This Way Madness Lies

My first instinct when I saw the pitch for this one was skepticism - Shakespeare mashed up with magical girl transformation sequences sounds like a novelty act, the kind of game that coasts on its concept and forgets to build anything underneath it. I was wrong. Zeboyd has constructed something with genuine mechanical teeth hiding behind the comedy, and the writing earns every joke it takes at the Bard. You play as Imogen and the Stratford-Upon-Avon High Drama Society, a crew of six (eventually seven) schoolgirls who also happen to be magical girls capable of leaping into alternate-dimension versions of Shakespeare plays to rescue them from Lovecraftian nightmare infestations. Romeo is being held captive by mutant plants. Juliet is not entirely sure she wants him back. The game knows exactly what it is doing, and the fourth-wall breaks land consistently because the lead character is fully aware she is being played. The humor runs on two tracks: sharp modern irreverence at Shakespeare's more dated attitudes, and genuine warmth for the source material. Both tracks work. The combat is where this game surprised me most. There is no standard attack button - each of the four active party members fills seven slots with abilities drawn from an expanding pool, covering physical hits, elemental damage, status effects like poison, stun, and charm, buffs, and heals. Abilities are single-use per round unless a character spends a turn guarding to recharge them, which forces real decision-making every single turn. On top of that, each character builds toward a Hyper state that transforms all their moves into upgraded versions, and Unite abilities let pairs of characters combine powers for effects that scale up the longer you hold them in reserve. A mechanic where a character hitting zero HP temporarily goes into negative health for one high-damage turn adds another layer of risk-reward timing. None of this feels like homework. It feels like a puzzle you actually want to solve. The one genuine criticism: some ability descriptions are unclear enough that you may skip options that would have been useful, and tracking which status effects are on your own party (rather than the enemies) is harder than it should be. The dungeons are honest about being straightforward - biome-to-biome mazes with visible enemies on the field, occasional light environmental puzzles, and boss fights capping each Shakespearean world. No padding, no pointless fetch chains, no grind traps. Enemies do not respawn once cleared, though you can trigger additional fights on demand from the status menu if you want the XP. The pacing is Zeboyd's actual superpower: at 5 to 10 hours depending on difficulty (four settings, freely adjustable mid-game), the game never overstays. The episodic structure between dungeons - brief school-life segments with Shakespearean trivia moments and character beats - keeps things moving without feeling like a box-ticking obligation. The ending is a touch abrupt, and replay value is minimal, but neither flaw significantly dents the experience. Metacritic sits at 84, Steam user reviews land at 88% positive, and the consensus across critics is consistent: this is a tight, confident little JRPG with a soundtrack you will keep humming.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

Be the first to comment on This Way Madness Lies.