Labyrinth Life is a turn-based, dungeon crawler, roguelike, RPG developed by Matrix Studio and published by D3. You play as transfer student Hinata Akatsuki as she begins her first year at the Belles Fleur Academy for girls and attempts to familiarize herself with all the mysteries the campus has to offer. Whether it be the mystical properties of the eternal flower garden or the schemes of her better-off peers, danger lurks behind every flower bed.
While the game does feature standard RPG and roguelike elements, a large portion of the game is dialogue interactions between characters via visual-novel-esque cutscenes.
Unfortunately, the cutscenes range from the usual anime tropey fanfare to more sexualized encounters. Usually, cutscenes are my favorite aspects of games for lore reasons. However, when its laden with breast jiggle animations it gets old rather quickly. Luckily there is an option to speed through these interactions and move forward into the gameplay which is where things get interesting.
Despite the cutscenes being rendered in 2D, most of the in-game art is rendered in 3D. While the monster designs and animations were interesting, nothing about the rest of the assets stood out to me. I did, however, find it cute that the character sprites wielded and attacked with the weapons you equipped. In terms of combat, Labyrinth Life takes an intriguing approach to the turn-based formula. Here you can attack in real-time and throw long-ranged items to damage enemies before an encounter begins. There are also traps and status afflictions to watch out for as well. It should be noted that some of the damage effects are sexual. All your actions and damage taken is logged in an on-screen menu, which I found helpful.
Despite the different weapon options and procedurally generated dungeons and enemies, I did find combat to be rudimentary at best. It’s a simple press a button to do damage affair. In addition to combat, there are also mini-games to complete. While these challenges serve a narrative purpose, most of them are extremely sexual and also rudimentary. I did enjoy tending to the garden and planting seeds as this was one of the only game interaction that wasn’t blatantly sexual.
Labyrinth Life is a game that knows its specific audience. Although I did not enjoy my time with it, I do commend the developer for attempting a cohesive storyline and intriguing combat within such a specific experience.
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Ever since I first played The Adventures of Cookie and Cream on my older brothers' PS2, video games have always been a source of intrigue. While the medium can transport us to far off worlds and time periods, my interests lie with more grounded narratives revolving around topics of culture, POC and LGBT+ issues, and the magical realism of day to day life. When I'm not writing, designing, or talking about my own video game projects, you can find me playing Yakuza 0 until my eyes bleed or exploring the world of Rapture for the twentieth time!
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