Utawarerumono Trilogy: The Only SRPG you can play baseball in [Thoughts/Review]

[Commander]

No, I am not kidding. They implemented that into the third game. You actually play a round of baseball. Wouldn't surprise me if it was the sadist who made Christopher Robin's Home Run Derby. Ahem I'm getting ahead of myself and that's more like a little bonus. Not really what this series is about but it certainly makes one hell of a tittle.

 

Utawarerumono Trilogy [Review and Thoughts]

 

Oh boy this series. So I've heard the name now and then and just never got around to playing it. Well more like duology of Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth. I can honestly say I'm so glad I waited as a few months ago the last of the trilogy Prelude of the Fallen came out on the PS4 and I think Steam. I played them all on the PS4 so I'll be referring to that. And I just want to also get something out of the way. One of the translations for the first game is A Song for the Fallen Ones which upsets me so much because that title makes so much more sense and fits with the storyline so much more. I imagine they renamed it to make sure people know it takes place before the Mask games. But before I lose half of you, I will make something clear and if you get into the series you'll thank me later. The game order is:

 

Prelude to the Fallen > Mask of Deception > Mask of Truth

 

Play them in that order. You can technically skip Prelude to the Fallen and start with Mask of Deception but if you do that, then there's not much point going back and playing the first game since everything but some humorous scenarios are spoiled. If you want to be an absolute madlad you can start with Mask of Truth but pretty much mute playing the other two games. I played the games in that order and am so glad I did it that way.

 

And for people who only care about scores. PttF is a 7.5. MoD is a 7.5. MoT is a 9.25/10. I felt it was better than a 9 but some stuff was holding me back from giving it a 9.5 so I decided to meet in the middle. Overall I'd say the series is a good 8.5/10.

 

Where do I even begin with this trilogy? I guess I can start by saying that this series is not for everyone. It's actually a Visual Novel Strategy RPG which I'd say is 60% VN and 40% SRPG if you count the postgame content. For the sake of clarity I'll be using Fire Emblem as a comparison since that's about the only mainline SRPG that most people are familiar with. There's also going to be lots and lots of redacted stuff for the story just because each game quite literally builds off of the rest but I'll try to give you the simple down low on what to expect and keeping the surprises well surprises.

 

Story and Music

 

I suppose I should try to give the rundown of the story. I think the best way to describe it is an Isekai slice of life. Obviously being a Strategy RPG it's much more than that but that sentence alone should tell you right now if you should pick this up or not. The first game starts out with an amnesiac masked man who cannot remember his own name. When he tries to remove the mask, it will not come off. A girl named Eruru alone with her grandmother help nurse him back to help. He is given the name Hakuowlo which was the name of Eruru's father. And so Hakuowlo decides in return to help the village out with their everyday needs becoming a full time resident. The other big thing you'll immediately notice is that Hakuowlo is the only character without ears or a tail which comes as a surprise to him. The second game starts off similar with an amnesiac man given the name Haku who Kuon found and decided to be his caretaker until he could find his way in life.

 

And you're probably going to want to ask me a number of questions which the most prominent one is: what the hell is an Utawarerumono. And unbelievably no, it is not a food based item. The game really, really likes to take its time. You'll pretty much be stuck in a single village for I think what feels around 10 hours. It really likes to go slow and lollygag with man subscenarios which can go from silly ones such as two major generals spitting their tongues at each other to really deep and sad scenes of a character barely suffering from their own actions. You will being doing this for a long while before the main plot decides to move forward. And I have to be honest, it can be very, very annoying waiting for the next battle because it will be hours before you will be getting into combat. I want to say at least 3-4 hours before any of the SRPG gameplay. And that's the beauty of this game. You do so many things that really feel inconsequential letting you build and get to know these characters. And if you don't care for these scenarios I suppose you can honestly skip them.

 

And now I can talk about probably the only big gripe I really have: the fanservice. I mean I literally said at one point in the first game is, "How did they get away with allowing that in?" Definitely don't want to be playing this when grandma is in the room. By the third game they calmed down with the previness but the second game is the worst contender. It was certainly an unnecessary amount. Though I am okay with keeping the male fanservice where it is. Those scenes were great. That alone with some of the character tropes can get a bit on your nerves. That's one thing I liked about the first game's cast a bit more since they were more down to earth and not completely defined by some trope like the second one. Especially Nekone. Nekone is more annoying than Eruru, but those probably are the only two I think I had issues with.

 

And now we have the cast which honestly I ended up liking most of them by the end. Except Eruru. Bloody healers who are only good at dying. Aruru the shy, spoiled child is one of my favorites because her brain is incomprehensible. Also easily the best hide and go seek player ever. There's also characters like Karalau who is the embodiment of thirsty. She also punched the head off a soldier in the anime. There's also Ougi the shadow who knows everything. There's a lot that I could unload here but the reason why the third game is so high is because all of those pointless moments and silly mini-adventures really do have a massive payoff at the end. You get attached to them and even when you know what's going to happen the writers know exactly how to pull your heartstrings. It really sucks that the voice actor for Haku died recently. He did such a good job with the role.

 

Speaking of loses. The composer for this series died recently as well. The soundtrack has few songs but all of them work rather well. Especially the final boss theme which is just beautiful. It really gives that ancient Japanese feel to the games and while I wouldn't call it the greatest of all time, it definitely served its purpose very, very well. The graphics are a bit dated looking more like PS2 styled ones, but I enjoyed them. The 2d art is really well done. There's a lot of uniquely designed characters with the 8 pillars having some of my favorite designs. You take one look at Vurai and question if he even has a soul. Which is ironic given the plot of...nevermind.

