Varlet
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Critic Reviews for Varlet
The portions of the game that take place between the main plot points and dungeons are dull, making it hard to want to go through the effort of completing all the side objectives. The combat is where the game shines, however, allowing for interesting combinations of your characters and what you can do with them.
Despite the early promise brought by its measured sense of style, interest in intellectual concepts, and distinct combat system, Varlet falls flat in almost every way. It’s still an eye-pleasing RPG experience with fun combat, but all of its surface elements are just that: surface elements. The whole game is dressed up as something it isn’t, which is a shame. I’d love to play the game Varlet presents itself as, rather than the sterile, conveyor belt production line version of a Persona-inspired RPG it feels like.
Is it perfect? No. The choice system needs a rethink, the pacing could use tightening, and the life-sim tasks sometimes cross the line from immersive to plain tedious. But for those willing to put in the hours, Varlet rewards you with a world worth exploring and characters worth caring about.
At best, Varlet is a boring command-based RPG with social sim elements. At worst, Varlet is a fundamentally broken game.
VARLET doesn't do anything wrong as far as JRPGs go, but it also doesn't do enough that's interesting. The game puts its engaging characters in a typical high school setting and gives them the standard tasks to complete with little challenge to interfere. It's an OK game to chill with, but it doesn't leave an impression.
Varlet brings a lot to the table in its systems and mechanics. It also adds a lot of self-discovery to the gameplay with the ruler and leader systems. The SSS requests are monotonous and definitely feel more like busy work than anything, but it doesn't hold the game down too much.
Varlet isn’t a game I would recommend to anyone. Even for Japanese high school game enjoyers, there’s just not enough content or reward behind said content to really motivate interest in its pursuit. Every feature in the game feels half-cooked, with the combat system being the only interesting thing, but ultimately falls hard on its face since there’s really no feeling of reward or satisfaction.
