#Labyrinth of refrain : coven of dusk

[amechyofsorts]

Did I just hear one or two Refrain voice actresses in the magic school flashback? Very appropriate.

[homriette]

I am once again posting more dungeon crawler yuri

[splashink-games]

Using Poppets to Explore the World(s)

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk is a first-person dungeon crawling JRPG. Using puppets created by her apprentice Luca, the Dusk Witch Dronya explores the Labyrinth under the town of Refrain.

What awaits in the labyrinth is a plethora of worlds, monsters, and levelling up!

Spoiler warning for the story and postgame below the cut!

So I've been wanting to play Labyrinth of Refrain for a long while now. Probably about as long as I've waited for the N1RV Ann-A release, but this one's actually released so- Here we are, I guess.

To clarify, unlike all the bad reviews, I only had one crash and it was cause the game was trying to use my stupid integrated graphics instead of my actual gpu so there's that. Never had an issue with stability.

To start with gameplay, it's what you'd expect from a game of the genre. There's a lot to take in heading into it: puppets, pacts, covens, the dungeon exploration. As someone who's played Mary Skelter and Etrian Odyssey, I thoroughly enjoyed the mechanics.

I think the classes felt a little shallow, with some being obviously better than others. By the end of the game, I was thinking of ditching Marginal Maze (the mage class) altogether while having a team of Gothic Coppelias (crit-focused class) and Aster Knights (the all-arounder) instead because their skills are immensely useful for long fights. Or choosing Aster Knights over Shinobushi (DEX-based class) because the Knights can tank better. As an aside, the resistance skills in the classes felt like filler, simply because I could just have equipment to increase them and I could have much better skills instead.

The most interesting mechanic to me was the Pacts and Covens. I didn't think it'd be so satisfying to have that many units attacking. Plus the different effects of each pact and formation are interesting, though the formations are also a little lacking since there's only so many ways to form your brigade. The pacts having the magic was also nice, since I could mix and match the skills with the puppets.

I had an issue with the magic/Donum not being all too useful until late in the game. And even then, I wouldn't use it unless I had a particularly difficult or a boss fight ahead of me. Two things stood out to me for this, one being that I couldn't restore Donum in the labyrinth and two being my attacks were just stronger than the skills most of the time.

The dungeon exploration was fun too! Albeit the red damaging spots were annoying. The breakable walls added a cool thing to look out for in each floor. Mud exits were extremely useful, despite it being kinda bad for farming mana.

The game itself wasn't so hard, but I don't think that's a huge problem. On normal, the fights and dungeon crawling offered an adequate amount of challenge while still letting me breeze through. I think my fun focused on optimizing my puppets and enjoying the story.

Speaking of story, it was wonderful and I'm glad it didn't flop for me since I poured over 70 hours into it. Well, I guess I wouldn't have poured time into it if the story flopped. And for all its missteps, the story does a fantastic job of developing its characters including all their flaws and relationships.

The Dusk Witch Dronya is a great look at a character who gives no shits to get what she wants, but despite being a ruthless person, she still has a soft side for Luca. We get to gradually understand her goals and uncover her history with various characters. Her relationship with Luca and Isara are especially well-written, I think. With Luca, Dronya's both a guardian and mentor despite her actions towards the child. And with Isara, an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers? An unrequited love, enough to care for her orphaned child.

The narrative twists itself at the end, revealing an array of information that changes how you look at things. Luca is a soul witch. Dronya is a puppet. The Funas are also puppets. Furia, who you hear from some characters earlier in the game, is Baba Yaga and rightfully assumes her role as the main villain again.

The game, while it hides a lot from the players, is still able to tell a cohesive story while developing characters.

As for the art and music- well I kind of drowned out the music in all honesty. It happens when most of the battle music is the same and you're focused on getting through to the next story point.

The (Japanese) voice acting, however, was very nice. At times a little overacted but I thought the voice cast matched their characters.

The art is in the usual anime-style and its quality is top-notch. I liked seeing the motifs between the characters shown in different ages (Luca, Dronya, Marietta).

