Labyrinth of Galleria is poised to be one of 2023's best RPGs

I can't pretend that I'm not at least a little biased here; when NIS America sat us down to get an exclusive first look at the upcoming localization for Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society, I already knew that the title was going to be a frontrunner for my own personal RPG of the year 2023. Why wouldn't it? After all, I said as much when I originally wrote about my time with the Japanese release over 2 years ago now. 

If you're not already familiar with the franchise, Labyrinth of Galleria is a spiritual sequel to 2018's Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk; a game that not only did I hold in high regard with my original review, but even ended up on our shortlist during that year's RPG of the Year deliberations. Much of that was due to the game's surprisingly heartfelt story, and while I'm not at liberty to share any specifics of Labyrinth of Galleria's plot outside the basic setup - suffice it to say, the same can very much apply to this game as well, and I'm very excited for when I'll have the opportunity to discuss the intricacies of the plot once the localization drops on February 14.

As far as the localization goes, we only had the opportunity to sample a snippet of gameplay from the opening hour of the title; it's off to a solid start, especially considering they build we got a chance to play was still in development. Of special note is that much like Labyrinth of Refrain, Labyrinth of Galleria features a full dub; a much more impressive feat considering the sheer volume of voicework present in the game, especially later on, as well as the fact that the game is not retailing for a standard $60 MSRP, but rather a slightly discounted $50.

It's a little early to say how the dub will stack up with the rest of the game, but so far the voices chosen for the main characters, including Eureka, feel like they fit like a glove. There are many more characters who will have received a dub voice that we have yet to hear for ourselves, so it will be interesting to see how the rest of the voice cast fleshes out.

The same goes for showcasing gameplay changes; Labyrinth of Galleria features quite an abundance of them, but it's hard to discern where the game iterates so early on in the story. Liberation skills are a new addition, offering a sort of Limit Break type ability that can be tied to various pacts that players can slot their puppet soldiers into. Depending on the circumstances, players can also summon assistants to help in battle, though in the gameplay we uploaded above we were unable to showcase the feature.

Much like I said, however, a large part of what makes Labyrinth of Galleria so special are aspects of the experience that are impossible to talk about without spoiling the fun; so the fact that for our initial look at the game's localization to be in a limited state is fine as it is. While I won't personally be reviewing the localization, we'll be sure to let you know how it performs under scrutiny once we get closer to the game's full release next month.