 

And there is one other big gripe before I get to gameplay. The game's lore order is a bit of a jumbled mess. The best way I can put it is that there are two different sets of lore. The first one is about the land in front of you that they spend a lot of time developing Tuskur and Yamato and their way of life. The other one is shrouded in mystery which they try piecing together bit by bit. It didn't all click for me or actually a number of people until you see it fully spelled out in order (or the wiki page) where it all suddenly makes sense. I can't say much else but it doesn't ruin the enjoyment but maybe scratch your head about a plot point or another as many of them are brief and you have to connect the dots yourself.

 

Gameplay

 

And now I get to talk about combat. It's a barebones basic SRPG in the first one but by the third one it gets to be rather complex. First game you basically have a set of characters each with different movements and elemental types though none of that really matters to much. Each has a pretty basic role from being nuke, tank, mage, or the one and only healer who cannot do anything but heal. What real interesting is that exp is gained by damage and opponents level not by killing them. The first game you have a pretty small map with the goal of clearing 4-8 enemies. The main trick to the first game is that you dish out and receive damage based on where an attack is targeted. The back does the most while the front does the least. At the end of every action you set which way you're character is facing. You also have this gauge called zeal which pretty much once it hits 100 you can unleash your ultimate attack and more or less knock out an enemy. Unless you are Mr. OP lance unit, it does take a few turns to build up. You also have a team attack special called Co-op attacks with usually are better for groups of enemies which and cost less Zeal for both (70 for the attacker and 50 for the partner). The only other thing to note is that you have consumable items in the first game to heal whenever.

 

All-in-all the first game is pretty barebones. There's actually one defense map, one escape map, but most are pretty much route or defeat boss. They do try to make it interesting by throwing destroyable objects out of the way for good items. You also pretty much have to deploy your lord, Hakuowlo who is a pretty decent attacker but while there isn't permadeath, if Hakuowlo dies it's game over...unless you rewind to a previous turn. Pretty much an infinite Mila's turnwheel. Pretty handy for when you screw up. The animations at least look nice and there's a small zeal bonus for timing your attacks right in Legend of Dragoon styled timed hits.

 

The second game pretty much took the structure and scrapped everything bad about it. Your characters can't control what way they are facing which is okay since only one character (*cough* Ougi *cough*) even has an ability related to it. Healing items are replaced with equipment which are rewards clearing objectives on maps which range from dodging abilities to reducing damage from certain elements. Picture skills from Radiant Dawn more or less. Characters come with their own skills again but a lot less of them have random buffs. Also, magic attacks don't have a use limit per map. The most significant change is that characters have about three options each turn. Basically when you have an attack or healing move there are a set number of actions you can do called chains. This count can go up to 5 plus a final strike one. First game they all more or less only had one. This cast has three or more. And instead of timing the actions right to get more zeal, you get crits which deal more damage and give more zeal.

 

There's also one more mechanic that really helped make the game more difficult. Whenever your zeal hits 100, you go into overzeal mode. This lets you take an extra turn along with your stats getting a slight buff. Each turn you stay in Zeal mode you lose 50 Zeal and if the counter goes down to zero you exit out of it...unless you use a final strike which ends it immediately. The fact that enemies can use this as well makes them more dangerous and found my units dying quite a bit more. Not too often but way more than the first game which really only the healer I rarely needed died...a lot. The maps also were a lot more interesting as they played with more mechanics beyond beat up the enemy such as some retreating to another part of the map midway through. The elemental chart also plays a greater role as you do way more damage and take significantly more. Also Haku may be much weaker than Hakuowlo but goddamn he makes up for it with an amazing heal skill.

 

Then we have the third game. You lose some abilities you start out with but regain them all through leveling up. More enemies have counters with is retaliation for hitting them with certain attacks. They added more crit times called hidden crits. Status effects are more prevalent, and abilities that will make you internally scream. The game isn't too hard but I certainly had a few shares of game overs having to retry all over again. Especially what would be the equivalence of 3-13 archer sniping my ass from a cliff. The man may as well have a brave bow launching four javelins in a row at me. Yes, the man launches javelins with a bow. Don't question it.

 

I really ended up loving the combat in Mask of Truth. The game really loved to throw curveballs at you often with the goal completely changing halfway through. There also would be side objectives for a better piece of equipment for doing something such as koing all enemies before the boss. Often times it'd be some random sniper in an obscure hard to reach place. The maps may look simple but these ones always some kind of "but wait...there's more" and even by the final map they still managed to find ways to throw me off my feet. Also holy shit that was one hell of a final boss.

 

This third game also has the most elaborate postgame in the series having some very difficult fights along with some of the weirdest ones you'll ever see in a SRPG. There's one where you beat up flying plates of food to rescue your man from a yaoi fanfiction come to life. I wish I could say I was making that up.

 

Conclusion

 

I kind of went into this series not knowing what to expect and I came out of it rather amazed. I know there's the Zan game and the anime but it honestly does not really replace the game trilogy experience but if you do need to cut down then watch season 1 of the anime and play the mask games. Season 2 really butchered Mask of Deception and didn't even bother to include what has to be one of the most important scenes in the game. You can really only experience this trilogy for the first time once. And I can honestly see why the VN database has Mask of Truth as the third highest rated VN on their site. Is it perfect? No. But it's actually those imperfections that made some really impacting scenes for me. If you can make me an emotional wreck by the end, I think that's a 9. If they do happen to make a fourth game continuing the series, I'll definitely buy it. I think the first two are around 40-50 hours while the third one I hit the 60 hour mark at the final boss. Each is definitely a full fledged adventure.