The Blare have taken over and there’s almost nowhere left that’s safe. However, a few girls are born with the gift to eliminate the Blare – the Verse Maidens. Welcome to Omega Quintet.
You are immediately introduced to Momoka – the longest serving, and currently the only, Verse Maiden. The Verse Maidens’ job is to put on a show for the citizens to raise their morale and keep them safe. In turn, the citizens support is what gives the Verse Maidens their power. However, due to how long she has served, Momka is still struggling to keep up. Now, I mentioned that she’s the “only” Verse Maiden… Well, that’s not exactly true. There are two others, however they’ve never been allowed to do any work which has left them forgotten.
You then get introduced to Otoha – a die hard Verse Maiden and Momoka fan. It’s her dream to become a Verse Maiden. A lot of stuff happens quickly and she winds up as one. Oh and Momoka retires. Oh, and those other two I mentioned? They’re now suddenly allowed to work.
The story of Omega Quintet is a crazy rollercoaster that seems to start off slow and then gets a bit crazy near the end. You’ll eventually end up with 5 girls, the five who make up the new generation of Verse Maidens and end up being dubbed Omega Quintet. Granted, they’re only actually called this a couple times in the game and then it seems to be forgotten but it was there!
The translation of Omega Quintet seems to be fairly good with a few issues. Throughout the game, small typos and grammar errors are everywhere. Unless you like your don’ ts and SUpports and think they’re fine of course. There are points in the game where it seems they’re everywhere, and then suddenly everything is fine again for awhile. I cringed a little every time I saw one, and am cringing even now as I stare at them on here.
Omega Quintet draws some inspiration on a previous title, and one we’ve reviewed – Hyperdimension Neptunia PP. In some ways, Omega Quintet feels like what that game would have been as a proper RPG instead of a sim-dating-singing sort of game. This is most obvious in the PVS where you can go and edit videos together for one of the songs. The PVS is a massively fleshed out version of what was available in PP and it plays spectacularly. Unfortunately, despite all the work in the PVS it’s hardly actually used in the game – only one particular quest chain will make use of it, and not until a bit later in the game. Still, it’s a fun tool to play around with when you’re bored.
Speaking of quests, there are a lot of quests to do. Despite there being so many, there are only a few specific “types” of quests you can get – item hunt, enemy hunt, or special actions. The special actions can range from using EP – the currency in Omega Quintet – to using special skills. For the most part they are pretty easy, though some of the later monster hunt ones may give you a run for your money in difficulty! It’s also wise to remember that sometimes the item hunt ones will need you to go buy something. I didn’t realize this and ended up failing a quest because of it.
Omega Quintet comes in three difficulties. For the purposes of reviewing it, I went with the easiest one. I also wanted to be able to figure out the battle system some, and the easiest difficulties usually help with this. Unfortunately, or perhaps I’ve just been playing too much Tales of and Diablo 3 lately, the inability to change difficulty mid-playthrough started to bite me. Battles started to become too easy with only a few exceptions. Needless to say, my New Game+ playthrough is definitely going to be on Very Hard.
Now, speaking of battles, the battle system is quite good in Omega Quintet. While at first they throw a lot at you at once, once you get your bearings it all starts to actually make sense. Your characters have a certain amount of attacks per turn, and they can use these attacks to do basic hits, skills, items, or just end it with defend. If you choose to defend, any extra attacks you had will not carry over.
Skills will likely be your main source of damage in battle, though keep in mind that they use up your SP. While SP can be recovered with items, it still runs out exceptionally fast. Each girl has a unique skill that she can use that also requires a bar on the Voltage Meter. This meter fills up when you do damage, will lower when you receive damage, and resets should you leave the current area. The Voltage Meter is also used to activate Live Concert Mode once it is made available to you. It’s in your best interest to try and make good use of this – these skills are extremely powerful.
This also applies to Live Concert Mode. Live Concert Mode will change the background song and provide you with special benefits while it’s active. The only ways to cancel Live Concert Mode are to either have someone die or for it to simply run out of turns. The amount of turns you get depends on what level you used, though in most cases of just trying to farm items I found level 1 was plenty. While in Live Concert Mode you’ll receive requests. There are only a handful of requests that will be given, and sometimes you just have to hope you can actually accomplish them – particularly when you’re running low on SP or you’re fighting a boss and you get one to defeat the enemy.
You can buy equipment upgrades with EP, provided you have the materials. The materials can be obtained through enemies, and for this purpose I highly suggest snatching up the free DLC that will fill in your monster encyclopedia. You can also purchase armor this way, along with your consumable items, outfits for the girls, and amps. The equipment and outfits are not one and the same – where equipment provides you with your defensive capabilities, outfits can house your amps and are susceptible to tearing. If your outfit gets completely torn, you’ll lose the benefits of your amps until such a time you can repair it. Only the actual body piece of the outfit matters though, so feel free to adorn your girls however you see fit in other slots. I suggest the sunglasses – they are pretty stylin’.
Omega Quintet offers players the choice of either using the English or Japanese voice cast. While I can’t speak for the Japanese dub, I found the English one to be fairly well done. However, I’ll be very happy to not have to hear Otoha every 5 seconds on the field for awhile. Seriously, she comments on EVERYTHING in the field and I was never able to find a way to actually change who was the “leader”. The music is also fairly well done and helps set some of the mood – that these girls are trying to bring cheer to an otherwise gloomy world.
While Omega Quintet may seem like a lot to take in, once you get used to it, it comes together great. The early onslaught of tutorials on top of the number of typos detract from the game however. While some might find the story to be not completely up to par, I still found it fairly enjoyable and quite liked all of the characters. Except maybe Fan B, he was a bit of a jerk… Oh okay fine. Maybe he’s alright too.
While perhaps it’s not a title I’d suggest for the full retail price, Omega Quintet is definitely a title I still highly suggest for JRPG fans with a PS4. I did enjoy my time with it though, and do look forward to eventually going back and trying for the elusive True Ending and eventually the Platinum.
Omega Quintet
4/5
Omega Quintet is available now for PlayStation 4 on Amazon and on PSN.
I would like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of the game for review.
