Play the Caligula Effect 2

CW: major tce2 spoilers, discussions of ableism

i consumed a lot of media in 2022. from playing persona 5 strikers to watching various seasons of precure, to rewatching way more episodes of spongebob than i care to admit, nothing stands out more than the final game i played in 2022: the caligula effect 2.

the caligula effect 2 is a jrpg developed by furyu and historia. released june 24th, 2021 in japan, the caligula effect 2 is a very modern game with a multitude of persona-inspired elements, while managing to be better than any mainline persona game in nearly every category besides graphics and budget. while it’s very clear that the budget for this game was little more than $2 dollars, a potato chip, and a dream, the caligula effect 2 is honestly the best game i played in 2022 and might be one of my favorite video games of all time. you play as a person who’s been essentially isekai’ed into an ideal, utopian world built by a virtuadoll (basically vocaloids) where everyone is in highschool for… whatever reason, and you are tasked with leading a ragtag group called the go-home club in their adventure to return to reality. think project sekai but you can’t leave the sekai.

this article is a revised version of a very informal notes app thought dump i sent to a group of friends shortly after finishing the game on friday, january 6th. as such, this isn’t much of a review, moreso a collection of general and specific thoughts regarding this wonderful piece of media. please consider playing it yourself or watching a playthrough on youtube, as it isn’t very long and isn’t particularly difficult if you stick to easy or normal difficulty. i will be discussing spoilers for the entire game throughout this article and don’t give a lot of expositional information, so do keep that in mind!

to start things out i absolutely ADORE this games soundtrack. not only are the themes for each of the musicians absolutely AMAZING, i really like a lot of the instrumental tracks. everything from the upbeat, silly tracks that play during early game school scenes to the heart-wrenching piano pieces that play throughout the late game. its such a good ost and a lot of songs i can see myself listening to for years to come.

i also think that the overall pacing of the game is really good, especially for jrpg standards. the game is only around 20-30 hours long, which is pretty reasonable compared to something like your typical persona game. some parts drag a little bit (esp chapters 3-5) and i would say that the last 10 hours or so go by REALLY fast, but for the most part the game is very well-paced and gives a lot of time to develop the characters & plot.

alongside that, the character writing in this game is AMAZING. all 8 go-home club members (9 if you count x) are VERY well developed and i love them all dearly. kiriko, kobato, niko & marie are probably my favorites, but i really do love them all. the obbligato musicians are a bit of a mixed bag, as while some of them, such as machina and pandora (and bluffman too i guess but also i need to explode), are REALLY good, a few are Just kind of okay. i would probably say that mu-kun and doktor are the weakest members of the main cast.

i think some of my favorite character moments come from each of the ghc character episodes. all of them are pretty well paced and do a lot of really good “show don’t tell” storytelling, particularly in the earlier episodes. gin, kiriko & niko’s character episodes were probably my favorites. the tower of epimetheus had a lot of good character moments as well.

that’s about it for my general thoughts? i’m not very good at talking about games as a “big picture,” so i’ll be spending the rest of this article listing off various, more specific things i liked and disliked. most of these are related to characters, as the caligula effect 2 is a very character-driven game and well. i’m better at talking about story and characters as opposed to more video game-y aspects like combat and quests.

the things i liked:

• BIG big fan of how marie & kobato’s traumas/regrets tie into the main story and the series as a whole. marie is kind of the centerpiece of the entire game for… erm. certain reasons. and kobato is just The caligula effect character. he is the caligula effect
• gin’s gender identity is handled beautifully. both the narrative and characters (well. basically just x and your dialogue options as the protagonist) handle it with respect and care and it’s just so awesome to see the terms nonbinary and agender said in a fucking vocaloid jrpg made with a budget of $2 and a potato chip. the symbolism in his catharsis effect is wonderful as well (the binding, the heels, the fact that his flower being one you can’t find in nature, it’s just so. i love transmasc nonbinary bisexuals)
• can i talk about x for a second. i’m a total sucker for a “robot learns about humans” storyline and they do it sooo well with x. the way she begins to understand emotions through the go-home club and grows not only as a virtuadoll, but as a person is so sweet. she’s also the #1 ally of all time
• there’s so much autism in this game it’s kind of hilarious. from ryuto “savant syndrome” tsukishima to regret literally saying the words “i’ve never been good at picking up social cues” to gin LITERALLY HAVING A SPECIAL INTEREST IN FUCKING TRAINS. they fit so much autism into this tiny little game its INSANE
• i think the best ghc/musician parallels are sasara & machina, kiriko & pandora, and niko & kudan, with a BIG emphasis on kiriko & pandora. they’re literally like the only parallels in the SERIES that are constantly at eachothers throats while also holding a mutual respect for one another. kiripan is real
• i like qp a lot i think she should’ve joined the ghc but she’s just very fun in general

the things i DIDN’T like:

• the game is honestly somewhat weak between chapters 3 and 5. while they’re still PRETTY good, they’re definitely not as good as the first and last few chapters. ch3 has a pretty slow start and a weak musician, ch5 is just… weird in so many ways and has a FUCKING STEALTH SECTION WHAT THE FUCK, and while ch4 is pretty good and serves as a nice fun breather before the emotional rollercoaster that is the rest of the game, it’s really long (most chapters are about 2 hours while ch4 is like. almost 4) and kind of drags whenever the focus isn’t on qp. there’s some cute ghc moments tho
• doktor & kranke are probably the most egregious part of this game. i don’t want to go into many of the details but like. their writing is just Weird at best and very ableist at worst. i like the idea of two characters having interconnected storylines i just don’t like the fact that they chose to write a heavily implicated romance between a doctor and his disabled patient.
  • obviously since i’m not paraplegic i can’t fully speak on kranke’s writing as a disabled person, but she really doesn’t get a lot of time to herself, as most of her screentime and storyline is shared with doktor and most of her dungeon is dedicated to marie. i really wish they spent more time establishing her friendship with shota as it’s honestly very sweet. i NEED to get her out of there it’s so unfortunate because she’s very cute and she has the fucking neru song
  • i fucking hate doktor sorry he’s so ugly and boring and creepy and i hate how much the game focuses on him. like a lot of what’s supposed to be KRANKE’S ARC is dedicated to him and how bad he feels about kranke like dude shut the fuck up
• as much as i like the niko kudan parallel i really wish we got more from kudan. idk i just want to study her i think the idea of a character aligned with the musicians doing so to benefit themself in the real world rather than wanting to protect this paradise nightmare dimension or whatever.
• mu-kun stabbing bluffman kind of comes out of nowhere TBH like i think his idolization of him is very interesting and they do a good job at establishing that throughout the game but also like… idk. if it was anyone else besides mu-kun it probably would’ve made more sense. maybe i just can’t take this gay little twink stabbing god’s absentee father because he copied some trans woman with bpd's rentry

overall, i absolutely adore the caligula effect 2. it may have its flaws, but it's a very solid package overall. i nearly cried at numerous points throughout the game and i never cry over video games. i just love character focused games and games about the autistic experience and games with good memorable soundtracks. i just love the caligula effect 2.