Official Review Computer

Circus Electrique (Computer)
Official GBAtemp Review

Name: Circus Electrique
Item: Circus Electrique
Rating: 6
Author: Prans

Product Information:

Release Date (NA): September 6, 2022
Release Date (EU): September 6, 2022
Publisher: Saber Interactive
Developer: Zen Studios
Genres: RPG, Management
Also For: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Game Features:

Single player

Local Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Co-operative

Circus Electrique, the greatest show in Victorian London, is back in business! With a blend of RPG, circus management and steampunk twist, does it deliver an electrifying experience?

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The Illuminated London Voice newspaper has tasked journalist Amelia to report on the grand opening of the Circus Electrique. The show is not foreign to the young reporter as her uncle Randy is the circus’ director and Ringmaster, while her late mother was also a performer with the troupe.

What first started as a mundane reporting duty turned into a more lively story as Amelia is attacked by aggressive Londoners, as if possessed and against their control. As this “Maddening” shortly spreads across the city and yields more of the Vicious, Amelia’s investigative side piques her to find the cause of this happening. Given the new dangers lurking in London, Uncle Randy tasks his performers to protect Amelia as she ventures forth into the city. What will she find and how is this connected to her past? The answer to these unravel as you progress through Circus Electrique.

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With its steampunk Victorian London setting, Circus Electrique delivers an interesting and original premise in the backdrop of a city-wide mystery. The artstyle, soundtrack and film grain filter emulate the retro vibe; and the voice acted cutscenes and original battle animation add to the presentation of the title. As Amelia progresses in her investigation, she’ll come across fellow Londoners, performers and journalists that flesh out the game’s universe. The newspaper clippings at the end of battles also provide further lore in each issue.

While plot and premise are original and help keep the intrigue going, Circus Electrique’s main focus is clearly the gameplay which is a mix of circus management and turn-based battles. This blend of mechanics will have you wearing several hats and progresses in a similar fashion: a region in the map of London unlocks and you’ll have to move across a path (there are some branching options) until you reach a destination. Moving along the path you’ll find chests with items, mini-games, short conversation cutscenes, and battles against the Vicious.

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During Amelia’s investigation across the streets of London, you’ll have to select a party of four performers to accompany her and fend off any encounters with the Vicious. These encounters take place in a turn-based, 4v4 battle fashion. Each party member has a unique set of skills (all circus performance-themed, of course) that you’ll need to strategically employ to emerge victorious as some skills are accessible only based on the character’s position in the team.

For example, some of the Strongman’s brawny, heavy damage-dealing attacks are accessible with the character in the first position while the Clown’s healing abilities can be employed from the last position. Such position-based skills apply to your enemies as well and you can further use abilities of your party to move the position of your enemies and thwart their attack options. This aspect of combat coats the mechanic with a welcome challenge and a need for tactical thinking.

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Circus Electruque’s combat mechanic also introduces a Devotion gauge which indicates the performers’ morale. This plays a role in both combats and circus shows (the higher the Devotion, the better the show). In combat, you need to keep an eye out to not let a character’s Devotion drop to zero as they will otherwise flee the battle; making its gauge as important as the characters’ life gauge. Consumables as well as certain skills can restore Devotion, so you’ll have to effectively put them to use.

Likewise, the Vicious enemies you encounter have Devotion gauge as well, and if it drops below zero, they too will flee. As such, with some low-Devotion enemies, it might be better to target lowering their Devotion rather than deplete their health. This adds an interesting layer of strategy to combat as you’ll want to have party members that can deal physical damage as well as others that have the ability to lower the Devotion metre.

You’ll also need to keep an eye out for battle conditions as some environments can buff up or take a toll on abilities. For example, during nighttime, fire attacks receive a boost while in rainy conditions, such attack types are less effective.

After battles, you’ll also need to allow performers to rest and recover in the Sleeping Cart, upgrade structures and open up more slots for performers, craft items and level up your performers. This delivers an intricate combat mechanic that can feel overwhelming but can offer its fair share of fun once mastered.

During the expeditions on the streets of London, you’ll also come across lighter segments with mini-games. These offer a welcome change with short sessions of original mini games such as coin toss or entertaining fans for an extra reward.

