Mugen Souls (Switch)

Geoffrey Wright | April 27, 2023 | Review | No Comments

Mugen Souls was first released on the PlayStation 3 all the way back in 2012, with a PC port following a few years later during 2015, and now find itself on the Switch in 2023!? It’s been some time, so is it worth joining forces with Chou-Chou for universal domination again? Lets find out.

Chou-Chou plans to conquer the universe by subjugating the seven worlds it comprises, as she thinks the planets look pretty and there’s no one to stop her. Travelling from world to world with her trusty companion Altis, and loyal peon Ryuto, Chou-Chou aims to turn the heroes and demon lords of each world into her peons, saving the worlds from conflict in the process with her overwhelming power.

While the overview doesn’t sound it, the game has a comical and light-hearted approach to its story. The 3 main characters (Cou-Chou and here 2 subordinates) are pretty well written to the point there seems to be genuine chemistry between them. Sure, the story as a whole is goofy, but you won’t get through it without a few laughs at least in the almost 30 hours it should last – with post game grind Disgaea style open to you if you want more Chou-Chou.

Given this was originally a PS3 game ported to PC before landing on Switch, it seems to be that same PC version we have on Ninty’s hybrid. To be fair, and yes it does have PS3 roots, the game can still look good and crisp on the Switch when on the go. The worlds and characters are suitably stylised with plenty of colour to go with the light-hearted approach. Sprite work is top notch, alongside the numerous CG’s to unlock, as the Disgaea

Audio is good too, fits the goofiness of the game well, with some good VA for your language of choice. There are some performance woes though surprisingly. Oddly enough when exploring the dungeons it seems fine with few dips, but the hub area you return to can be something of a stuttery mess. I’m not sure why when it happens, given the area is smaller than a dungeon, but even docking doesn’t fully eliminate it.

The gameplay is fairly standard for JRPGs of its era, you explore a dungeon/map and clear the area while hitting events, with a hub area you can return to that sports various shops and extra things to do. The battle system itself pure turn based. You’re dropped into an area you can move about in and from there a smaller area you can attack in, this gets bigger/smaller for some skills and is fairly similar to a tactical RPG system or more recent JRPG’s. You’ll want to make use of the Blast-off system here too, which can knock foes in a certain direction, so you can hit an enemy into another enemy for bonus damage, and used properly it can move enemies out of the attack radius.

There are some more interesting mechanics to the game. First off the G-Castle Battles act as sorta boss fights between worlds. These are presented as a game of rock paper scissors, where you need to guess what attack the enemy is going to do and counter it with 3 possible options. You can gen an edge here if you make use of the Moe Kill system. This has you choosing various personality types (such as Ego, Sadist, Masochist, Terse, Bipolar, Graceful and Ditz) during an encounter to try and woo the enemies caught within its range. If it works they become peons for Chou-Chou, which can lead to some bonuses and strength in G-Castle the more of them you have.

Mugen Souls sure is a light-hearted & goofy blast from the past that has a fun story and some interesting mechanics for the JRPG genre, but the main issue for it really, outside of some performance quirks on the Switch, is that I’ve already played this a couple of times before and nothing has really been added – its pretty much the same as back on PS3 with the DLC. If you’ve not sampled before on PS3 or PC then its certainly worth a blast on the go, I’m just not sure the portable factor here is enough to bring others back.