logo

izigame.me

It may take some time when the page for viewing is loaded for the first time...

izigame.me

cover-Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society

Monday, March 6, 2023 10:55:18 PM

Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society Review (A Successful Businessman)

The Moon Society is one of those sequels that vastly improves over the predecessor, Coven of Dusk, to the point where it creates a mild problem over which title to tackle first. The Moon Society is far better at introducing and teaching the mechanics to the player, though even with the prior title's experience I had to glance through some of the tutorials and still messed up some of my puppets - to the point where I restarted from scratch and still have run into an issue with my brigade the second time around. However, it also has so many - so many - quality of life additions and new mechanics that it would make going to the previous title somewhat painful - I don't know how I can go back to finish Dusk's postgame after playing this. If you are on the fence with this franchise, I would personally suggest skipping Coven and jumping right into this title, and going back if you really enjoyed it - as I think both titles are exemplary dungeon crawlers. Moon Society especially has me making mental and ingame notes about the layout of the dungeons far more than its predecessor and many other dungeon crawlers that also have automap.
Storywise, intrigue is sown early, and the characters avoid Coven's main story issue by being likeable out the gate - with a star performance by Eureka in the english dub and little touches in the Visual Novel scenes catching the eye. While I have not finished the story - potentially not even close - because I take far too long minmaxing and puppet recrafting, I can say that I am hooked. While this game lacks Dronya, you've seen the developer's content descriptions and warnings on the Steam page. This is an NIS title with the western release on Valentine's day. That's all I will say on that.
There is one piece of mechanical advice I have to give - the game is very slow about giving you your reincarnation/reclass even though it hints at it early on. Unless you want to destroy the puppets you're attached to, you'll have to work with that 20 puppet limit in mind. You'll be stuck with them awhile, so give them memorable characters. Hopefully characters you'll like to see interact due to the Rapport and new "Ring" relationship system - from friends to rivals and to far more.
What's somewhat insidious is that the game will give you (you'll find) 3 pacts that can each be staffed by 3-4 of the same class - each of these focused on the "evasive, low damage, low health" classes. None of these are bad, mind you, but can take up the majority of your roster if you build to have the option to fully staff all 3. Meanwhile, the game tends to drown you in weapons these classes don't specialize in - Lances, Swords, Katars, and just enough Mallets - all too good to burn for alchemy; while bulky armor is far more common than evasive or Donum focused armor. If you don't like seeing your loot go to waste in your backpack while others units are starving, I highly recommend reserving space for at least 2 sword users, 2 katar users, at least 2 lance users, and 1-2 hammer users. Especially regarding the katar users - you can get away with one, but the option of either having a backup or being able to field 2 is massive - to the point where I'm contemplating puppet destruction and soul extinguishing. As for how you build them (or what classes use them), well, I won't deprive you of the theory crafting fun.
When it all comes together, when cute representations of my roster come out of the corner of my screen to complete a resonance combo and give little quips on their crits or stuns, I sometimes wish I didn't min-max so hard, so that my foes could survive just that bit longer so the combo would complete. But only sometimes. Number go up is also nice. It's still a NIS title, afterall. (Full disclosure, I do love min-maxing myself, but you can just... auto equip units with a button, so it's definitely not a necessity).
Happy delving!