Varlet often feels like seeing a cover band trying its best to play all the hits, but never managing to surpass the original. Much of the turn-based RPG feels heavily inspired by other school life RPGs, but fails to capture the same magic, due to a lacking combat system and a condensed run time. Varlet does manage to create a cast of likeable characters, but its 16 hour run time doesn’t feel like enough to let those relationships breathe and develop.
Varlet
Developer: Furyu
Price: $60
Platforms: PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC (reviewed)
A PC code was provided by the publisher for this review
Varlet follows Alt, a new arrival at a special VR focused academy. Upon arriving, an Idol is taken into a Glitch, a special place between virtual reality and the real world, created by the desires of the student run rampant. Varlet is formatted in a chapter structure, with each episode made up of about eight episodes, each of which lasts for about a day within the game. This structure not only condenses each story into about two hours, but it also cuts out any time for real character development or world building.
Each chapter follows a similar format, which becomes obvious by chapter 3 and becomes obnoxious by the end of the game. You discover a new glitch, the crew has to figure out who it belongs to and where the entrance is, and defeat the person creating the desire. There are a few mild twists and turns in the story, but you will often be waiting for the Varlet to confirm what you already know.
During each chapter, you will do a few runs through small dungeons. Each dungeon is structured the same way. There will be two or three wide puzzle areas, where you have to battle enemies and solve small puzzles to reach the other side, with hallways between each area. The puzzles develop slightly as the game goes on, adding in color platforms you need to swap, moving paths, and special buttons to press to reach the other side, but the general idea never changes, making for a tedious experience in the dungeons.
Of course, that tedium doesn’t compare with the combat, which is one of the most disappointing aspects of Varlet. The battle system uses a timeline, where you can see when each attack will happen, along with what the enemies are planning. All of your moves have a predetermined turn they activate on, so you simply have to look at the timeline and plan it out. Combat revolves around breaking enemies preparing an attack, and whittling down their stun meter to perform a more powerful finisher.
If that doesn’t sound so bad, the reason the combat is so lackluster is because that is the extent of its depth. With the exception of the final boss, every enemy you fight in Varlet is identical, both in appearance and in how you fight them. Sure, the enemies change colors, but every single fight in Varlet will play out the same, and even if you want to mix it up, there isn’t enough variety in how you tackle combat to make meaningful choices there.
While I mentioned that the bosses look different from the normal enemies, the fights themselves play out exactly like every other fight. I understand that turn-based games can have some level of repetitiveness in the combat, but there is nothing in Varlet that offers even the slightest bit of combat variety.
The characters in Varlet are the best part, thanks to some solid conversational writing and a bit more variety in the kind of characters you get to meet. Your starting party members, Noa and Sota, feel a bit too similar to your usual delinquent best friend and tomboy girl that you often meet in similar games, but later party members, including a graffiti artist, ice queen pop idol, and aspiring filmmaker, feel much more unique. The best choice made here is that some of the characters have sharp edges. The pop idol is truly mean in her behavior and the aspiring filmmaker is annoyingly confident, giving a feeling that these could be real high schoolers.
Another aspect of your day is your SSS–Student Support Services–activities, which is the lowest point of Varlet. In each episode, you will need to complete a set of activities. While there are side objectives, you just need to gain likes by posting AR ads, finding lost items, and clearing optional battles. This takes place in the same plaza and long hallways every single day, and outside of hearing from other students about the current events in the story, it plays out the same way each time. Your reward for doing this is money, which can be used to purchase healing items and nothing else. You have the option to skip, and after doing it a few dozen times, I began skipping it and never missed it.
I’ve avoided invoking it so far, but I would be remiss to not bring up Persona 5 Royal. I don’t love comparing games in a review, especially with such a large gap in budget and length between the two, but to say that Varlet is taking its inspirations from Persona 5 Royal would be putting it lightly, but the focus on desires, transformations via a change within oneself, and the overall school setting stray a bit too close, but the final straw for me was just how closely to the conclusion of Persona 5 Royal the final two chapters of Varlet get, including the setup for the final chapter.
The Final Word
Varlet feels like a turn-based RPG that is simultaneously doing far too much and far too little. The story is overly complex and long for the game’s 16 hour run time, which also takes away from the development of its cast of characters. On the other hand, the dungeons lack personality and variety, and the combat is truly one note, leaving a ton to be desired. I cannot recommend Varlet for anyone, as it doesn’t have anything it truly excels at, and far too much that it utterly fails in.
MonsterVine Rating: 2 out of 5 – Poor
