The Caligula Effect: Overdose Reviews

The Caligula Effect: Overdose is ranked in the 17th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
8.5 / 10.0
Mar 19, 2019

Overall, I have to say I really loved how “relatable” or “real” the characters in Caligula Effect Overdose felt. A lot of good improvements were made on the original, and there were a lot of new and innovative gameplay ideas. While the game may get a little repetitive at times, if you intersperse with trauma resolution, it becomes significantly more manageable. I’m really hoping the team that made this continues on to do future work.

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GameMAG
Top Critic
6 / 10
Mar 19, 2019

The lack of practical map can put you in a dead end. Initially, I wanted to give The Caligula Effect: Overdose a highter score because of an interesting combat system and nice graphics, but boring labyrinths, monotony side-quests and easy battles with ordinary opponents didn't let me do it.

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Wait for Sale
Mar 18, 2019

The Caligula Effect: Overdose has a lot of interesting design elements to set it apart from the crowd: the combat, the story premise, the recruitable school body. While these sort of unique elements are normally enough to secure my interest, the performance issues and poor character development make it difficult to get invested in. It’s certainly far from approaching the lofty heights of the Persona series, but it may still be able to catch your interest.

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PSX Brasil
Top Critic
65 / 100
Mar 18, 2019

The Caligula Effect: Overdose is not such a bad title if you dedicate yourself on it. However, the repeated scenarios, weak combat and characters without charisma make everything extremely tiring and monotonous.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

Mar 16, 2019

The Caligula Effect: Overdose has great ideas that are often marred by uneven execution. But with its unique combat system, as well as exemplary music and illustrations, the negatives are outweighed by the positives.

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Mar 13, 2019

It's worth giving The Caligula Effect: Overdose a chance to get into full bloom.

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Simon Brown
Top Critic
6.5 / 10.0
Mar 12, 2019

A competent if flawed JRPG that has a unique combat system undermined by poor localisation as well as just dull implementation. If you are after a Persona-like RPG you might get some enjoyment from this, but it's pretty generic fare.

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7.5 / 10.0
Mar 12, 2019

The Caligula Effect Overdose has some of the most inventive combat I have ever played in a turnbased JRPG. If you can get beyond the grind a lot of the dungeons feel like and the poorly implemented social systems, you will be treated to amazing combat, great music, wonderful character interactions and a story that will really make you think.

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Mar 12, 2019

The Caligula Effect: Overdose is so saturated with bland content that the meaningful moments get buried. Attempts to perk things up with a new engine and extra content just end up on top of the pile instead of actually fixing anything.

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6 / 10.0
Mar 12, 2019

As someone who lacks a basis for comparison, Overdose is a bit on the overwhelming side when it comes to the story… and honestly most of it felt a bit nonsensical to the point I only peripherally paid it any attention...

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4 / 10
Mar 11, 2019

BAD - The most appealing aspect of The Caligula Effect: Overdose is the battle system which does a pretty good job at being fun for a few hours into the adventure. The game is bogged down by too many problems from boring interaction with NPCs and troublesome game mechanics to be considered something to invest your time or money into.

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6 / 10.0
Mar 8, 2019

The Caligula Effect: Overdose is an RPG with a fun combat system, fantastic J-POP soundtrack, and wonderful audio design. Unfortunately, the story feels rote, the characters are cliche, and the Causality Link system is largely superficial. Kudos are given for allowing you to take on the role of a villain and sympathize with the antagonists.

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6.5 / 10.0
Mar 7, 2019

The Caligula Effect: Overdose is still definitely a flawed, frustrating work. Its shortcomings are many, and might still be too intractable for some, but the refinements and additions have,for me at least, papered over the cracks just enough to make it worth putting up with. Patient and curious JRPG enthusiasts will find plenty to appreciate, if not necessarily love, if they try for a quick stay in Mobius.

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Liked
Mar 7, 2019

It's Persona, but not quite as good. In the end, I cant help but compare the two games. Its not going to replace Persona in your heart, but its a good sweetheart of a distraction in the meantime.

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5 / 10.0
Mar 6, 2019

In the end, there isn't much here that feels fully developed. While The Caligula Effect: Overdose has some interesting ideas, none of them really work. I suspect that after some time with The Go-Home Club, players will be longing to go home to the cozy comfort of a classic JRPG. Better to avoid this simulation from the start.

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Mar 5, 2019

The Caligula Effect progresses at a fast enough clip that, for the second time over, I haven't wanted to put it down.

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6 / 10.0
Mar 5, 2019

Even without prior knowledge of the Persona series, it's hard to walk away from this game without criticizing the quality. A boring story, uninteresting characters, and a soundtrack that begs you to play with the sound turned off are just a sample of the myriad reasons to avoid The Caligula Effect. For a select niche, the incredibly fun combat system may be worth overlooking all of the faults, if at least for a few hours. While I had a terrific time beating my opponents into dust, everything else is just too egregious to recommend to anyone.

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7 / 10.0
Mar 5, 2019

I’m glad the team at FuRyu didn’t give up on The Caligula Effect after it received such a poor reception when it first released. While still far from being amazing, this enhanced edition is a step in the right direction for the team and the franchise if they want to continue moving it forward.

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5 / 10
Mar 5, 2019

There’s enough cleaned up here for really hardcore JRPG fans to take a look, and I can’t really say that this is a bad game not worth experiencing anymore. If anything, it’s stepped up to “aggressively mediocre.”

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5 / 10
Mar 5, 2019

Despite being remade in a new engine in an attempt to adress its problems, The Caligula Effect: Overdose still fails to deliver a good experience

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