I finished The Caligula Effect: Overdose last night. Overall, I would say the game is... enjoyable.
What I can definitely say to be good is the music, especially the various themes for the villains and boss battles. Makes sense, considering music is important to the plot: the songs playing in the dungeons and areas are supposed to be played all the time to brainwash people into listening to Myu and giving her more power. And I can say it definitely works because even if the themes are technically short, they are neat to listen to, and end up staying in your head, just like for the characters in the games. Especially the remix of the theme done for the boss battle against the Musicians. And the remixes of the remixes in the final dungeon.

Speaking of dungeons... they aren't that great. They remind me of the P3/P4 dungeons. Go to an area, run around to fill out the map. Except the floor designs aren't randomized. But the dungeons are basically the same: different design, different music, but the overall gimmick is the same. Do this to unlock ways to go further on, fight Musician, done. As I said, the music for these areas is pretty neat, but the gameplay of it is just not that entertaining.

The plot is okay. I was wrong about the identity of the Big Bad Musician. It was clear there was a connection to Shogo, though I based it on appearance. Still wrong in the general sense of their identity, but okay. Some revelations don't feel... well done? Though it might be because I am looking at it from someone who feels the game dragged on a little too long. The revelations start around the penultimate dungeon's end, and some stuff gets mentioned that wasn't before, so... feels kinda disconnected.

I know that Overdose specifically gives you an option to view another side of the story by going through a door the Musicians offer you... but I was surprised it was given as a one-time choice after the second dungeon. I didn't go for it on this first playthrough. But I have read what it's about. (It basically allows you to create a 'bad ending') Will do it on a second playthrough - will have to do a second playthrough, anyway, because there's a trophy for going through the game as the female and male protagonist. (Female protagonist option exclusive to Overdose)

Sidequests... suck. There are 524 NPCs in the game who have sidequests. The sidequests are dealing with that person's Trauma. You get many copy quests, and you can only take care of one at a time. Even if you have multiple NPCs whose Trauma is 'Alexithymia', which is resolved by defeating 20 enemies with the NPC in your party, you cannot resolve them all at once. You cannot take on several of those quests at once, then resolve them at once. You can have multiple NPCs in your party, sure, but the sidequest only gets done for one of them...
And now you do that multiple times because copy quests.
Many also involve finding a certain stationary NPC... to which I have to say, it would be really nice if the damn game somehow marked these NPCs on your map! But nope. They don't get marked, so you just have to remember where these NPCs are. The quest gives you a hint where that NPC is located (like in Papiko or the Construction Site), but it's up to you to either find them or remember where they are. And some areas are 'big' or have round-about ways on the map, so you run around a lot.
There's also extra challenges based on 'Words' that enemies may drop... they drop them very, very, VERY rarely! In my entire playthrough, I managed to get ONE word dropped. Fortunately, you don't actually have to obtain them to unlock the doors for the extra challenges, you just need to insert the words. Thank you, internet, for having a list of these passwords!

Sidenote, enemies do not disappear from a dungeon you already cleared. I can understand why, given the extra challenge word drop thing above, but it's kinda ridiculous to have Level 1 enemies still wandering around in the school. Can be avoided, but I'd prefer for it to not be the case.

Enjoyable game, definitely. Bit too long for my taste - especially since it's basically a wild goose chase of "Catch up to Myu and make her let you go home" over and over. Glad I got it, though I'm not sure if 60€ is an appropriate price for this game in new condition. I'm taking a break from it, and will eventually return to continue sidequesting or doing the second playthrough, including the alternate POV. Especially since cleared save files let you carry over your Level AND your Causality Link (Sidequest) status. And loading the file puts you just before the final battle, so you don't have to worry about having to wait until the later dungeons to finish up those sidequests needing them unlocked.

Remember the older days? Where you didn't have New Game +? Or where New Game + loads meant you were thrown into the Grade Shop or into a new playthrough entirely, so you better have a savefile of before fighting the final battle, so you wouldn't lose opportunities? Yeah... kinda miss those at times...

---

Well, I finally got a PS4. And out of all the exclusives I could have bought, my dumbass decided to jump back into Kingdom Hearts with 0.2.
And you know what? It is stupid as hell. Anyone would be bewildered to see Mickey Mouse being overdramatic about someone teaming up with himself to harvest souls and become a god or something.
You know what else? Inject that shit into my veins because that is exactly what I signed up for.

