Coming to Japan this June
Caligula certainly evokes the spirit and aesthetic of modern Persona games, but the new PlayStation Vita game actually comes from the mind of old school Persona writer Tadashi Satomi.
In addition to the Revelations: Persona and Persona 2 scenario writer, the RPG is being worked on by Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment developer Aquria and is backed by publisher FuRyu, the studio behind titles like Unchained Blades, Exstetra, and The Legend of Legacy.
However, unlike, say, Persona 4, where a group of heroic teens delved into a virtual world in order to save the day, the cast of Caligula is already trapped in such a place. In what sounds like a very anime spin on the film Groundhog Day, the story takes place in a realm where a Hatsune Miku-like character is forcing a number of people to unwittingly relive their high school years over and over again. Of course, a group of plucky kids come to realize what’s going on and bands together to find a way to escape their shared prison and return to the real world.
Caligula is planned for a June 23 launch in Japan. An international release has yet to be announced.