This Way Madness Lies Review: To Thine Own Self Be True

It might seem out of place that I’m the person reviewing This Way Madness Lies, a game about magical girls diving into the worlds of Shakespeare. For one thing, I’m not exactly a fan of the Bard. I’m also woefully inexperienced with magical girl anime, though I am familiar with Sailor Moon. Despite that, there’s one reason I’m exactly the person to cover this game – I’m a huge fan of Zeboyd Games. Fun fact, one of the first titles I reviewed when I started in the game journalism field was actually a little something called Cthulhu Saves the World. I’ve been hooked on Zeboyd ever since, and have eagerly played every game in their library. So despite not being thoroughly invested in either Shakespeare or magical girls, I knew I could handle this review. Keep reading to discover that, even though This Way Madness Lies isn’t anything new from the indie team, that’s absolutely not a bad thing.

What Is Past Is Prologue

If you’re not familiar with Zeboyd Games, here are two things you need to know about them. They cater towards old-school RPGs, and their games are full of laugh-out-loud humor. Honestly, if they weren’t hard at work making their own epic adventures, I think they could be instrumental in copy editing and improving the writing from other small studios. I’ve never seen a comma out of place, and they are experts at livening the mood with snappy writing.

Though She Be But Little, She Is Fierce

In This Way Madness Lies, team leader Imogen is aware of you, and will have you assist her. You do so by making decisions during Intermissions and helping answer questions from teachers while the team of 6 magical girls (each with a title of Ingenue followed by a stone like Amethyst) is sitting through classes. See, their superhero identities aren’t common knowledge, meaning they have to fit in and try and act normal some of the time. But whenever another dimension is in danger, they transform into their sparkly battle suits and travel there to deal with the source of the problem, which is typically caused by entities called Nightmares.

I was comically bad helping Imogen with these pop quizzes.

The girls love their Shakespeare, and are part of the Stratford-Upon-Avon High Drama Society, reenacting his works and fangirling over their favorite characters. They’re also all named after classic heroines such as Beatrice, Miranda, and the like. It’s fitting, then, that no matter what world they travel to, it’s always an alternate reality where Shakespeare’s writing is very much reality, and his characters are threatened by otherworldly menaces. First, you’ll have to rescue Romeo from a invasive plant species, but you’ll also travel to many other strange and wonderful Shakespearean realities. One of my favorites has a shapeshifting Titania and her cadre of gun-toting fairies. I won’t ruin any other worlds, but I always expect the unexpected from these magical girls.

When you’re not traveling to distant worlds, you’ll help the girls out during Intermissions. These are short and sweet side stories where you can help direct the flow of the narrative. You’ll also run into some Nightmares, and discover that something is very awry. For some reason, the girls are finding doppelgangers of themselves in other worlds with the exact same powers. Plus, more and more, their otherwise normal school will find itself dead center in strange phenomena.

I Wasted Time, And Now Doth Time Waste Me

While there are several different difficulties available in This Way Madness Lies, it’s still a good idea to save regularly. You can do so any time outside of combat in dungeons, and can also do it at set points during Intermissions. One time I neglected to do this during an Intermission, and encountered my one and only glitch in the game. I started a battle, only to find myself completely unable to choose any options, forcing me to quit and restart. Luckily that was a one-off, and most of the time, the game plays wonderfully. Just be certain that the higher you set the difficulty, the more frequently you remember to save.

I Would Not Wish Any Companion In The World But You

As far as the combat, while it’s definitely a highlight, it’s also pretty much what fans of Zeboyd will be accustomed to. Your magical girls can team up to deliver powerful Unite attacks once per battle, and with teams of 4, that gives you many potential options. Just keep in mind that the longer you wait to use Unite attacks, the more powerful they’ll be. Every turn that goes by, each character will gain a Hyper point. When you have enough to fill your meter, all of your abilities will be enhanced for that turn. Sometimes this will increase damage, other times, it will change an offensive skill to a healing one, and much more. As for your standard abilities, you can use most of them once and then will need to recharge them by Resting, which basically has you defend for one turn. Each girl can eventually equip seven abilities at once, leaving you with a lot of flexibility. There are also items that are shared by the entire team, and which can only be used once per battle.

