First developed by Leaf, Utawarerumono originated in the early 2000s, at a time where visual novels were big in Japan but had almost no chance of being localised into English and brought to western audiences. While this visual novel has to date still not been released outside of Japan, its TV anime adaptation did receive an English dub, although its license seems to have expired in some countries such as Australia and New Zealand. While I have my doubts that the original tale will ever be released, ATLUS USA have opted to translate and release its newer sequel duology on the PlayStation 4 in western markets.
The first half of this story is titled Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception, and was released a few weeks ago in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It is very refreshing for a niche game of this type not to have at least a small noticeable delay in Australia and New Zealand.
Although the “Amnesiac in a Mysterious World” trope isn’t the most unique concept to base a story around, the foundations of the game’s storyline is pretty good. Utawarerumono takes place in the Yamato Empire, a kingdom inhabited by (more) powerful humanoid beings with animal ears and tails. You take control of a normal human who, following a vague and unusual opening scene, finds himself waking up in the middle of a forest with no idea who or where he is, and wearing only a hospital gown. Rescued by a woman named Kuon, he is given the name Haku by her, and the two become travelling companions. Eventually joined by other companions they come across along the way, they find themselves drawn into many of the events impacting the Yamato Empire.
While I think there may be some benefit to picking up the original anime if you are able to, Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception is an approachable visual novel even if you haven’t read its prequel. Everything is adequately explained and, while this should not be considered a standalone title, you shouldn’t expect to be thrust into the middle of a story.
The storyline itself is rather lengthy, and in my opinion well worth the time spent reading through, The writing team have paced the story well, and offered a good combination of the more action-oriented and heavier content with light-hearted group moments and the occasional moment of light fanservice. Where the narrative thrives the most is not necessarily its main campaign, but its world building and character development. Outside of main storyline events, players are regularly given access to a number of events which further develop the world or one of its rather memorable characters – whether it Kuon who has decided to leave home in order to travel the world, the shy young princess Rulutieh, the scholarly child prodigy Nekone or the mercenary Ukon who initially joins Haku and Kuon on the battlefield but turns out to be more than he initially seems. The world of Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception is not a generic fantasy world, offering many unique concepts surrounding its culture and the beasts which lie outside its cities.
As with most visual novels, you will spend most of your time reading text at the bottom of the screen while character portraits are overlaid on a background, The visual quality is of a high standard, with each portrait collection for each character being well-designed and fitting in well with the world being laid out before readers.
From reasons to be discussed later in this review, Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception also features 3D environments and character models used during multiple moments across the story. In stark contrast to what the creative team have offered in terms of 2D visuals, these look very dated and are overall, average at best.
It should come as no surprise that ATLUS USA haven’t commissioned an English dub for Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception, but have instead included the full Japanese voice-acting. While this does mean that most English readers will spend a lot of time with their eyes at the bottom of the screen reading text rather than receiving the story through dialogue, the Japanese voice acting is more than satisfying, clearly matching each character’s personality and actions. It was also nice that they opted to give Haku voice acting, rather than go down the route of making him a silent protagonist.
While I would still consider Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception to be more of a visual novel than a typical video game, it does have some gameplay elements within it. During the story, Haku and his companions will find themselves under attack by enemies. Rather than describing the fight textually, players will control the battle through an underutilised tactical battle system. The system doesn’t differ too much from other turn-based tactical battle systems, requiring you to move each party member around the map, taking out enemies without dying themselves. The objective of each battle can differ slightly, ranging from taking out a targeted enemy or all enemies, to having a target reach a particular zone on the map.
Actions in battle take the form of “Action Chains”, encompassing physical attacks, magic, healing and more – more of which are unlocked for each character as you progress through the game. Actions are generally performed through one of two rings which appear on screen, requiring you press X when either a shrinking ring is at its smallest or when a quickly filling charge meter is close to full. There is also an auto-success option for those who find this difficult, sacrificing the ability to perform critical hits in return. There are some other battle system mechanics which become more relevant as you go through the game, complemented by a simplistic stats system which gets the job done and the ability to rewind time through sizable chunks of a battle if you make a mistake. The latter component was irrelevant to me however, as on the standard difficulty setting I didn’t find myself particularly challenged or hampered with continuing the story.
Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception is a duology I look forward to revisiting very soon, when ATLUS USA releases its sequel, Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth, on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita later this year. To me, this tale offered an enjoyable narrative with a good balance of main story content and character development / world building through side-events. That said, the “Battle Mode” was underutilised and not particularly challenging for what went into it. Overall, this is a fun, satisfying and lengthy visual novel for both fans of visual novels, and those who may consider this their first foray into the small world of console visual novel gaming in the English market.
Acknowledgements
A digital PlayStation 4 copy of Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception was provided by Australian distributor Five Star Games.
