Aquaplus has been around for a while and for the 20th anniversary of the company, they’ve released Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten. Oddly, though it is a prequel to the Utawararumono series, they’ve dropped the Utawararumono title so fans who have been awaiting the game might actually miss out if they’re not paying attention. It’s an odd choice to make when switching to a new genre too. Having a series jump from visual novels to musou combat and then landing somewhere between with a JRPG is certainly an interesting way to approach things too, but it seems like a decent fit for the series.
In Monochrome Mobius you play Oshtor, a young man who lives in Ennakamuy near the Yamato Empire. He and his mother have made a life for themselves there after the loss of his father and he helps the local lord with tasks. However, one day a strange girl shows up claiming to be his sister and telling him that his father might actually be alive, leading Oshtor toward a grand adventure. Fans of Utawarerumono might remember Oshtor from the Mask of Deception game where he is an Imperial General and a fair bit older.
A number of major characters from the visual novel trilogy appear here and some are playable as well, adding to the depth of narrative for fans. Newcomers to the series might be confused however, as the Utawarerumono games are steeped heavily in Ainu culture. The Ainu are Indigenous Japanese peoples who have only been recognized as existing by Japan since 2019 and have long struggled in that country. It’s fantastic to see that representation in Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten and more than a bit ironic with the title of the game out of context.
With Oshtor and company firmly on their way to find his father and naturally expand the quest along the way, let’s take a minute to discuss the story in Monochrome Mobius. No, you’re not getting spoilers. Stop asking. But it’s important to note that one of the biggest failings of the game is in its story, which is actually quite good. It’s not the script or the plot because both are quite solid, but instead the game fails in pacing events out effectively. This is Aquaplus’ first JRPG and there’s just not the right mix of dialogue and gameplay here. Towns are full of NPCs but only a handful can be interacted with. Scenes that seem epic and far-reaching suddenly fall flat after a particularly exciting point, leaving you to fight through long dungeon sections and wander around helping out.
Again, none of these elements are bad separately, they’re just not strung together in a way that makes them as exciting or interesting than they could be and it definitely detracts a bit from the gameplay in Monochrome Mobius. There are points where if you haven’t had enough sleep, you might find yourself taking some particularly long blinks with a controller in your hands and that’s a shame because the game itself is quite excellent. The main quest is interesting and slowly becomes more complex over time, the side quests add depth and interest to the world, and the towns seem lively, at least the parts you can interact with. All in all, the plot, script and experience of the game are quite good but some firm directorial work was definitely needed to streamline things a bit.
As you may have gathered by now, Monochrome Mobius is a traditional JRPG. That means turn-based combat from a company that has never produced a game like this before. While there is always plenty of room for a misstep, the combat and RPG gameplay in Monochrome is actually really enjoyable, even if there are a few weak spots. This is a standard turn-based affair for the most part where players have actions based on a ring in the top left corner similar in appearance to the Judgment Ring in Shadow Hearts. That similarity is definitely superficial though. Mostly you’ll just be choosing attacks, skills, and magic from the menu, allowing you to blast enemies with a variety of physical and magical attacks.
The main difference here, at least potentially, is the Action Ring. Some of your party’s skills can affect their standing on the ring, allowing you to react faster than opponents and get in extra shots. Effects can target the ring, benefitting your party and affecting the enemies. There are three rings within the Action Ring, each one smaller than the last, and enemies and party members alike rotate around the rings. Stun an enemy and then hit them and you move in a ring, rotating faster and gaining more attacks overall while your enemy drops down a ring. The reverse is the same, allowing strong enemies to jump rings and hit you harder. You can also build up Zeal and when the Zeal meter is full, you can hit a button and Overzeal, allowing you to either attack with boosted attacks or jump to the next ring in on the Action Ring.
Theoretically, this system has a wide application for manipulating the course of combat and creating complex, strategic battles. Sadly, the implementation isn’t the best and you’ll soon learn that the Action Ring is typically only important when fighting challenging opponents. This is definitely a missed opportunity in terms of gameplay. The best strategy is instead to choose area effect attacks from your main characters and overwhelm the enemies with multiple hits. Most regular enemies only take 2-3 area effect hits to die and you can easily mop up the rest with a few standard attacks. That’s definitely not as fun but it’s certainly effective and if you’re killing everything that comes along, you’ll definitely want to streamline your approach.
There’s more than a bit of redemption for Monochrome Mobius in the combat system however. There are no random battles here and enemies show up on the mini-map, allowing you to target or avoid them as you please. Most dungeon areas are fairly open too, enabling a variety of play styles. While those areas seem pretty empty and unpopulated, you can usually find resources or treasure near enemies so you’ll want to take down as many as possible. The great thing about this is that the game recognizes its shortfalls to a degree here. If you’ve reached a high enough level by wiping out everything that moves, you can just walk up to enemies and swing your sword at them. If they’re beneath your level, a single hit kills them with no combat screen required and you still game the same experience, gold, and items you would have if you’d entered turn-based combat.
