clickbliss — Omega Quintet Review

Omega Quintet Review

Omega Quintet
Developer - Galapagos RPG/Compile Heart
Publisher - Idea Factory
PlayStation 4
Rating - T

In 2013 Compile Heart announced that they would be developing new jRPGs that weren’t the usual Neptunia fare they are known for. Aimed for the Japanese market, they wanted to stand out above the rest of the mainstream Japanese based companies who are now catering to the Western audience. They dubbed this project, “Galapagos RPG”. The first jRPG under that moniker was Fairy Fencer F and now the second game arrives, dubbed Omega Quintet, an interesting hybrid between an idol game and a jRPG. But will Compile Heart have a perfect song to for their audience?

In a world that is currently being terrorized by a force called Blares, it is up to a small group of idols, called the Verse Maidens, to not only save all of humanity by fending the Blares off but also maintain their goodwill to the people by singing a tune. Off the bat, the story is flat out nonsense, even for jRPG standards. However, unlike Neptunia where it is self-aware of how ridiculous the plot is, Omega Quintet is the opposite. It tries to be serious while presenting a ridiculous plot. It was funny at first - it even got a few smirks from me. However as the story carried on I realized that this was not a self-parody and the plot was actually a group of idols fending off evil from the world.

It isn’t the story that’s scratching the record here, it’s the missions themselves. It is FEDEX the videogame. You go to a location, kill a monster, and report back. Or you go to a location, gather some items, and report back. This wouldn’t be such a problem if they didn’t repeat this over and over just to pad out the game. A jRPG doesn’t need to be 30+ hours for the sake of being a long game. I probably wouldn’t have minded these mundane quests if the game was 15 hours long. Outside of missions, there is little to do. You just go around the building watching VN-like cut scenes to help fill in the gaps for the intricate story line.

But don’t turn off the music yet, as Omega Quintet has the best battle system I’ve seen in a Compile Heart game. It’s your standard turn based RPG but with more soothing notes to sweeten up the melody. The combat gets surprisingly deep and rewarding once you gather more party members and weapons. Once you build up a decent sized party, you can select the Harmonics option during battle and build up a very satisfying chain attack against your foes. As for the weapons, even though they are all similar in their respective categories, under a different idol and in different battle conditions they allow more strategies while battling. For instance, if you are trying to hit all of your foes, one idol can use a weapon to knock them closer together, while another idol can finally target them all. The way that the battle system is laid out, it requires you to think in the majority of battles, which I loved.

The battle system isn’t the only one singing a beautiful tune here. The idol managing aspect is actually pretty fun. It allows you to make your own music videos from the ground up. Everything from their movements to even what part of the song they sing. I actually spent more time messing around making my own music videos than that actual game itself. I can’t stress this enough, it’s really really fun. If you enjoy music games, this mode will suck you right in. Not surprisingly, the music in this game is also the best I’ve heard in a Compile Heart game. The quality of the JPOP you hear during your custom music videos notwithstanding, the soundtrack of the game isn’t that generic fare you would find in a Neptunia game. My favorite tune would probably be the battle theme, with violins and pianos soaring in the background, it’s a beautiful tune.

Omega Quintet disregarded my long held opinion that the battle systems in Compile Heart games are boring and barebones. It even made me think otherwise about their musical direction as well with a decent soundtrack. However, they didn’t have a storyline or a mission based structure to back those up. Compile Heart had everything in place for a perfect song. But unfortunately, the pianist was drunk.