The 100% wasn't too hard to do and it was all new content! The hidden bosses had some annoying quirks, like needing a specific pact to make the fight easier, but overall offered a level of difficulty that was nice! I didn't even need to fully optimize my puppets for it.

The post-game story was also refreshing. I'm a pushover for good(?) endings. It lets you tie up some loose ends in the alternate timeline and find out a little more about Mezzaluca.

For those looking for a good story and a lot of unit optimizing, this is a game for you!

As always,

Enjoy gaming!

[nintendowife]

I recently finished Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk on PC. The main story playthrough took me 100 hours and then I proceeded to the post-game dungeon to get the true ending, adding up to a total playtime of 132 hours.

At first my feelings towards the game were ambiguous. I very much liked the visual style but the dialogue and story seemed boring. Also the game systems were too complicated for their own good. I appreciated the game tried to come up with some new unconventional systems but they were pretty difficult to understand. The terms the game uses were unfamiliar and for a long time I didn't know how the covens and such work.

The turn-based dungeon crawling RPG gameplay didn't completely convince me at first. Battles were boring as in the beginning you don't get active skills to use, so it was just whacking monsters with normal attacks. Characters gain passive skills but all active skills are tied to the different covens you assign the characters to. As you advance in the game you start getting better covens with more skills and battles get more interesting. There are underlying combat mechanics though, like "critical gore" hits that destroy a limb of either the enemy or your own team members, leading to lowered max HP and decreased attack or defence. In case the head gets destroyed, it's one-hit KO for the character. This added a surprising amount of tension to battles.

Advancing in the game wasn't always clear as there were all kinds of roadblocks preventing smooth progress which was a bit frustrating. For example to progress in a dungeon you needed to complete some kind of an arbitrary task or event, then return to base where you needed to report. Only after that you either gained a new ability to progress or another main story event triggered somewhere in the dungeon.

Slowly the game started unfolding its brilliance. The game mechanics clicked with me and I understood how to utilize covens, formations, etc. to my advantage. The story got a lot more interesting too. The first-person dungeon crawling and mapping of areas felt satisfying to me right from the beginning. Dungeons became visually more enticing and the boss fights and story events made me want to push further to see what else is on offer.

I have to say Labyrinth of Refrain is not a feel-good game despite what you may think based on the cute looking characters. I actually felt uncomfortable about some events and dialogue in the game. There's verbal and physical abuse, unconsented sex and cruel treatment of others. Some of the monster designs are downright grotesque and repulsive.

What the game excels in is character customization. You can create dozens of characters into your roster. You select a class, gender and you have 4 different character portraits to choose from. You choose a voice, personality, stance, stat growth type and lucky number. You can name the characters and even get to input a flavor text for each of your "puppets".

I had lots of fun getting creative, coming up with all kinds of silly or fancy names and flavor text describing their backstory. For example I had a chubby female mage Plyyshi de Devaan who was the cousin of my dancer character Velour van Schohva. One of my masked female mages I named Naamio Campbell (naamio means mask in Finnish) as a word play of Naomi Campbell, the former supermodel.

In addition to characters' normal portrait illustrations you get to see fun chibi versions of them during battle when they occasionally do a so-called resonance attack.

You can equip your characters freely (no class restrictions on weapons/gear). Your characters gain stats and passive skills when they level up and there's the possibility to do a "soul transfer" to move existing characters' growth to a new puppet with another class. This allows you to transfer class-specific skills to other classes and create truly powerful and efficient characters. Soul transfer is key mechanic to tackling some of the post-game content.

In the end I truly enjoyed the game despite my indifferent feel towards the early-game content. I grew attached to the characters. Music was great especially in boss encounters and voice acting in Japanese was very good. The mechanics allowed for building an efficient team and I saw the pros of the skill system I was initially disappointed with. The battles offered a good challenge, even so much that before entering the post-game I decided to lower the difficulty to avoid grinding. I was a fan of the visuals and I especially adored one key character's design that appears in the post-game.

I've already added the sequel, Labyrinth of Galleria, to my wishlist.