By the time you’re about a third of the way through the game, this mechanic turns most of the combat areas into quick combat and speeds the gameplay up a bit. You’ll still be fighting a few things in every area but it doesn’t seem nearly as onerous as it might if you had to grind with menu-driven combat every time. The open levels are less oppressive when you’re not burdened with combat (even if some still look particularly empty) and the flow of the gameplay is excellent. Exploring every inch of every map nets you a ton of cash and special weapons too, making you all but unstoppable to all but the strongest of enemies, so if you’re looking for a challenge, you’ll have to settle for the hidden super bosses (there are a few). You’ll also be ridiculously rich and zipping into a new town means upgrading everything as far as possible easily. On the PS5 (and presumably other systems as well) there are also two items that are free DLC and rapidly speed the game up, the Fan of Piety and the Lucky Cat Ornament. One raises the amount of experience your characters gain in combat and the other raises the amount of money you gain. Between the two, you’ll be overpowered in no time and unless the situation requires otherwise, you’ll definitely want both items on characters at all times.
Eventually you’ll end up with a full party (but it takes quite a while) and fans of Utawarerumono will recognize a fair number of them. You’ll also get the weird creature Halu. Halu is oddly endearing and ridiculous but adds another layer to gameplay with special attacks that replace your entire party temporarily in combat. It takes time to charge up his attacks but they’re quite powerful as well, so save him for when you really need him.
Monochrome Mobius is a bit less impressive visually than you might expect. It’s clear that the devs took their time, creating a unique 3D look for the game that is divergent from other entries in the series but still maintains a clear Utawarerumono feel. However, the visuals, while crisp and clean, are definitely not up to the standards of most PS5 titles. Visually, this is a game from a generation or two ago in many key ways. Towns are set up with clear pathways to follow on the mini map but have inaccessible areas everywhere that make the scene look bigger than it is. Non-interactive NPCs dot the landscape too, providing the feel of a deeper RPG without actual depth. The game looks fine but not particularly impressive in towns but once you start to play, they feel empty and you simply use the mini map to find NPCs you can talk to which are helpfully highlighted on the map.
The dungeon areas are similar. In the early game, spaces are quite open and feel very empty with only a handful of enemies strolling leisurely around. Thankfully your walk speed is fast and there’s a run button you can use to speed things up further but the sheer size of some areas borders on silly. Those empty areas have more than a bit of pop up too and the lack of detail makes them feel less immersive, especially the desert with its open vistas and invisible boundaries. Later levels like jungles and abandoned high-tech ruins (excellent trope-y goodness) feel more fully fleshed out but the grasses, plants, and other areas could look nicer as well. The design work is excellent and style abounds in enemies, characters, and areas however.
The visuals also run into a few problems with the free camera in dungeons. You can rotate the camera in any direction, but much like previous generations of 3D games, it often gets stuck behind trees, weeds, or even walls, leaving the entire screen inconveniently obscured. Sometimes it is impossible to actually see the enemies because they’ve run from you and hidden in the brush and the camera just doesn’t shift that way due to walls or other obstructions. It’s great to have that kind of camera access, but at the same time, some simple coding that would fade out obscuring background would have been nice here.
As you might expect with a traditional RPG, there is a lot of traditional RPG music in the Monochrome Mobius soundtrack. This is one of those soundtracks that brings you back the SNES RPG glory days with peaceful village music, strong combat beats, and a solid theme song. There’s a bit of everything here, and some of the tracks have some great fusion of traditional Japanese music and more modern RPG and even pop sensibilities. It’s a good soundtrack but at the same time, it’s not one you’re going to be humming the music from while you go about your business either, especially some of the lighter, sillier tracks. Sound effects are quite good though, with lots of solid crashes, thumps, and magical effects and the voice work is excellent as well. There are only Japanese voices but for a change, nothing squeaky or overtly irritating and the voice acting definitely adds gravity to the story. If you’re someone who turns off Japanese voices, this might be the first game you don’t.
There’s one other thing to mention about Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten. This is a game that often borders on the ecchi. There’s a lot of toeing the line with implied sexuality, bouncing bosoms where there really don’t need to be, and a fair number of comedic scenes and asides. Don’t get the impression that everything is serious all the time here because it definitely isn’t, especially after Halu joins the lineup. Halu touches on breaking the fourth wall here and there and makes some rather interesting comments that imply rightly that the world of Monochrome Mobius is clearly linked to the real world somehow and things have gone badly wrong for us humans. The offbeat twists that some of the dialogue makes here and there may put off a few players but they’re honestly relatively mild and pretty entertaining. All in all, this is a fairly serious plotline though with some truly excellent character development.
Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten is a straightforward RPG with some solid scripting, good concepts and more than a bit of heart. The style might be somewhat dated but it’s clearly made with a deep understanding of the games that came before it and manages to pull players in. It might be a bit less dramatic and complex than more modern RPG approaches but Mobius gets things right a lot more than it gets things wrong. At $60, it’s a fairly high price point for this 40+ hour RPG considering the pacing problems and inconsistent visuals, but at the same time, many other aspects of the game make up for this. While it’s a bit more of a mixed bag than the visual novels that inspired it, Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten is a worthy successor to the Utawarerumono trilogy and a solid JRPG in its own right that is definitely worth having in your collection.
This review is based on a digital copy of Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten provided by the publisher. It was played on a PS5 using a 55” Sony 1080p TV. Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten is also available on PS4 and PC on Steam.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.