Omega Labyrinth Z is a roguelike dungeon crawler that is a sequel to the Japanese only Omega Labyrinth. This game was originally going to be released in English but was infamously refused classification in Australia and UK, before being blocked by Sony themselves. As a result, there exists an English translation somewhere… but officially, it is only in Japanese, Chinese or Korean. This is a dungeon crawler with an extremely heavy dose of fan service, it’s to the point where it is right on the boundary about to cross over to adult content territory. From the dialogue at the very beginning and when you get to the first CG (and it doesn’t take long), you’ll understand why it was refused classification and why Sony America and Sony Europe were hesitant with the game.
This game is actually a sequel to the first Omega Labyrinth, and the story continues on here. After the events of the first game, we’re introduced to Akanezaki Rio, who had just healed after an injury forced her to take a decent time off school. Upon returning to the school, she learns that the Holy Grail had broken. She meets a fairy who tells her that the Holy Grail can be made whole again, and thus Rio pursues that goal. On the other hand, the returning cast of characters lead by Akemiya Aina soon meets with Rio as a new mysterious cave opens up at the school.
The majority of the game has Aina and Rio being rivals of sorts. Then, as per typical of these types of anime inspired games, they get to know each other and become friends. There are a few misunderstandings along the way, and a lot of small talk that shows off the backgrounds and personalities of each character. Thus, there’s not much complexity to the story and is a bit too straightforward at times, which are just the characters running through the dungeons that appear in order to chase the Holy Grail (or basically prevent the antagonist from getting it).
The bulk of the gameplay revolves around the dungeons, which are randomly generated. Characters take on a chibi form as they explore each floor of the dungeon tile by tile. You always start a dungeon at level 1, and can gather new weapons, armor and items on the way. You do keep your equipment throughout each dungeon (in addition to the standard weapon and shield category, there is also the… bra and panty category). There are traps hidden on the floor, which are annoying as you cannot see them until you actually trigger it. You can only carry a limited amount of items which quickly fills up your bag.
Enemies roam each floor, and even if you defeat one, they will respawn. When you do encounter an enemy, it’s turn-based to a degree. You perform an action and the enemy will perform an action. Attacking is easy, it’s at the press of a button, and that’s pretty much it. You can use items that have different effects including ones that give you a ranged or magical attack. Defeating enemies provide Omega Power, which act as experience points (as well as increasing the character’s bust size…). There is a stamina bar that slowly depletes (but can be refilled via items), and if you die, you lose all items in your bag at that time and have to restart the dungeon again. At least there is the option of a suspend save if you need to quit mid-dungeon.
If the constant mention of breasts doesn’t tip you off, then the various other gimmicks will. The sexual references and innuendoes are the tamer aspects of the fan service. You’ll encounter your first minigame when finding an item that needs to be appraised in the dungeon. How to you appraise it? The character puts the object (coincidentally shaped as a long stick) between their breasts, and you must either use the analogue sticks or the touchpad to squeeze the object… If that wasn’t enough, when you save your first character at the end of an early dungeon, a CG pops up with the character in a compromised position and once again, you use the analogue stick to touch the character in various places to free them. Finally, you’ll encounter hot springs in dungeons that can heal and gives buffs. In its more daring attempt yet, the CG is pretty much the character naked strategically covered with wisps of steam, and you need to touch various places again. Although as if the developer had the foresight that these gimmicks will wear off pretty soon, you’re able to skip them in the future.
As is the nature of dungeon crawlers, it can be brutal if the game ends up wanting to serve you a string of bad luck. You might step on trap after trap, or worse yet, fall into rooms filled with an overwhelming number of monsters again and again… while triggering traps as you desperately try to survive. You lose your items if you die in a dungeon (whereas if your partner dies, they’ll respawn at the next level so it’s not too bad there), but at least you get to keep your experience and levels. Still, it’s not fun though when it happens and it can get quite intense when you’re on the verge of dying.
There are several annoying aspects that are staples of this genre. Traps are frustrating, especially the ones that confuse you (so the character doesn’t go where you want them to go), and the ones that causes your items to spill out. Speaking of which, enemies whose attack can knock your equipment out are also annoying for the fact that you need to go pick up those items and equip them again, wasting a lot of time over the course of the game considering how frequent they are. Enemies that can phase through walls so they can attack you but you can’t attack them, combined with the corridor map layouts and you’re in for some frustrating times.
As you’d expect, dungeons get longer and longer to clear as you progress through the game. It goes up from 5 minutes in the tutorial dungeon to over an hour long midway through the story to nearly two hours in the final story dungeon. You’ll easily run out of bag space and become constantly bogged down by inventory management. This severe restriction wastes your time since moving items around takes a turn (meaning it jumps you out of the menu, so you need to open it up again and navigate to the next item you want to move). Despite this, it is an addictive gameplay loop that has the perfect difficulty balance, although it leans more towards the easier side.
The game takes around 25 hours to complete, which is the perfect length as it’s not too long and not too short. The difficulty of the game lies in the normal enemies and persistence in going through the numerous floors that gets larger and larger. Random effects from enemies and traps also become more dangerous. The bosses at the end of a dungeon, and this includes the final story boss, are much easier by comparison and goes down in a few turns, especially if you spam moves. This can lead to an anticlimactic end, and doubly so for the story as despite the build up of the antagonist, they go down too easily.
However, finishing the story is only the tip of the iceberg. The game has a wealth of content, and most of it are optional. You start to unlock them as you progress through the story and the final pieces unlock after the story. There are several puzzle dungeons as well as high difficulty challenge dungeons. The loot and equipment upgrade aspects become more important and is your motivation for pushing forward. The challenge dungeons are no joke as you will eventually require top tier equipment in order to clear them. You are also encouraged to replay dungeons to get higher scores, complete specific requirements to get bonus items and of course, grind for loot.
Overall, there’s no doubt that Omega Labyrinth Z is well known for its heavy fan service content, and rightly so. The fan service is constantly thrown in your face throughout the story, with some extremely suggestive CGs. However, look past this and the dungeon crawling gameplay is surprisingly solid. It’s simple to learn but has enough going for it that it doesn’t get boring even after you finish the story. There are some deliberate decisions on the gameplay mechanics that can bog down the player, such as the overly restrictive inventory management and the harsh penalties of dying from randomised events, but all in all, it’s a fun experience.
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