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Atlus USA Reveals Caligula Effect Game's Western Release Date, Story Trailer

Atlus USA announced on Friday that its Western release of FuRyu's PlayStation Vita game The Caligula Effect (known as Caligula in Japan) is slated for May 2. The release will be digital-only in North America and Europe.

Along with the announcement, Atlus released a story trailer for the game:

In the story, written by Tadashi Satomi, a virtual idol known as μ performs user-inputted songs and gains self-awareness through exposure to users' bitter feelings and dissatisfaction toward reality. Wanting to save humanity — which she believes is continuously suffering — she lures people to a virtual reality world called Mobius with her songs. She then imprisons them in Mobius, thinking they will be free from the suffering of reality and that all their wishes will come true. The game follows the nine members of the "Going Home Club," a club that was formed because the characters want to escape from Mobius and go home. The game's title refers to the "Caligula Effect," which is a pattern of behavior where one wants to see or do something more if it is denied to them.

The official website describes the game's battle system as an "imaginary chain" system that utilizes combos and the "power of imagination." In a recent press release, Atlus revealed more about the gameplay features. The in-game composer characters are represented by real independent music composers, including 40mP (KagiP), OSTER PROJECT (Sweet P), Polyphonic Branch (Shonen Doll), CyoucyoP (Mirei), Asa (IkeP), 164 (Shadow Knife), and cosMo@BosoP (Sone).

The Western release will keep the original Japanese audio. The cast is as follows:

• Chiharu Sawashiro as the protagonist
• Rie Murakawa as Kotono Kashiwaba
• Shunsuke Takeuchi as Shogo Satake
• Rie Takahashi as Mihue Sonohara
• Yoshimasa Hosoya as Kotarō Tomoe
• Minami Tanaka as Suzuna Kagura
• Yuichiro Umehara as Izuru Minezawa
• Ari Ozawa as Naruko Morita
• Shōta Aoi as Kensuke Hibiki and KagiP
• Reina Ueda as μ
• Eriko Nakamura as Mirei
• Emi Nitta as SweetP
• Sōma Saitō as IkeP
• Yumiri Hanamori as Shonen Doll
• Yūma Uchida as Shadow Knife
• Yuka Ōtsubo as Sone

The game shipped in Japan for PlayStation Vita on June 23.