Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
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  1. Eurogamer Italy
    Oct 30, 2018
    70
    Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk deserved a second chance, especially for a deep and rich turn-based combat system. Unfortunately the plot is not told with the right rhythm, and the technical department is backward. Recommended for old-fashioned dungeon crawler and GDR fans.
  2. 4P.de
    Sep 21, 2018
    70
    A solid dungeon crawler for anime fans - especially if you are not detered by nurturing dozens of characters.
  3. PlayStation LifeStyle
    Sep 11, 2018
    70
    Definitely not a fairy tale, but if you’re okay with playing something with a darker, more mature tone then it’s worth giving this a go. Exploring every inch of the labyrinth is addictive, and its unique battle system and an in-depth character creation system will keep you busy for quite a while.
  5. Push Square
    Sep 16, 2018
    60
    An altogether fun but often repetitive dungeon crawler let down by its weak cast and uninteresting storyline. Moments spent in the labyrinth dungeons, though initially confusing, are bright spots in an otherwise uninspiring game, giving the opportunity for exploration and presenting an intriguing battle system which allows for plenty of customisation and experimentation.

User Reviews

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User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 25 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 25
  3. Negative: 4 out of 25
  1. tomvs123
    Aug 21, 2019
    7
    This is a surprisingly good first person tile-based dungeon crawler (DRPG). It's a must-play if you like DRPGs with dark stories.

    You play    This is a surprisingly good first person tile-based dungeon crawler (DRPG). It's a must-play if you like DRPGs with dark stories.

    You play as a soul bound to a magic book. You're tasked by a witch to explore the labyrinth of town of Refrain with player-created magical puppets (your characters). You're not directly involved in the daily lives of your witch master and people outside of the dungeon, which is the majority of the story, but I found it acceptable story-wise, since you're a witch's minion.

    The story is dark, brutal, and good. Everyone is experiencing hardships, but most find ways to enjoy life despite this. The themes and overall feel of the game is great, mainly because not many games reach this level of well-written plot-hole-free darkness. A few story scenes actually left me shocked due to their brutality, which is rare.

    Though it's not all great. It reaches its writing peak about half-way through the story. After that, it becomes more of a predictable "save the world from the villain" story. It doesn't get bad, but I expected more after the great first half of the story.

    The gameplay mechanics are good overall. They're different than most other DRPGs, which is great if you're looking for something new. Most mechanics are well-thought-out and fun and aren't just different for different's sake.

    A big difference is the number of characters in your party. You have 5 covens that can contain 1-3 characters each, giving you a maximum of 15 characters in your battle party. And you can choose from a variety of covens that have different bonuses. Basically, you're able to choose character quantity or quality, or a mix of the two.

    Front and rear rows also work differently. Front rows don't necessarily protect rear rows: enemies can attack either, but some of their attacks are limited to a single row. Character traits can be set to attract enemy attention to a row. Most weapons work best in a certain row. And you can set variety of row/coven formations that give you different bonuses. There's a lot of customizability here and it's all great.

    To go over the other interesting mechanics quickly: Weapon and gear upgrades are easy and useful. You can change a character's class and carry over class-specific bonuses to the new class. There's a fortitude point pool that does a variety of things, such as set different covens, perform special actions in battle, stockpile experience for bonuses, and create warp points.

    The only mechanic that annoyed me was the process of changing classes after getting to level 99. Near end-game, characters get to level 99 quickly, so you'll frequently be doing this. Calculating which classes you need, and which skills they should bring over (to avoid hitting the skill limit) is time-consuming, especially if you have a lot of characters.

    The dungeons are okay. Environmental obstacles consist of poison (which can't be avoided), miasma (which can be avoided), door switches, holes to lower floors, and darkness (which has no real affect, since you can still see the map). There's no real traps or ways to avoid (such as float over) possible hazards. It's a bit lacking when compared to other DPRGs, but isn't horrible.

    The layout of the dungeons is okay. After I learned of breakable walls, I expected every dungeon to have every square of the grid filled with something, but this isn't the case. There's a lot of empty/inaccessible space in every dungeon. But even if all of the grid space was fully mappable, there's not much to fill it with, so it seems as though they reached a good balance.

    Combat is relatively easy on normal difficulty. I only had two or more characters die during a single battle when I encountered rare super-buffed enemies, strong enemies (which you can see and avoid), and bosses. Normal monsters should pose no problem for DRPG veterans. I didn't try the harder difficulty level since the story was my main focus and I didn't want to extend my dungeon crawling (the game took me 90 hours to complete).

    If you beat all of the optional bosses before the final boss (which is relatively easy), you get access to the post-game story and dungeon. The post-game dungeon isn't that long, but is harder, and its final boss is the toughest in the game. The extra story bits are well worth this effort, since it gives you a few more dark and interesting things to think about.

    Highly recommended for DPRG fans or for people who like good/dark stories and can tolerate DRPGs.    … Full Review »
  2. Chaoslegion187
    Jun 12, 2022
    10
    Absolutely loved this game! The quirky storyline, dungeon crawling, and character customization are all great.
  3. Awanka
    Oct 22, 2020
    8
    This is a very good blobber who's closest analog would be the Etrian Odyssey games, because of the cute anime artstyle, concept of worlds thatThis is a very good blobber who's closest analog would be the Etrian Odyssey games, because of the cute anime artstyle, concept of worlds that resemble strata, elite purple enemies that are like Etrian's FOEs, the homebase/hub that you return to after excursions, and many other things. There are many differences to the EO series as well though. For better or worse this game doesn't have the brutal difficulty and finely tuned game balance of EO. That's mostly because of how open ended LoR is. There are many more options to advance your characters other than grinding out levels or farming for rare high end equipment. LoR has a job class system that allows you to keep good skills and increase your stats, similar to FF14 or the Wizardry series, and you can make some overpowered builds here. They also have an alchemy system that allows you to combine equipment into higher level items, and this allows you to create some really overpowered gear. The combination of these 2 abilities allows you to become quite OP in the game. Although on the other side, the game is pretty difficult. There are purple FOE enemies and some nasty bosses that can ruin your day. Worst of all are randomly appearing elite enemies that can appear in any random battle, similar to the elites in Diablo 3. These enemies can have a variety of modifiers that make them far stronger than normal enemies. Like very difficult to hit and 1 shot members of your party strong. Buyer beware, but I rather like them; they make life interesting.

    As a whole, the gameplay is more and less than EO. There's much more variety, but I feel something is lost as well. I love EO's finely tuned challenge, where I have to use the best builds and equipment just to barely be on par with the bosses and elite enemies. I felt LoR became faceroll easy towards the last 1/3 of the game. There is an option to increase difficulty to a nightmare mode though, so lack of challenge might not actually be a factor. There is also something kind of goofy and over the top to how many character you need to create in LoR. You can eventually field a full brigade of 15 active combatants, and 25ish support. These are all characters that you need to create and maintain with gear. I found it kind of silly and tedious. I'd rather just maintain 4-6 characters I can focus on.

    By far my favorite thing about this game though was the story. It was dark and twisted. The main character, Dronya, is spiteful, manipulative, mean-spirited, and hilarious. I loved following her story. Bonus: This game has an incredible post-game dungeon that was pretty tough and a lot of fun.    … Full Review »
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