Is Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception Worth It? - Video Game Review -

[@saesang352]

Dude! Every time I'm playing a game and an embarrassing part comes up my wife always walks in too hahah. It's wild how that happens

[@Lytane]

This series has more than it probably should, and when I told her the story and how crazy and interesting it was she retorts, so why are they getting naked then???? It’s like I’m lying but I’m not hahahaha At least I know I’m not alone with this embarrassment 🤣

[@mysticvitriol]

3:50 I can do all of them blind folded now

[@banedeath]

Hello once again! Upon completion of Mask of Deception (run time 96hours 15minutes with after credits and 2 dream world fights) I have to say that these games have really drawn me into the world and I can't wait to start Mask of Truth and finish the trilogy out. This will be lengthy, apologies in advance. After my initial 30 hour retrospective of the game I've done a 180 and decided that I loved this second game as well, though not as much as Preludes to the Fallen. I came around and ended up really liking Haku a lot as the story went on but I just could not like many of the other characters even unto the after credits scene. Mostly it was due to the horrible (and mostly unwarranted) treatment by them towards Haku. I get that these are popular anime/game tropes but I've come to genuinely dislike them immensely over the years. There were a number of good characters as well though, and I'd be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to my two personal MVP's "Maroro" and "Shinonon"(sp?) as my favorites. I liked the call backs to previous characters as well and hope by Mask of Truth we get everyone back. I personally have grown to love slice of life as one of my go to staples, so that aspect of the story and gameplay did not bother me. Overall the story was enjoyable but I was not expecting the ties between Haku and the Mikado or what happened in the after credits scenes. I feel the eight generals were pretty transparent on what type of character/roll they would play in the story and certain events made things abundantly clear. Still, the scenes in the final stages of the story were tense and enjoyable. The combat initially did not gel with me as I was so used to minor things from Preludes (like being able to reposition your character to avoid advantageous attacks from enemies even after attack/movement was finished) that it took a bit of getting used to. On the flip side, having so many more options for attacking made combat far less stale and more fun. I wasn't a fan of the new zeal system at first either but have come around to liking it. It took 3 battles before I even realized I was getting an extra turn for hitting 100 zeal! I also decided to play this version on hard from the get go and it was definitely more fun, as like you said, I never once felt overpowered and at times lost some units to my poor strategizing. One disappointment though was not being able to utilize certain characters unless you did free battle (makes sense from the story point, but was upset over not being able to use my favorite character 😕) I have just two achievements left to get, max rank with a character and one hidden, but I think I will grind those later as that cliffhanger ending has me chomping at the bit to start the final installment. Thank you for the review, and see you in the next one.... in 100 hours or so...

[@Lytane]

That's a LOT of hours! I think I ended up with 60 or so? I don't remember! Did you finish all of the dream world? There is a TINY bit of story within them, and that might be the final achievement you are missing as well. If you haven't started Truth yet I would say you should get at least one character to max level and max BP because you can then import your save into Truth giving you extra scrolls including a bonus EXP and bonus BP one which is VERY handy to have! I felt the same with Haku, wasn't really to into him and his lazy ways but he grew on me and after the Tatari level I really liked him. The rest of the characters can be a bit meh at times. I tend to like Prelude's side characters more but at least Kuon is good and yeah Shinnon is the best. She is in Truth as well and she is just as great! It's funny, and I guess it's the point, that most people think Haku is kind of a bad guy especially with the twins. But he proves time and again that he isn't yet they still treat him poorly. I know it's for laughs but it's not my favourite trope. I do think that in Truth a lot of the characters get to have some growth and change moments, especially with how they deal with the end of this game, so I hope you like a few more before the series ends. I like plot more than slice of life usually, I'm personally would like to know if a game is more one way or the other. If I know what I'm going to get into then I don't mind. That's part of the problem I had with Steins;Gate, the first half has a lot of slice of life and character moments which is good but it drags. More plot happens there so it isn't exactly the same. Regardless, it is that ending that elevates Deception for everyone, it's just done really well. With how much you hear about them I thought the 8 pillars would be a little more important or interesting. They aren't used a lot and when you see the war they show off but I kept thinking to myself, I could take them hahaha. They are also expanded upon in the next game so that's good. Some in VERY surprising ways, so I look forward to your thoughts on them afterwards. I think the battle system is a step up in every way, I liked the increase of strategy and it was a lot more fun. I also like how in the next game they assume you've played this one (at least) so the battles are also overall harder. Then if you try and do that ones dream arena, good luck, it's tough as nails! Who were your favourite characters to use in fights? I remember liking Ougi. I hope you enjoy Truth and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it. The game is about the same length BUT if you do the dream arena (and go for all of the achievements) it can add a LOT of time due to grinding.

