PS4-Exclusive Omega Quintet Sings the Tune of Turn-Based RPGs [TGS Hands-On]

Omega Quintet seemed like a fairly straightforward RPG with a musical twist in battle. Combinations can be strung together by choosing “Harmonize,” followed by two actions per character. It was quite fun to see what things I could string together and how much damage I could unleash in one turn. Spell effects were impressive, though they could be skipped for those who just wanna see those sweet damage numbers pop up.

As my characters took damage, their clothes got torn. “Hahaaa, it’s very sexy!” proclaimed my booth guide. Alright.

What stood out as a possible flaw was how long the battles took.  Most important is the fun factor, which it had, but boy did those battles take some time. In my 12-minute demo, I skipped the story sequence after 30-40 seconds and took barely 20 steps, yet still only managed to finish two battles. I started up a boss fight, but was sadly only able to take two turns before time was up. I would say that perhaps I just didn’t know the full potential of the battle system, but on the other hand, the demo had powerful skills already unlocked for me. It’s tough to say whether the battles are a bit on the long side or not.

Omega Quintet‘s visuals looked good, reminding me of the PS3’s Atelier games. Environments and characters all looked like slightly upgraded versions of Gust’s popular RPG series. There was a big frame-rate drop when enemies spawned in the battle part of the demo, but I didn’t have enough time to see if this was a constant issue or a one-off thing.

PlayStation Move support is said to be included, but the demo kiosk didn’t have a Move controller hooked up.

With good looks, a cute cast, and turn-based JRPG gameplay, PS4-exclusive Omega Quintet might just find a niche when it releases in Japan on Oct. 2. International release dates have not been announced at this time.