[dovebugge]

Leaked dialog from the deleted Goldmary Etie S-Support

[mjcgamergirl]

[virikako]

Time for the 2nd Labyrinth exploration in Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk

[itsbenedict]

Games I Played In 2023 And Whether Or Not I Thought They Were Good- Roundup

Alright I just finished reviewing every game I played in 2023. Here's a list of everything I covered, plus... scores, why not? I'll do an experimental thing- the ✅ score is how good the good parts are, and the ❌ score is how bad the bad parts are. 5's around average, and if ✅>❌ then I feel overall positive about it.

link to Part 1

Potionomics (✅ 8/10, ❌ 2/10)

Horizon: Forbidden West (✅ 7/10, ❌9/10)

Disco Elysium (✅9/10, ❌0/10)

Tunic (✅10/10, ❌1/10)

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (✅7/10, ❌4/10)

link to Part 2

Trails into Reverie (✅6/10, ❌10/10)

DREDGE (✅6/10, ❌3/10)

Wildfrost (✅5/10, ❌3/10)

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (✅4/10, ❌4/10)

Touhou: Lost Branch of Legend (✅7/10, ❌2/10)

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk (✅3/10, ❌8/10)

PowerWash Simulator (✅8/10, ❌3/10)

link to Part 3

Pikmin 4 (✅8/10, ❌1/10)

Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE (✅7/10, ❌6/10)

Ori and the Blind Forest (✅6/10, ❌3/10)

Raft (✅5/10, ❌4/10)

Grounded (✅8/10, ❌5/10)

Pokémon: Too Many Types (✅7/10, ❌3/10)

Super Mario Bros. Wonder (✅5/10, ❌4/10)

Cuisineer (✅6/10, ❌5/10)

Cavern of Dreams (✅7/10, ❌1/10)

link to Part 4 (haven't finished these games yet)

Fire Emblem Vision Quest (✅6/10, ❌3/10)

Void Stranger (✅3 + ???/10, ❌6/10)

Pokémon Infinity (✅4/10, ❌2/10)

Unnamed Space Idle (✅8/10, ❌Pure Evil/10)

Fate/Hollow Ataraxia (✅8/10, ❌2/10)

The Sekimeiya: Spun Glass (✅9/10, ❌4/10)

[satoshi-mochida]

Nippon Ichi Software summer 2023 greeting card teases new game announcement

Gematsu Source

Nippon Ichi Software‘s summer 2023 greeting card teases a new title announcement coming soon.

Here is the teaser, via @HC_3X:

The Gifu-based developer has historically used its summer greeting cards to tease the announcements of new titles.

New game announcements teased by Nippon Ichi Software’s previous summer greeting cards include:

Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless (summer 2022)

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny (summer 2020)

Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers (summer 2018)

Closed Nightmare (summer 2017)

The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 (summer 2016)

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk (summer 2015)

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance (summer 2014)

Nippon Ichi Software recently launched its 30th anniversary website, which has teased three unannounced upcoming titles to commemorate the milestone.

[amechyofsorts]

Actually fuck it. Real quick favorite games from last 10 years, in no particular order. Play em' yourself douchebags!

[self-loving-vampire]

I mean both of those eroguro dungeon crawler rpg's sound great.

Especially the doll one. That's certainly my flavor of game mechanic.

What are they called? I'd love to look into them myself...

The first one is Mary Skelter 2 (which is actually meant to be played before the first game and comes with a remake of said game that can use your True Ending file). It has kind of janky and unbalanced gameplay at times but is still far from the worst I have seen in that regard. I do like a lot of the characters even though many of them are not very complex or interesting.

Also, the protagonist is a girl prince married to another girl.

The second one is Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk, which feels a lot smoother to play. I just unlocked the option to make genderless dolls in that one.

[splashink-games]

Reviews Master List

All of my reviews are linked below under the cut!

