Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten

Taking place between the Utawarerumono Prelude and the Mask visual novels comes a new JRPG. Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten by Aquaplus tells the story of a younger Oshtor, Mikazuchi, and Munechika before taking up their roles in the Mikado’s inner circle.

I previously wrote about my early impressions of the game, which you may also be interested to read. Some opinions have changed after having the chance to play through all 50+ hours, with new gameplay elements being introduced and the overall story being taken into consideration.

Father and a New Sister

Much of the initial focus in Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten is on Shunya, a new character who has appeared claiming to be Oshtor’s sister after a near-miss with danger and a sudden teleportation. Considering that his father Pashpakur was thought to have passed away long ago and Shunya’s age, this does bring some questions to light regarding his loyalty to his wife and whether he remains alive.

Much of the opening is about Oshtor and Shunya’s quest to find answers about their father. The last time Shunya saw him, he was surrounded and his life was in danger. They soon find more than they expected though, with secret cities, hidden lands, and technology so advanced that it seems like magic.

Despite the topic, the tone is kept quite light about Pashpakur’s potential cheating. The drama is more about whether he remains alive, and Oshtor’s wish to follow in his footsteps as a warrior. This is offset by Shunya’s naive nature and cute moments with some of the younger characters. The question of Shunya’s history remains a plot thread throughout much of the story too, even if it is shelved for quite a while.

A New Family

Oshtor’s quest lets him meet Munechika, who gets more of a backstory in this title. It introduces her family, where she is from, and shows how she developed into both the warrior that she did and the Princess’ future attendant.

Mikazuchi is introduced later. We get to know even more about him throughout. It shows a lot about his family history, his thoughts, and gives context to some of his actions in the later Utawarerumono games.

Oshtor, Shunya, Munechika, and Mikazuchi study under the same master and become close throughout their trials. They become as close as family, which is an ongoing theme in Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten. Themes such as living up to family expectations, following in their footsteps, and honoring the ones who made you who you are today are often motivations for the character’s actions. Tied into this is showing the growth of the warriors, and how others learn to trust them. What does contradict the family theme a little are the romantic moments with some characters, though it even references that itself in one case.

Overall, I enjoyed how it treated this theme and it made a lot of the character’s actions believable. There are quite a few touching scenes about family and friendship and it was used well as an important part of developing the main cast of characters while keeping their stories tied to the main plot in an interesting way.

An Adventure

I’d consider Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten as a two-part story in a way. The opening that sets up Oshtor and Shunya looking for their father, and then gathering new friends and training comes first. This culminates with an important event tied to Shunya’s home country and a milestone in the group’s development.

The second part is where the stakes are raised. While similar themes continue, new dangers appear, serious events happen, and we learn more about what’s going on.

I don’t want to spoil much, but I’ll say that the story is excellent, if a bit slow at times in the second half. It does a brilliant job of building up the plot while developing characters, then comes to an exciting conclusion. It manages to add a new concept and lore to the Utawarerumono series, while seamlessly fitting in with the existing universe.

One thing that may feel less satisfying is that some unresolved questions are left and it ends on a cliffhanger. Certain things didn’t get explored in much depth either. At the time of writing, no sequel has been announced, but the ending does seem to strongly hint at one.

For The Fans

In Oshtor’s quest, we meet many characters, both new and old. While Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten can be played as a standalone JRPG, I feel that fans of Utawarerumono will enjoy it much more and this is one of the reasons why.

We get to see how many characters meet, notably Munechika and Mikazuchi who get a lot of screen time, but also ones like Maroro, Princess Anju, Raiko, and Dekopompo. Most Yamato-based characters outside of the main cast of the Utawarerumono Mask get an appearance, even if it’s just a small one such as Soyankekur and Ozen getting drunk and naked.

A lot of my enjoyment of Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten was added to by knowing those familiar characters, along with getting to know more about the Oshtor, Munechika, and Mikazuchi. Where it fell down a bit was in explaining the world, which is understandable considering the medium, but knowing the history and context added to how much I enjoyed it.

