Ever since Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society saw its Switch port release in Japan, I was waiting for the localization announcement. It took a few years since the game’s debut on PlayStation platforms in Japan, but Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society is finally here on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, and PS4 worldwide. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been playing it on Nintendo Switch, PS5, and PC. I adored the original game, and was very curious to see how this full sequel, that is playable on its own as well, would end up being. Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society is one of the best dungeon RPGs out there, and one of NIS’ best releases ever. The wait has absolutely been worth it. For this Switch review, I will cover the Switch version, Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society on Switch vs PS5, and more. This review is a bit late because I wanted to wait and see if the day one patch addressed the issues I had with the Switch version.
If you never played the original game, Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society will still be enjoyable as a standalone experience. When a friend of mine who bought the original game on PS Vita years ago told me he didn’t want to talk about what made Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society special because it would ruin a massive surprise, my interest was piqued. I expected something in the vein of maybe Danganronpa V3’s opening, but NIS was very bold with how things play out in Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society. While this one aspect I don’t want to spoil was obviously a highlight of my experience in Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society, it pushes things beyond 11 when it comes to the gameplay which was already more complex than other recent dungeon RPGs. This is a very meaty game, and one of the most mechanically dense dungeon RPGs I’ve played in over a decade.
The narrative in Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society isn’t just something tacked on to make the breaks between dungeon crawling more interesting. Both aspects of the game work in tandem to keep you hooked, and they are all elevated by a great localization and excellent voice acting. Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society is another rare game I enjoyed playing with both Japanese and English voice acting options in my testing. The character interactions are elevated by the great voice direction.
Visually, Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society looks great on Nintendo Switch both docked and handheld. The frame rate target is half of the other platforms here, but I expected that given the original game was the same. I did run into two technical issues on Switch. These are still present with the day one patch. The first is where the game didn’t register an input once in a while during dungeon exploration. I tested this on my Switch OLED model (docked and handheld) and Switch Lite to verify. The second is sluggish camera movement while changing directions and strafing. I’m not referring to how it feels compared to the PC or PS versions here, but that these issues are not present in the original Labyrinth of Refrain Switch release and are only in Labyrinth of Galleria. I hope a potential patch in the future can address these two issues, because barring those, the Switch version is a great way to experience Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society if you, like me, enjoy DRPGs on the go. Said issues aren’t a dealbreaker, but it would be nice to have them addressed.
Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society – Switch vs PS5
I almost always opt for playing a dungeon RPG on a portable over home console given the option, but since this is NIS’ first PS5 dungeon RPG, I wanted to see how the conversion was. NIS America’s PS5 version is excellent with support for features like PS5 Activity Cards as well to track progress, but there is no haptic feedback. The Switch version has great HD Rumble here. The aforementioned two issues I ran into on Switch aren’t present in any other version of Labyrinth of Galleria as of this writing. NIS America hasn’t mentioned anything about an update for Switch, but I will update this if the issue is fixed later on.
If you’re new to the genre, I don’t think Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society is the best introduction unless you’ve played and enjoyed Disgaea games before. Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society is a bit too long for its own good as well. I already knew what to expect since I played the first game twice, but Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society has a plethora of tutorials and more mechanics than there are ports of Disgaea games across different platforms.
When the original Labyrinth of Refrain came out, I was glad that it delivered on a dungeon RPG I enjoyed as much as an Etrian Odyssey game looking back. Even with Etrian Odyssey returning in June, I have no qualms recommending Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society as a brilliant RPG with a narrative that will get its mechanical hooks in you unlike anything else. The dungeon RPG genre isn’t flooded with new releases, but getting games of this quality in any genre are quite rare. This month is packed with tons of releases, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice as a fan of RPGs if you skipped Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society.
Despite the camera movement not being as responsive, Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society is an easy recommendation for fans of the genre, and one of the best dungeon RPGs I’ve ever played. The blend of brilliant dungeon crawling with the customization and complexity of Disgaea and amazing music makes Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society well worth your time. Hopefully my Switch review helped you decide if it is worth investing in NIS’ newest on Nintendo’s hybrid console. I also wanted to cover Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society on Switch vs PS5 for those who want to know which console to grab this dungeon RPG on.
Switch port review: This review focuses on the Nintendo Switch version and port quality of a game that was either previously released on other platforms or one that simultaneously launched on Nintendo Switch and other platforms.
