“The Caligula Effect” is a psychological term referring to the guilt and excitement that comes from wanting to that which is prohibited. That said, there’s nothing stopping someone from making a sequel to the game of the same name, which might be why just such a thing is on the way. The Caligula Effect 2 (also known as Caligula 2), is coming to the Nintendo Switch and PS4 in late June 2021.
Check out a teaser for the game, as seen in the Japanese version of the February 17, 2021 Nintendo Direct presentation:
Like its predecessor, The Caligula Effect 2 takes place in a virtual world where inhabitants can start over and live as their ideal selves. This one is called Redo and is presided over by the “virtual doll” Regret. Regret uses the power of song to show people their ideals.
Also like the original, a small group of people can see through the illusion. They form the Go-Home Club and are committed to breaking out of Redo and returning to the real world. Opposing them are the Obbligato Musicians, similarly powered individuals loyal to Regret and maintaining the integrity of Redo. Bar changes in naming convention, the narrative setup seems almost identical to the original Caligula Effect. Even the battle system is still based on combos and making predictions off information surfaced in a timeline showing the likely result of a given action.
The main thing fundamentally new about The Caligula Effect 2 seems less to be in its mechanical or narrative foundations, but rather in development. According to the official website, where the first game was developed by Aquria (developers of Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment and Alicization Lycoris), the sequel is fully in the hands of Historia, which worked on The Caligula Effect: Overdose, an enhanced rerelease for PC, Switch, and PS4.
Key staff members are returning, though, like Producer Takuya Yamanaka and Shin Megami Tensei veteran composer Tsukasa Masuko. Oguchi will once again provide character designs, and Tadashi Satomi, who wrote the original Persona games and Digital Devil Saga for Atlus, is assisting with the world-building.
The Caligula Effect 2 will release in Japan on Nintendo Switch and PS4 on June 24, 2021. No overseas release has been announced. The original Caligula Effect game is available on PS Vita, and its Overdose enhanced edition is available on the PC, PS4, and Switch.