You’ll gradually learn new abilities as you level up, and your whole team levels up as a unit, which saves time. The girls will also acquire new Traits, which not only affect their stats, but can help you customize how they play. Early I only had one character that served as team healer, but then got a Trait for Imogen that turned her solo healing skill into a team heal when Hyper. There’s a ton of nuance to how you set up your team, since they can only equip so many Traits at once. If you want to make a healer into a fighter, there’s probably a way. Just keep in mind Traits are unlocked at set level-ups, so it might take a long while to get the most incredible ones. It probably doesn’t hurt increasing the difficulty if you want to gain a smidge more experience points, or engaging in random battles from the pause screen.

For the first half of the game, you’ll have no control over which girls are in your team, but eventually, something will happen, and you’ll get full control over selecting your roster. I appreciated this, since it forced me to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each character. Each Ingenue is very distinct, but you still have a lot of freedom in how you guide their combat proficiency. Personality-wise, I loved Miranda, who’s quirky and full of anime sparkle. That said, she’s one of the hardest characters to use, since each of her abilities is bifurcated, and she does totally different things when Hyper. For example, she might poison a foe when normal, and cast Regen on an ally when Hyper. One of the best parts of the game is just discovering which girl is your favorite and finding how to make them a powerhouse.

Pleasure And Action Make The Hours Seem Short

Though I normally prefer using controllers, This Way Madness Lies works perfectly fine with a keyboard and mouse. That said, it does also support controllers, though I never found the need to use it. Directional buttons move your team around, you select targets and attack. You can also bring up a display of an enemy’s vulnerability to status ailments, which is handy during boss battles. It’s easy to pause with Tab and bring up the menu. Just keep in mind you’re never told how to exit to the main menu, but all that takes is a press of the Esc button. My favorite aspect of the controls is how you can press a button to shift between Olde English translation and Zeboyd’s modern translation. Not only does this make the Shakespearean prose easier to understand, but it also lends an extra layer of hilarity to the already funny game.

If Music Be The Food Of Love, Play On

Visually, This Way Madness Lies is full of colorful pixel art and has more style than some of Zeboyd’s roster. I love the animation for when the girls transform. There are also great cut-ins during Unite abilities, as well as when bosses attack your entire team. Many of the Nightmares you’ll face are unique to the game, but there are a few that will be familiar to those who have played other games from this team. Where I was very pleasantly surprised was by the game’s sound design. It manages to straddle the line between classical instruments and pulse-pumping anime action. I frankly loved the music in This Way Madness Lies. Combined with solid art design, this is an attractive game that will appeal to fans of classic games.

In Black Ink, My Love May Still Shine Bright

I have very, very few actual complaints with the game. Sure, like most by Zeboyd Games, it’s relatively short, but it’s also very inexpensive, so I can forgive that. The only minor area of contention I have is that sometimes the written descriptions of abilities is a smidge unclear. An example is Rosalind’s Corpsing, which “merges elements with a foe.” I have no idea what that means, and I just wish the team that typically does such a good job with the rest of their writing could nail that down more. Other than that occasional lack of clarity, this is a very tight and enjoyable experience.

Better Three Hours Too Soon Than A Minute Too Late

Even though This Way Madness Lies doesn’t break the mold of other titles by Zeboyd Games, I still very much enjoyed it. It’s a well-paced, classically-styled RPG with great music, attractive artwork, and hilarious storytelling. If you’re in the mood for a short but sweet RPG and don’t mind playing on PC, I’d absolutely check this out.

Final Verdict: 4/5

Available on: PC (reviewed); Publisher: Zeboyd Digital Entertainment LLC; Developer: Zeboyd Digital Entertainment LLC; Players: 1; Released: November 10, 2022; MSRP: $9.99

Editor’s note: The publisher provided a review copy to Hey Poor Player.