Game Lists:

Games I Played in 2021

A Year of Gaming, 2022

A Year of Gaming, 2023

3 Lines on 7 Games

(Florence, Bright Memory, Framed Collection, When the Past was Around, Tametsi, Turnip Boy, AER)

(Another) 3 Games in 3 Lines

(while true: learn(), Pikuniku, Alicemare)

3 More Games in 3 Lines

(Sword of the Necromancer, Nowhere Prophet, Dicey Dungeons)

3 Additional Games in 3 Lines

(Luna's Fishing Garden, SHENZEN I/O, Mini Healer)

5 Games I Haven't Finished

(Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Disco Elysium, Spiritfarer, Rain World, Railroad Corporation)

3 Cute DU&I Puzzle Games

(Cats Organized Neatly, Dogs Organized Neatly, Feed All Monsters)

3 Unique Rhythm Games

(Soundfall, No Straight Roads, Rhythm Sprout)

5 Strategy Games I Think You Should Play

(Battletech, Wasteland 3, The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos, Fae Tactics, Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga)

Game Reviews:

A Little to the Left

As Far As The Eye

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Bread & Fred

Carto

Cassette Beasts

Cat Cafe Manager

Death end re;Quest

Dorfromantik

Edge of Eternity

ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights

Evan's Remains

Hexcells

Hollow Knight

Ikenfell

Islanders

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk

Last Call BBS

Littlewood

Love is Dead

Mary Skelter: Nightmares

Melatonin

Metal Unit

Neon White

Potionomics

SANABI

Tales of Zestiria

UNBEATABLE [white label]

Unsighted

A Note On...:

A Dance of Fire and Ice

A Short Hike

Ageless

Alt-Frequencies

ANNO: Mutationem

Assemble with Care

BALAN WONDERWORLD

Bear and Breakfast

Deep Rock Galactic

Dodgeball Academia

Dragonball Z: Kakarot

Dungeon Drafters

En Garde!

Epistory: Typing Chronicles

Every Letter

Filament

Frog Corral

Garden Story

Haven

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Here Comes Niko!

Hue

Jack Move

Lil Gator Game

Little Hope

Luck Be A Landlord

Minami Lane

Minit

Monster Sanctuary

Murder by Numbers

Muse Dash

Peglin

Rhythm Doctor

Risk of Rain 2

Severed Steel

shapez

Shellshock Live

Smushi Come Home

Sticky Business

Storyteller

Sunblaze

The Looker

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

Timelie

TROUBLERSHOOTER: Abandoned Children

[lc87]

I've come to the conclusion that Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk is, also, yuri

[nintendowife]

Steam Year in Review 2023 served some statistics about my gaming on Steam during the past year.

11 games played

7 new games

318 achievements unlocked

20% played with keyboard + mouse, 80% with controller

Longest streak was 16 days (July 16 - August 1)

40% of games I played were new, released during 2023

47% of games I played were released in the last 1-7 years

13% of games I played were released 8 or more years ago

I played the most during July

I spent the most time in games tagged with:

Life Sim

Pixel Graphics

Casual

RPG

Fighting

Cats

My top 3 most played games on Steam in 2023:

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk (48% of play time, 112 sessions)

Touhou Mystia's Izakaya (12% of play time, 19 sessions)

Sticky Business (10% of play time, 29 sessions)

Other games I played on Steam during 2023:

Shadows Over Loathing

Volcano Princess

Ys: The Oath in Felghana

We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie

Zwei: The Arges Adventure

Tekken 7

An Arcade Full of Cats

Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure (this one I actually just booted up to make sure it works after purchasing)

[princess-rising-chaos]

Captain Borkin from Cargo! the Quest For Gravity

Claire from Thomas Was Alone

Dronya from Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk

Welcome!

Are you tired of your fav characters losing polls seemingly due to their obscurity? Well we here aim to fix that.

And the way we do that is simple, for each poll, if you know one character but not the other, vote for the character you DON'T know. If you both or neither character then vote for whoever you like more.

Submissions for character will close March 18th. (This used to be WAY LONGER but then this post got big) And the bracket itself will start as soon as I can after that.

To submit a character simply do the following:

Think of a character that you like, but think is obscure

Reblog this post with the characters name, and what franchise they are from

Now one thing to note: if I see a lot of the same character being submitted that will lessen their chances of getting in, so if you see this post being reblogged because it had a character or series tag that you follow, consider submitting a different character.