Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten Review

thesixthaxis.com:

For the longest time, I only knew of the Utawarerumono series because certain corners of the fandom jokingly called it Underwater Ray Romano. When I moved past the memes and finally gave the games a shot, though, I was blown away. Ray Romano be damned, these visual novels are amazing! Their tight writing, gorgeous old-school artwork and immersive world-building hooked me, and the tactics-gameplay battles that were sprinkled throughout them helped keep me engaged until the credits rolled.

I talk about this series because, despite not being evident from the title, Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten is a prequel to Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception. Despite sharing a setting, these games do not share genres – Monochrome Mobius eschews the visual-novel tactics hybrid presentation in favor of being a traditional, full-3D turn-based RPG – and Aquaplus’ inexperience with that genre is evident from beginning to end.

The standalone nature of this game’s title implies that Monochrome Mobius is meant for newcomers to the series, and in theory that’s true. The story is kicked off by a young woman named Shunya being cornered by enemy soldiers alongside her father in a mysterious teleporter room. He sends her through the teleporter for her safety, and she arrives in the quiet village of Ennakamuy, where she encounters a local swordsman and town protector named Oshtor. As it turns out, though, Oshtor is Shunya’s brother, and the father he believed to be dead since his youth is in a dire situation. This sends the two off on an adventure to reunite with him before it’s too late.

The thing is, Shunya and Oshtor are characters from Utawarerumono, and many of the other people, creatures, and locales you come across in Monochrome