While Amelia’s investigation proceeds, the show must go on. To that end, you’ll need to take on the role of circus manager. Recruit talent and set up shows with performers that will yield the best reputation to the circus and monetary rewards. To do so, you’ll have to pay attention to the Chemistry between performers as the success of a performance depends on whether performers like or don’t like each other.

To give circus shows a boost, you can allocate the show performers in their preferred slots and based on the specific skills that would yield a boost. And be sure to not bore your audience with the same shows on repeat and vary the performances to keep them asking for more.

An effective organisation of the cast of performers and shows will help with the circus reputation, earn more money and help you level up the circus with more talents and varied shows. Each performance is enacted after a battle concludes, so be sure to set one up before going into London and face the Maddening’s Vicious.

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Juggling between circus management and battles can sound like a lot and it often feels so, especially when getting started with Circus Electrique. But these do offer an interesting proposition in terms of gameplay that can get the player hooked onto the mechanic.

Unfortunately, the progression loop, while original, quickly feels repetitive. Set up a circus show, move two slots in the map, engage in combat, see how your show was received, rinse and repeat. This perpetuates throughout the game and it would have benefited from better pacing with more spaced-out combat and circus performance set ups.

What this endless loop also indicates is that there isn’t much to the plot as the focus is on the gameplay and the developers maxed out on the latter. Indeed, the story progression often feels rushed, abrupt and anticlimactic. On top of that, the protagonist of Circus Electrique isn’t very relatable. While Amelia leads the investigation, you don’t really control her actions and mostly manage the party members and the performances.

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The performers themselves aren’t that varied; with 15 archetypes to choose from, they don’t vary much visually save for some minor cosmetic changes. In addition, as these characters don’t play a part in the story, they are further unrelatable and feel expendable. This is particularly the case as there is a permadeath feature in combat and if one party member’s life gauge drops to zero, they’ll be lost but I didn’t feel too much attached to them as I could just recruit another performer to replace them.

I couldn’t feel attached to Amelia either as her character comes off too often as being condescending. Although it’s arguably an original trait that can bring a stark comparison to the character development down the line, it’s not one that necessarily helps with relating to a character, much less a protagonist.

Somewhat surprisingly, despite setting up a circus performance every two moves you make on the London map, you don’t get to see a single one enacted. These could have played out as pre-rendered, skippable cutscenes and would have played well in the overall theme of the game. Even if the scenes might feel repetitive in the long run, an option to skip them would remedy this downside and, let’s face it, there are a lot of repetitive aspects in this game already as it is. For being a game that’s circus-themed and even tasks you to manage a circus, being able to see your shows might have been expected but this is somehow not a feature that’s possible with Circus Electrique.

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All things considered, Circus Electrique attempts to be a decent effort at delivering an original experience. However, it stumbles with its overwhelming mechanics, repetitive actions and unrelatable cast. It’s far from being the electrifying show it promised to be and nearly makes a clown out of itself.

Circus Electrique | Release Date Trailer

Verdict

What We Liked ...

Steampunk, Victorian London presentation
Professionally voice acted cutscenes
Original mix of circus management and turn-based RPG combat

What We Didn't Like ...

Overly repetitive actions
Mechanics can feel overwhelming
Unrelatable characters
Circus performances aren’t enacted

Gameplay

While offering an original mix of circus management and an intricate turn-based RPG combat mechanic, their overuse makes the progression loop feel repetitive.

Presentation

Circus Electrique stands out with its original depiction of a Victorian London with a steampunk twist but the reused assets of performers and a condescending, unrelatable protagonist don’t fare as well.

Lasting Appeal

Having a circus to manage and an complex combat system at hand can get you hooked but the endless loop in which they are employed might not be that enticing to most.

out of 10

Overall

Circus Electrique originally blends circus management and turn-based combat but stumbles in its execution.

Reactions: Mama Looigi, CoolMe, Xzi and 2 others

S SG854
Sep 6, 2022

Hate

"- Circus performances aren't enacted"
Alright the game lost me there for good. Sad, just sad.

So many wierd new games being released nowadays. It's nice to see some people try various different, more or less original things when there is so much utterly generic stuff out there already. But they don't always end up very well.

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