---

YEAAAAAAAHH Get on that good stuff! Give yourself over to the power of KINGDOM HEARTS!

---

Last weekend, I ended up modding my Wii. I didn't think it was going to work due to not having a working SD card slot, but I managed to find a way.

---

What do you do with a modded Wii?

---

I dunno... play hacked games on it?

I've been playing Starbound quite a bit recently. I've taken such a liking to it that I have made a couple of mods for it.
1) A mod that removes "bikini armour" (and tones down the female characters' curves).
2) A patch to tone down some rather dangerous and annoying in-game weather.
Both are incomplete, though. But I'm already proud of the work I've done.

---

Couldn't folks just not use the bikini armour if they had an issue with it?

---

Good point (considering that the game has these "social slots"). But that REALLY limits the available armours left for those people to use, considering that:
- The armour would've been perfect if not for the offending property (e.g. boobplate, bared midriff, random patches of bare skin).
- The armour was the only thing that fitted the theme of what the person wanted to wear.
Also, you have to consider that NPCs wear that armour too, not just the player character.

And besides, I was inspired by none other than https://bikiniarmorbattledamage.tumblr.com/

---

Well, I can run hacks of games (for example, Galaxy 2 has Neo Mario Galaxy), make backups, save games to USB, and a lot of other things that the Wii wouldn't be able to do otherwise.

---

Huh is there really that many bikini armours that it seriously limits what you can wear in the game?



Alright, so what are you gonna use it for?

---

To make room so I can have more games on it. I've been taking advantage of being able to use USB so now I can have all of my Wiiware and Virtual Console titles downloaded on it. I've also played around with some mods.

---

Not really, but to find a suit of awesome-looking samurai armour only to realise it has a boobplate is a real let-down.
The limits are mostly in themes. Human armour overall, for example, is almost perfect, but not every non-cishet-male wants to wear human armour. Maybe they wanna dress up medieval like the Glitch, or they wanna wear the Hylotls' samurai outfits... which really need work!
I don't wanna start an argument over this. It doesn't feel right that I'm arguing over female armours... It's not like I'm editing thousands of lines of code to delete an offensive-looking armour set...


Interesting...

---

It's real convenient since the SD card slot on my Wii never worked. Tried to get it fixed before, but the place we took it too couldn't do it, unfortunately.

---

You sound like a prude. Just wear the armor.

I can't say I've ever cared for "bikini armor" myself--not that I'm trying to shame anyone for liking such things. That's what I loved about the "fashion slots" in Xenoblade Chronicles X; they allow perverts, prudes, and anyone who qualifies as neither (for the record, I classify myself as a prude and derive no shame from that) to dress their characters however they want without it affecting their characters' stats. Hope Alanzi's a beautiful woman, in my opinion, but that doesn't mean I want her fighting in a swimsuit, regardless of how good that swimsuit's stats are.

---

Gods, don't be so rude! I'm not just talking about nudity, but armour that exposes your skin does NOT protect you!
Even boobplates put female battlers at risk because apparently it makes it easier for attacks to impact the heart.

---

Hahaha. That doesn't work. That's like telling people who complain about the skimpier outfits in Lightning Returns that, "Well, you don't have to use them". They don't get it.

Friends of Mineral Town is getting a full remake! It's coming out (in Japan) on Oct 17th, and I already put my preorder in. I could wait until next year for the game to be released in English, but... don't really need to. I overall know the game, and anything new (like the new bachelor/bachelorette) are new things to learn in Japanese. No biggie.

---

It sounds more like leveling gear in FFXIV where it looks ridiculous but it has the highest stats you can get your hands on, so until you level up, your ideal gear combination ends up looking like this:

---

Yeah, there are complex reasons why people can't just avoid bikini armour. In a game without "social slots", girls are forced to wear the bikini armour because it's the only good armour gameplay-wise, and even if there were social slots, the number of good armours are still limited.

---

Least XIV has an extensive glamour system :P yeah you do end up looking stupid for a good bit though.

---

Trails in the Sky: FC and SC marks the fist time that I've come to actually care about a canon romance in anything ever.
Either that, or I've finally cracked.

---