I was particularly impressed by the protagonist Haku and the charming yet shy Rulutieh.
Of course, it helps that the writers had so much time to develop these characters into people I felt strong connections for. This is certainly one of the best acted games I’ve played in the past few years, possibly ever. I don’t speak Japanese, but even before I read the English dialogue, I could clearly hear the tone and emotion of each line. I cannot overstate how good the voice cast did in this game. There are some weird loose ends at the end that are simply left dangling, although it is possible they are addressed during the post-game content. The game could’ve used a few more opportunities for ‘gameplay’, as well as a better placement of where those fit into the overall narrative. Only the characters’ stellar delivery and the well-crafted storytelling kept it from becoming problematic. It felt lopsided, and sometimes felt like it dragged on a bit. The game’s pacing is awkward, at best, as you’ll occasionally have hours of dialogue followed by several fights back to back. It’s not an even split, in fact one of my biggest problems with the game is the lack of balance between gameplay and storytelling. Don’t let that deter you though, each one has at least 40 hours of content, with a more realistic total length in the range of 120 hours for the two combined, not counting post-game content.Īnd in that 120 hours, you will split your time between visual novel style storytelling, featuring the characters chatting with each other – voiced by a stellar cast of Japanese voice actors – and controlling the characters in SRPG style combat.
More so than any other games I’ve ever played, these two games truly do feel like halves of the same whole. The reality is that these two games really do feel so gradual in progression that, aside from the level reset between the two, there’s almost no ‘interruption’ felt when playing them. There is a reason for this, and it isn’t just that I played them together. I want to start by saying yes, I am combining Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth into a single review. Now, I decided that – for the sake of my sanity – I would wait until both parts were out, as I wasn’t certain I could take being stuck with that ending again. So when I heard that they were releasing a hybrid visual novel strategy RPG that not only expanded on the existing story, but took it to a proper conclusion beyond the frustratingly sad ending of the anime, I was ecstatic. I loved the characters, the art style, the story… it had a lot going for it. Some of you may recall all the good I had to say about the Utawarerumono: The False Faces anime – excluding the fact that it ended how it did.
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