This Way Madness Lies

Theatre AND magical girls? This sounded like a game tailored specifically to me! Unfortunately, this game is written like the filler episodes from Sailor Moon, with less explanation or foundation to establish anything that's happening. You're thrown into the world with no exposition, and due to the large volume of information you're handed at one time, you have little reason to latch on to any particular character or event. The characters are shallow, reduced down to singular tropes you may see in a magical girl series without any of the heart that these characters normally have. The characters have clearly known each other for a long time, but don't behave like friends, feeling more like colleagues that are together simply because they're all Shakespeare characters and nothing else. Friendship and individuality are some of the key themes of magical girls as a genre, so that lack of connection was sorely missed. Additionally, getting stuck with Miranda for almost every dungeon was miserable, as her moveset renders her nigh useless and artificially inflates the lengths of battles. The combat system was one of the things that this game was doing well, but Miranda was like a hemorraghing wound on an otherwise healthy body. That's not to say that this game doesn't have it's pros. The comedy is, in fact, quite good, as long as you lean towards absurdist humor. It's just hard for the comedy to hold up the game on it's own. The music, also, is quite interesting! It's good at setting the mood while also standing out as unique. The art direction is also wonderful, as the pixel art style is highly detailed and pretty despite the inherent limited nature of pixel art. The art medium was used quite well. If you don't mind a lackluster and empty plotline, this game is a visual and audio treat. But unfortunately, the narrative weighs far too important on my scale.