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DE;RQ 1 took me 38 hours to complete, and another further 12 hours to 100% and it felt like it was over too short.
DE;RQ 2 took me 16 hours to finish and it felt like 50.

I don't normally write reviews, since I don't normally find a game that compels me to do so. But Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk is such an unique experience that I had to write about it.



In short: please give this game a try. It's one of my favourite dungeon crawlers with a rich and dark story to accompany it.



Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk is a dungeon crawler game where the player controls several teams of puppets to explore the hidden secrets of the Labyrinth hidden under the town named Refrain. The player assumes the role of a soul-possessed book, The Tractatus de Monstrum, and aids the travelling crippled witch Dronya and her apprentice Luca in uncovering the secrets behind Refrain and the Labyrinth.



Let me preface this review by saying that like all games, it's not for everyone. Labyrinth of Refrain scratched this particular itch for me where I was just in the mood for a Dungeon Crawler and an RPG with a dark plot. Other more traditional dungeon crawlers often lacked depth and story, and most RPGs does not have the amount of player progression that Labyrinth of Refrain does.



So let me get the ugly out of the way, the game is very VERY grindy, even for a dungeon crawler. The player is rewarded for micromanaging his party but the game assumes that the player DOES spend an upward of hours to mini-max his entire roster. It's easy to manage at first, when the player only controls 5-6 puppets. But as games go on, the player will control an upward of 15 puppets in the front line and a further 30 in the back, managing each puppets individually; levelling, equipping and mini-maxing each individual puppets will eat up plenty of the player's time if not managed correctly. Due to the game assuming that the player actively engages in optimisation, there will be a few power spikes during the story. But it's easy to overcome them so it's not too bad.



Aside from that, the dungeon exploration mechanics are not as robust as other dungeon crawlers are. As the player progresses, they will receive some moves that interacts with the dungeon directly, be it breaking some hidden walls or making themselves invisible, but that's the extent of dungeon interaction, there's not much else to do to the dungeon layout more than some basic choices. The maps are also automatically filled in for you and there are event markers that pin-points exactly where you're supposed to go. Some dungeons overstays their welcome by having lengthy routes and some mechanics are never explored quite as much. However, these are all minor gripes in my opinion, since during my 200 hours+ playthrough of the game, the micromanagement has not bored me a single bit. I was always rewarded with stronger characters due to how I built my team and the story pacing was just frequent enough that there's always a little bit of it between grinds.



Now on the GOOD parts of the game. This will be a lot. Let's first talk about the dungeons again. Despite their overall generic design and some dungeons being a little too long. Each dungeon's motif are VERY pronounced. My favourite dungeon is the second dungeon, the Astrom Kingdom, where the player accidentally invades a land of Gnomes and fairy tales. The enemies the player face are all gnomes with mini-scaled weaponries, and like most dungeons, despite it's cheery surface, there lies some really dark hints here and there. Each dungeons are designed with a specific mechanic in mind, obviously I liked some more than others, but in all honestly, every dungeon's mechanics are memorable and unique, each dungeon's enemies are also well designed graphics-wise.



The battle system of Labyrinth of Refrain is VERY VERY complex, thanks to the micromanagement-heavy nature of the game. There are very basic element/attack strength and weaknesses to more complicated systems like Luck and Karma which affects crit rate and gore hit rate. Gore hit is a mega crit that both the player and the opponent have access to. A gore hit reduces the maximum HP and affects weapons and stats even after the battle, until the party heals after returning from the labyrinth.



The player's party is split in to 5 teams, named Covens, and each Coven can have multiple puppets, in both front line, actively engaging in battle; or back line, offering passive buffs to the coven. Each puppets can be one of six classes (with two more story unlockable classes later on), and each class feels unique and synergistic to play with.



I really enjoyed the story for Labyrinth of Refrain. I know I used the term "Dark" to describe it, but what I mean is that EVERY element in the game has a purpose in story telling below its surface value, sometimes there's more than one. For example, there is a reason why the player was called to the book; there is a reason why Dronya and Luca settled in Refrain; there is a reason why Dronya is crippled and so on. But that's only talking about the main story. The lore behind each labyrinth, behind each enemy and so on is explored through enemy designs and optional dialogues throughout the dungeon. The gnome people are monarch reliant and their monarch are more than what meets the eye. Each dungeon is it's own microcosm of creatures/npcs and story. Which is why I never feel bored exploring them over and over again. There are many twists along the way for Dronya and Luca, some are really obvious and some took me by surprise, more than I thought. Just when you thought you know where the story is going, it suckers you in with a twist that was foreshadowed a while ago. The game does not act clever when these moments happen, like a "gotcha" moment, but instead, it acts just as surprised and gives the reader enough time and exposition to understand what's occurred.



The music accompanies the game really well. When I play a game, I often mute the game and put on Spotify or go on youtube to play my own music. But not for Labyrinth of Refrain. The classical ensemble of string instrument to produce the gothic and mystical sounds complements the dark undertones of the game very well. It's reminding the reader to always stay vigilant and not to easily believe anything that they see. The dub for the game are also really well-done. For a mainly subs guy, I preferred the dub version as it made my puppet soldiers much amicable and human-like than the Japanese voiced.



tl;dr: Labyrinth of Refrain is an AMAZING dungeon crawler that has an unexpected story and a great sound track to go with it. If you can stomach a longer grind than usual, you are looking at an amazing experience that takes you through the best puppet show that you'll see,



9/10

Bought it for WILL BE VENUS, worth every penny of it.

Shogun 2 in a haiku:

Army marching in
Men runs from the battlefield
A SHAMEFUR DISPRAY