Quite a few references are made that might only make sense to fans of the visual novels and some ideas may not be grasped as early on. For example, fans of the visual novel will be aware of the Mikado’s history and where he is from. We gain a robotic assistant who is from a similar place who refers to Shunya and occasionally Princess Anju as ‘Chii’. The place they come from isn’t explicitly explained here, and what ‘Chii’ refers to would only be understood from playing the Mask series. A certain important-seeming scene right at the end needs the player to know the characters from that series too.

I’d strongly recommend playing the Utawarerumono Mask series first, and ideally, the original visual novel that precedes it too. Not only do I expect that players will enjoy Monochrome Mobius more that way, but it does have some spoilers for the visual novels.

Exploring Yamato

While the story of Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten is excellent and the world is brilliant, exploring that world is where it falls down somewhat.

It has rather basic JRPG-style exploration. You can wander around the world, talking to NPCs, picking up items, and so on. There is quite a large world to explore, with towns as hubs, and the odd dungeon or other point that can be fast-traveled to.

Taking too much time is the main issue here. The main problem is that the world is too spread out and while the lack of convenience features give it a charming old-school style, it did start to wear on me after a while. A few are added via upgrades later but didn’t make a huge difference.

I ended up running about every way in the overworld because a clue on where to go was only given in the dialogue and wasn’t clear or it relied on me remembering something that wasn’t marked on the map. There is a pointer arrow, but when it’s far away enough, ‘left’ is actually ‘right, up, right, up, left, up, left’.

Dungeons and most places were full of low-value items and winding paths, which slowed down progression. Backtracking was common in several dungeons, most notably the final one which involved using switches, backtracking to check if I could proceed, then trying again a few times.

Side quests were similar in that minimal clues were given, along with a tiny part of a map that only helped if you knew where it was already. Initially I enjoyed this, but I felt the need to do most side quests to keep up to level, and quite a few involved a lot of travel, so it became more of a chore. Though one positive here is that several areas seem to have been added only for side quests, so it did give me a reason to explore some extra places. Some added small amounts of character dialogue too.

Overall, a lot of this just felt like padding the experience out, while missing modern features to make life easier. At times it felt like slogging through the gameplay, to enjoy the story.

Destroying Enemies of Yamato

Battles are fairly standard. It’s a time-based system, with turns taken depending on where your character is on one of several action rings. Moving inward to smaller rings by taking advantage of special moves or hitting staggered enemies means your turn comes about faster, but it’s possible to go in the opposite direction too. Other than that, it’s the normal physical attacks, magic, skills, status effects, and elemental weaknesses.

Aside from coming across too many of them, I did enjoy the battle system somewhat. It’s basic, but it works well enough. It did get old after a while though.

Characters can earn bonus points when they level up, so you can change their focus somewhat. They learn new special attacks via this, normal level-ups, and story too. It’s also possible to give materials to a store to unlock equipment upgrades or to upgrade your robotic companion. Each level of upgrade has certain types of materials that give more of an unlocking effect, which was a nice way to vary it.

I was happy to see the return of the bonus point system, and it’s always good to be rewarded for working to get unlocks.

Sights and Sounds

As noted in my preview of Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten, the 3D models and the textures aren’t great, even when choosing ‘High’ in the graphics options. The generic NPC models are notably poor, though are apparently planned to be improved in the future. Pop-in was an issue in larger areas. Screen tearing was often present in full-screen mode too.

The 2D sprites and backgrounds in the visual novel style elements of the game are excellent, as are the CGs. The music is amazing as always for Utawarerumono, with over 100 background tracks and partial voicing.

Verdict

Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten is a difficult one to rate. It has an excellent story, better than a lot of other visual novels or JRPGs, but it is severely hampered by the dated gameplay and certain design choices. If you’ve played and loved all of the Utawarerumono visual novels, I’d recommend it. Even if I found myself often frustrated, I’d certainly sign up for any potential sequel after playing.