Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
By Marc Saltzman,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Mature, entertaining turn-based dungeon adventure.
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Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
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What’s It About?
LABYRINTH OF REFRAIN: COVEN OF DUSK is a first-person dungeon crawler. This single-player narrative follows a witch named Dronya and her young apprentice, Luca, who arrive in the far-off town of Refrain. Masquerading as a simple traveling puppet show, Dronya's true intention is to infiltrate the Well of Khalazain the center of town, which leads to the sprawling dungeons beneath, which are supposed to lead to mountains of treasure. The problem is, it's guarded by vicious monsters and laced with deadly traps. By using the book, Tractatus de Monstrum, Dronya summons her loyal puppets to soldier on in these subterranean labyrinths to lead her to the prize. You can create your own puppet soldiers, assign them different roles, and send them out in squads to destroy those that stand in their way. You'll roam around a huge labyrinth and, through turn-based combat, tackle enemies using weapons and magic, find treasures, and level up over time.
Is It Any Good?
While you might not have heard of it, this role-playing game (RPG) is lots of fun, and will make gamers think of classic adventures with its dungeon focused gameplay. Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk features a lot of standard features RPG fans will recognize, such as winding maze-like dungeons, puzzles, collectibles, secrets, and turn-based fantasy combat. As such, it'll likely remind seasoned gamers of classics like Wizardry, The Lands of Lore, and The Bard's Tale. In fact, there's a ton of variety in the dungeons and you're approach to them -- such as shrinking down in size to battle evil plants or tackling huge dirt-covered trolls, which require different tactics to take down successfully. You can use magic to break down walls, study the map to uncover secret passages, and spend as much (or little) time you like customizing your huge party of puppets.
As you get deeper into the game, you'll unlock more slots to drop fighters into, and balancing out your party once you find a winning combination is vital (friendly party members fight stronger together, too). Some bosses are quite challenging, but they can be gratifyingly defeated through trial and error. There's a lot of depth here, and if the game gets too tough, you can decrease its difficulty, too. While the mature storyline may not be everyone's cup of tea -- some of the sexual dialog, imagery and moaning sounds felt out of place for this game -- and the presentation isn't as impressive as it could have been -- there's a lot to like here. From the story to the dungeons, Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk is a surprisingly good game for fans of the genre.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about sexual imagery in games. Would Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk be just as fun without the sexual imagery? Does this imagery add anything to the gameplay, or is it simply for shock value?
Do you feel connected to the characters that you control in Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk, or do they seem like meaningless figures because they're puppets that you control? Would you be more interested in they were real people you met and got to know along your journey?
Game Details
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: NIS America
- Release date: October 24, 2018
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy, Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More, Adventures, Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- ESRB rating: M for Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence
- Last updated: January 14, 2022
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