Game Review: Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten

By Teepu

Player(s): 1
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

With the completion of the main Utawarerumono trilogy, what better way to tell a new story than with a prequel that helps fill in some of the blanks? Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten was released last year on PC, but is finally coming to consoles, as in the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, in just a few days.

I should preface this review with the fact that I am a newcomer to the series. My opinion is based around a lack of knowledge on the series and the plot of the main trilogy and as such, my outlook may vary from that of a long-time fan. That being said, the fact that I still enjoyed the game is telling of its quality despite being made for fans rather than newcomers.

The thing I’d like to talk about first, which is what hit me the moment I started playing, are the visuals. The game is undoubtedly full of simple designs and low-resolution textures, but overall, I felt like the game looked full of personality. I especially loved the anime-like presentation. The animations are smooth and feel like the kind of over-the-top motions you would get in an anime. It has a certain style of fluidity that is different from the average JRPG, which are also quite over-the-top in their own way. A lot of this has to do with the way the camera is angled and how it moves, which really helps. The overall fidelity is finem though sometimes lacking in a little detail. Despite its shortcomings, in the end I enjoyed the visuals and the way they were presented.

Let’s talk about the audio, which I wasn’t quite as happy with. The music is pretty good and the voice acting is solid, but the sound effects often sound tiny and forgettable. I understand that localization voice acting can be pricey and not all games can get it, but I was a bit disappointed there were no English voices. It ultimately all meant that I just quickly read through the text, often skipping the voices, but I’d much rather have been able to put a level of understanding to the voices and emotions being expressed by the characters. It’s not necessarily a negative point towards the game, just something I wish it had. 

I played the entirety of the game on the PlayStation 5, and considering it has a PS5 version release separate from the PS4 software the game makes absolutely no use of the console at all. Without getting into the nitty gritty, a PS5 labelled game is supposed to take advantage of something the console offers to qualify as a separate software file rather than an upgrade patch of the PS4 software, so I expected some use. None whatsoever though. The audio is in stereo, there was no 5.1 or 3D Audio in the game. There’s also no use of the DualSense; not the adaptive triggers nor the haptic feedback. It doesn’t look visually impressive enough to warrant being a PS5 release either. It does have very snappy loading though, which is a plus. Overall though, it feels like they simply ported the PS4 version over to PS5 with no real attempt to utilize the PS5’s features, and the games design just happened to take advantage of the improved loading. This may not matter to most but when I go into a PS5 labelled release I expect some level of PS5 features, and getting none was quite unfortunate. 

Alright, with all the nitty gritty of the technical and aesthetic side of things out of the way, let’s talk about the gameplay and story. The game plays like a traditional turn-based RPG. You will run around relatively large areas, exploring in a relatively linear fashion, discovering items, and fighting monsters. While keeping a more traditional feel, I appreciate that there are no random encounters. You see every monster on the field, and you can choose to fight or go around it. They can surprise attack you if you are not paying attention, and likewise if you are high enough level, you can press the attack button and kill them on the field without getting into the formal combat. That latter bit is something I really love, as I still get the normal XP and items without wasting time on combat that isn’t even remotely challenging at the level I’m at. The chests and glittering pickups can sometimes be a little hard to see when you are exploring, but I’ve found so many throughout the game that it hasn’t been too much of an issue.

Moving onto combat, there is a slight twist to spice things up for genre veterans. Rather than simply taking turns for actions you are presented with three rings. These rings represent the speed at which turns will pop back up. The more inner the character’s ring, the more often they will get turns. This works both for enemies and party members. You can do actions such as staggering enemies to knock them out a ring while you move in. Certain attacks will also ‘push back’ the enemy’s turn slightly, which could sometimes allow for another party member to creep up with an attack before the enemy. The system isn’t overly complex, but it adds a very welcome layer to an ancient way of approaching combat in RPGs. Personally I really enjoyed this, and it helped keep combat a bit more engaging than I expected. Beyond that combat is straightforward. You can attack, do spells, cause buffs or debuffs, etc. I have an incessant need to fight every single monster I see, so as a result I was overlevelled and downing every with ease. I imagine the average player won’t play like that, but be warned that on Normal difficulty the game can be exceedingly easy if you fight everything you see. There are secret bosses that pose a bit more of a challenge, but even then by the time I was ready to approach them I was more than prepared to take them down. I will point out that a Hard mode probably exists for that exact reason, so if you crave a higher challenge you can always play on the higher difficulty.

As you level up you get bonus points to put into whatever stat you like per character. This is very reminiscent of another RPG I love: Super Mario RPG. It allows you to slightly customize each character. The points aren’t enough for you to make a wrong decision and break the character, anything you do will be a benefit. Naturally, depending on how you plan to use each character, those bonus points could help accelerate your play style, but you could go the whole game without using the bonus points and still be fine if you are levelled and have good gear. All the same I appreciate these systems, as it’s yet another simple feature to further engage the player. 

The story is full of intrigue and twists as well. I reiterate that I have no familiarity with the series so some of the things I found to be twists might not be for veteran players, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the story all the same. There’s just enough carrot dangling to keep me going while constantly offering me new story elements. I love the variety of characters as well, even if they are all very stereotyped personality types. They allowed for some very fun interactions that kept me smiling. The story itself involves the main character meeting a mysterious stranger from another place who is lost. He decides to help her when she claims to have the same father as him (who is presumed dead to the main character). The story progresses with them going on a journey to get to her mysterious land and to search for their father. There are various things that will put a wrench in things, and it’s a fun story throughout.

While the switch in genre to turn-based RPG might be a turn off for fans of the other games in the series, I suggest all give this game a try as it’s a charming RPG with fun characters, enjoyable gameplay, and an engaging story. The main game takes around 40-50 hours to complete, though my completionist self spent far more time playing than that. If you’re looking for a new RPG to play, you can’t really go wrong with Monochrome Mobius.

For More Information on Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten:
https://nisamerica.com/games/monochrome-mobius

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Story: A
Gameplay: A
Graphics: B-
Music/Sound: B-
Value: A

OVERALL: A-

Pros:
+ Slight twists to traditional turn-based combat keep things engaging.
+ Story is a bit one-dimensional, but very enjoyable all the same.
+ Game progresses in a way that never leaves you feeling bored.

Cons:
- Game is a little more linear than I would have liked.
- Woeful lack of use of practically ALL PS5 features.
- Audio being only Stereo in 2023 is not a good look.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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