In 2018, an anime by the title of Caligula aired, and it wasn’t excellent. Nevertheless, I caught a glimpse of one thing worthwhile buried beneath the mountain of trash. So, once I came upon the anime was based mostly on a forgotten PlayStation Vita recreation, The Caligula Impact, and that it’d obtain a remastered model subtitled Overdose the next 12 months, I made a decision to present it a shot. Sadly, it wasn’t excellent, both.

Properly — that’s till I made it just a few dungeons into this Persona-like social sim and realized not solely that I used to be right in seeing one thing worthwhile within the terrible anime adaptation, but additionally that this sequence has a number of the most complicated and groundbreaking music of any JRPG in its weight class. 

Sure, I’m conscious that what I’m about to put in writing would possibly make some suppose I’ve misplaced my marbles, however The Caligula Impact: Overdose and its sequel, The Caligula Impact 2, have a number of the finest soundtracks I’ve ever heard. To start out, we have to (calmly) focus on The Caligula Impact‘s story and the way it ties on to the soundtrack’s presentation.

A narrative price a thousand notes

In The Caligula Impact: Overdose, the world’s equal of Hatsune Miku attains sentience and, in an act of obvious goodwill, decides humanity can be happier in the event that they had been trapped in The Matrix. So, with the assistance of a malignant group of people calling themselves the Ostinato Musicians, the Virtuadoll, often called μ (mu), pulls a bunch of people with psychological diseases and hangups into the world of Mobius.

You play as a member of the Go-Residence Membership, a gaggle composed of people who find themselves conscious the world round them is nothing however fiction and wish to return to actuality. Every main degree/dungeon has you dealing with a member of the Ostinato Musicians, who’re additionally conscious of the fiction that’s Mobius. These guys are content material with residing in ignorance, although. And, with every musician both defeated or recruited to your facet, you get one step nearer to returning to the true world — whatever the ache that’s ready for you.

I say all this to emphasise how the music ties on to the sport’s narrative. In every degree, you’ll face one of many Ostinato Musicians, who’re in-universe producers writing music for Mu, which manifests because the theme music for the corresponding dungeon. 

As gamers discover the dungeon they’ll hear an instrumental model, however as quickly as they enter a battle, it transitions to a fully-produced rendition of that very same music, full with vocals by Mu voice actor Reina Ueda. No dungeon makes use of the identical music twice, that means they created a complete of fourteen songs that might exist solely unbiased of the context of the sport’s story, however are even higher with context. So as to add one other layer, a true-to-life producer crafted every of those tracks, with expertise equivalent to cosMo@Bousou-P, OSTER venture, 40mp, PolyphonicBranch, Chouchou-P, Asa, 164, YM, Utsu-P, Pinocchio-P, and DECO*27.

As a result of every dungeon’s theme music incorporates lyrics that symbolize the corresponding Musician’s psychological state, in the event you’d prefer to find out about any of them earlier than you begin taking part in, you might merely learn the lyrics. For instance, the lyrics for my favourite of the Musicians — Depraved — comprise the next: “If it’s a neverending dream / then let’s simply destroy every part! / That shitty world is / not wanted. That is my dream!”

There’s additionally one other favourite, Shadow Knife. These lyrics learn: “I’ll tackle the facility from the god of this world / if everybody will be saved proper now! / I shall grow to be the substitute! / Now! Deliver down the hammer of justice!” 

And that’s not even mentioning The Caligula Impact 2’s soundtrack, which does every part I discussed right here — and then some. I imply, that recreation manages to take multiple music from the primary recreation and recontextualize it in methods I didn’t suppose attainable. These musicians really are phenomenal at their craft.

I suppose all this to say — play The Caligula Impact: Overdose and its sequel. Or, on the very least, hearken to the soundtrack on Spotify, as a result of as I stated, the music for this recreation is satisfying with or with out the story-based context the sport supplies. And, it’s for that purpose I’m nonetheless jamming to it 4 years later.