If you ask a lot of people who got into the Japanese Role-Playing Game scene after 2016, they’ll likely tell you that the greatest game ever created is Persona 5. Even if they don’t like typical JRPGs, they’ll probably have liked Persona 5. And what’s not to like about P5? It’s over 100 hours of a great story, lovable characters, and it’s dripping with so much style that you can’t help but be amazed from the first hour.
Joker jumping out the window. This is one of the first animated cutscenes in the game.
Persona 5 is an extremely good game, there’s no disputing that. It built off Persona 3 and Persona 4’s success to create a groundbreaking hit that introduced many people to the JRPG genre. It’s a game that will probably go down in history along with Final Fantasy VII and Mother 3.
But it’s not the only JRPG out there, and its notoriety has been something of a double-edged sword. People expect every JRPG out there to be as flashy and beautiful as Persona 5 is, and because of that, it undercuts games that just… don't look like that.
Enter the mid-budget JRPG that’s struggling along and trying its best. The Caligula Effect: Overdose and The Caligula Effect 2. Monark. REYNATIS. All of these games have janky graphics, gameplay that’s anywhere from half-decent to just insufferable, and a story that will re-wire your brain. But, none of them are that popular, The Caligula Effect especially is widely hated, and I doubt anyone that isn’t as much of a nerd as I am has even heard of them.
One of The Caligula Effect: Overdose’s most common glitches, your protagonist clipping through the ground and looking half their height.
But that’s the thing— despite the janky graphics and gameplay, these games are some of my all-time favorites. I’m just waiting for a sale so I can purchase the latest game from FuRyu, the studio behind these games. And I’m sure I’ll love VARLET just as much.
The mid-budget JRPG gets lost in the shuffle between Persona, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy, and a ton of other series. With all these brilliant, critically acclaimed game series, what’s the point of playing something by a studio like FuRyu?
And my only answer is to ask you to give it a chance.
I bought The Caligula Effect: Overdose on sale for a fraction of the price five years ago after one of my online friends recommended it to me, and it was one of the greatest decisions I ever made. After pushing my way through the second arc, I found myself in a new world, and I pre-ordered the sequel the day it was announced. To this day, I still think of Kensuke and Gin, about Shogo and Kiriko, about Mifue and Sasara… the list goes on. I’ve bought almost every game released by FuRyu since! The graphics do suck, the game crashes on me constantly, but I still find myself going back and replaying Overdose. It’s unique, and it takes risks that a bigger game never would. Your characters have a variety of traumas, and they’re explored in such a deep and human way that even if you find yourself hating them at first, you can’t do it for long. Not after taking a deep dive into their psyches.
Mifue Shinohara being… herself. Would you believe me if I said you wouldn’t hate her by the end of the game?
I used to say the Persona 4 Protagonist was the best big brother character in fiction until I played Monark, and I learned that it was actually the Monark protagonist. To this day, I have never found a game that truly had the guts that Monark had to play around with your protagonist and the sense of self. Monark’s protagonist starts as a blank slate that you as the player speak through, but he slowly but surely gains his own ego and personality, and your choices start to shrink until at most points you’re only left with a single option. You’re not speaking anymore. He is. For a game that has the message of finding your own ego, it surely steps up to give its protagonist one.
The Monark protagonist immediately after confronting his sister’s killer.
Not every game can be Persona 5. Not every game should be Persona 5. A bigger audience means that at some point, things are cut to make a game more palatable for wider audiences. But if you look at that smaller studio, if you look at those janky graphics, you might see… yourself.
For most of FuRyu’s games, the protagonists don’t even have canon names like the Persona games do. There’s no debate between Ren Amamiya or Akira Kurusu, like there is among fans of Persona.
I painstakingly crafted names and backstories for my protagonists, yet they’ve taken on a life of their own. Akira/Ren is as flat as can be, and no matter how much you try to give him a personality in the game. He’s still a perfect blank slate for you as the player to project on.
But from the beginning of both The Caligula Effect games, you’re asked to assign your player a motivation. A reason for them to want to escape. Monark asks you to take a quiz so that the protagonist reflects you as a person better.
One of the questions from The Caligula Effect’s motivation questionnaire.
And from that, I see myself more in Monark’s protagonist. I see myself more in The Caligula Effect’s protagonists. In my heart, I find myself longing for that moment I first played those games rather than the moment I first saw Joker jump out the window.
Because what separates a mid-budget JRPG from a major one is the risk. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. However, if it does… it will make you question your entire existence.
While you might find more merchandise for Persona 5, my heart lies with those mid-budget JRPGs that made my spirit sing. That made me hate and love in so many different ways.
There are plenty that are coming out soon, such as Alice at the End of Her Life or In Falsus, so it’s the perfect time to dive right in!
And if you give that mid-budget JRPG with janky graphics a chance, you might find the game that does that for you. Or you might hate it, but hey, you bought it on sale for like $20, so was it really that much of a risk?