions with going in and out of classrooms for example. Though in battle with the move command depending on what type of objects are in the way characters can get caught up on things unfortunately and continue to run in the direction they were supposed to but are stuck behind an object.

With all of the following above aside, game still is quite solid and as initially mentioned the VA / Music work in the game is fantastic. Combos are pretty bad ass too when you pull off some of the nicer ones with your team members. Think highest hit combo I have achieved so far was around 120 hits lol.

 

[mellan_Konsten]

Btw those who plan on picking this up just beware it has crashes in it. Granted I have not run into any yet, a trusted source that I follow shows that it can / does occur. So save often.

In any case you should be saving often with how the game is designed. As its instant game over if the MC dies and it is possible to run into battles with enemies way stronger than you are by accident if you dont pay attention. To make things worse if its a NM type of enemy encounter you are unable to run from it. While you can do "giant killing" to some effect, if the gap in the levels are too high the chances of success will be slim to none due to low accuracy / damage.

Still focusing more on Coven at the moment, but have slowly progressed in the game and gotten to the point where the city map is open allowing me to travel outside of the first school area.

The combat design is just as I had expected, to deal the most damage / be efficient in combat you need to chain together your skills with your party members. This game is also very SP management reliant along with the characters action meter which is displayed upper right of the screen. So for those who just want something easy to breeze through, you might want to give this title a pass. Granted standard enemies are fairly easy more difficult fights in the event if you do not bother to grind you will need to focus with what you do in combat. Even more so if you decide to take on higher lv enemies in order to try for better drops or unlock treasure.

Though against easy enemies the system is hilariously unnecessary as the first set of attacks from a single character can usually finish them off. Though I "think" you get a slight better amount of EXP if you deal out more damage. How high a combo goes doesnt seem to really effect that bonus.

Game isnt super difficult for the most part if you stick to the standard enemies, but the combat system and all the skills I can see making people whine and cry about how its "overly complex" just because they dont want to use that grey mass between their ears and actually attempt to read and think before speaking.

One thing for sure though is due to not being able to buff up ahead of time like how the design was in Hollow Fragment, it makes combat a bit more difficult to go straight into against a stronger enemy as you are at a disadvantage from the get go stats wise. Then taking turns out to buff up puts you at further risk as it ruins the first phase in the battle where your allies action meters are all lined up to connect a continuous attack chain. So with that being said its a bit harder to make use of the buffs than in their other designed title. Reason why I bring up Hollow Fragment is due to not only the same devs, but they have a lot of similar systems involved with the game. Granted things are different but the ideas of piling on the damage with combos, risk breaking and the various skills / buffs people who have played HF will understand.

A final notice for new folks is that you will have to get used to the fact that the camera is a bit too freeform in the sense that you have complete control of it including clipping through walls and whatnots. That basically means its your responsibility to move the camera around so you can see things since the game doesnt really do that for you.

There will be other oddities like clipping through doors and whatnots, but thats more due to how things are designed and otherwise you would get caught up on all sorts of shit on occasions with going in and out of classrooms for example. Though in battle with the move command depending on what type of objects are in the way characters can get caught up on things unfortunately and continue to run in the direction they were supposed to but are stuck behind an object.

With all of the following above aside, game still is quite solid and as initially mentioned the VA / Music work in the game is fantastic. Combos are pretty bad ass too when you pull off some of the nicer ones with your team members. Think highest hit combo I have achieved so far was around 120 hits lol.

Have you finished the game so you can give a post impression of the game, I still want to know if there are enough skills or if it gets repetitive quickly. I'm also interested in hearing more about the writing/tone/characters as the writer had something to do with the early persona games

 

[Parakeetman]

Seems like the game got a content update which is pretty cool. Had not finished it yet, though at the same time very cool to see that they update it also.

Am a bit surprised by this since I would have imagined Aquaria being busy with Hollow Realization as thats their current largest project out this month.

Features included as follows

• New Game Plus (Post-Clear New Game)
• Play Post-Clear with Increased Enemy Levels
• Warp Between Some Save Points
• Additional Dungeon Where You’ll Fight “A Certain Enemy”

For more detailed information check out the gematsu link.