In 2051, in the city of Neo Tokyo, there was a popular rock band called Caroll. One day, the lead singer of the group, Leyla, was kidnapped by an organization called Metal Cats. The police of Neo Tokyo tried in vain to rescue the singer: the kidnappers, utilizing a mysterious energy called ESP, were beyond their reach. The desperate police finally asked a young man named Akira to save Leyla - using his own ESP powers. Caroll uses a side-scrolling perspective for navigation, but it is not an action game, not even an action RPG, the core gameplay is that of a Japanese turn-based RPG. Enemies appear randomly, their portraits superimposed on whatever location Akira is currently in (effectively changing the perspective to first-person), a menu with battle commands pops up. Akira gathers money from battles (which can be spent in shops or hotels), as well as experience points needed to level up. Akira can execute various ESP techniques (such as healing), each time a technique is cast, an amount of his ESP points is depleted.