Thanks for writing about this game! Played Labyrinth of Refrain when it launched in the US but forgot that a sequel was in the works. Refrain was flawed but pretty interesting, and I'm glad to hear that the sequel seems to improve a lot over its predecessor.
I have a few questions about the game if you don't mind answering. First, is the pact system more flexible this time around? Or is there at least more pact variety than in the first game? I felt like Refrain's combat system offered the illusion of depth but was actually mechanically shallow. Like there are so many different character classes, but your choice of class is somewhat insignificant because the classes don't have individual skills, you just stick them into pacts which determine their abilities in combat. Because certain pacts were vastly superior to others, it felt like you were just waiting for progression through the story or quests to give you access to better skills, instead of adapting your combat strategies throughout the game and building your party.
Second, is there more integration between storytelling inside the dungeon vs. outside the dungeon? I found it strange how the main cast of Refrain basically had nothing to say about all the horrifying things that were happening in the dungeons the player explored lol.
Speaking of the story, this is kind of an odd question, but is Galleria as...weird about lesbians as Refrain was? I won't go into too much detail to avoid spoilers for those who haven't played the first title, but two of the female characters in Refrain have strong romantic subtext with each other. But instead of being more explicit about that subtext or allowing the characters to confess to each other, the game is almost spiteful in how it prevents those two characters from ever being together and subjects them to varying degrees of sexual trauma in retribution. Oh, and the only character in Refrain explicitly attracted to women also happens to be a walking psycho lesbian stereotype who tries to sexually assault one of the main characters near the beginning of the game. Sigh. Is there anything that fraught in Galleria? I don't know if I can handle that kind of anguish again.