[@banedeath]

@@Lytane I just finished the dream arena in Mask of Deception and the scenarios were fun but they were pretty hard. Most of my team gets one hit KO even at max level (but not max BP) and the enemy seems to always be in Overzeal mode. I did a lot of rewinding and restarting to reposition my vulnerable team members. Which bumped my play time to almost 107 hours and all achievements earned. I've given up on the BP max grind. I have two characters with 2/4 stats maxed but I don't have the desire to spend hours grinding the remaining stats up. (I'm still not all that tactically savvy so battles take a long time.) Steins;Gate, now that you bring it up, is in my top 5 all time favorite anime/visual novels. I absolutely love the story and was heartbroken over the losses. I didn't mind the long drawn out bits since I loved the character interactions. (El Psy Kongroo) My favorite characters for combat were Kuon, Ougi, Uruuru&Saraana, and Kiwru. They were either my strongest or most versatile fighters. The twins in particular really saved my bacon a lot with the level 5 attack skill that summoned a little bird to help me waste a boss character's turn! It was how I got through the dream arena in the latter stages. MVP status! My favorite STORY characters were Maroro, Jackdwalt, Shinonon, and Mikazuchi. Maroro became my root for the underdog kind of character and Jackdwalt is very much the cool guy that everyone would like. I spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out how to get Mask of Truth to recognize my save data, but I failed miserably. I'm playing on the steam deck (no pc) and finally read something about copying and saving something from a game folder from one game to the other but doing that on the steam deck is a headache so I will look into that this upcoming week. Until I can get that sorted, my Mask of Truth playthrough is sadly on hold. :(

[@strangeattractor4940]

Hope your planning to review Mask of truth.

[@Lytane]

I am! I have it recorded but not fully edited yet. Work has started up again now that Covid vaccinations are high and I have a new baby. So I need to find energy and motivation to finish editing it. But rest assured it WILL come out! I promise you that! I'm not as lazy as Haku so I'll get it done hahaha

[@jrpgaddict7726]

ty.

[@hoihoi13]

Hi there. Have u played the latest one monochrome mobius? What do u think of it?

[@Lytane]

Hey! I have not played it yet!! I know, some fan I am hahaha but I do own it and am going to play it within the next few months and I can't wait to get to it! It's mostly so I can do a second Utawarerumono month worth of videos. I'll be looking at the new anime season, monochrome and even some of the Japanese games that I can't understand hahaha Have you played monochrome and what did you think? (without spoilers please!!)

[@hoihoi13]

@@Lytane I played like for 5hours and it’s a very throw back jrpg with some nostalgic touch. Too many new games came out recently I don’t have a chance to continue playing yet.

[@44milosLP]

I'm playing it right now and coming from the first game, this game is so painfully slow. So far high points where before the capital and when I meet charaters from the first game. I had high hopes for it since alot of people say this is the best one, but I dont see it. I want to finnished it but if it goes on like that, then that will be some painfull expirence.

[@Lytane]

I thought the exact same thing! The problem with Deception is that the first half is very slice of life heavy. It’s there so you get to know all of the characters and care about them so when the main plot does start it has more weight. This happens around the middle or so, when the group goes up to some ancient ruins that has Tatari, if you know what I’m talking about then great. If not then you’ll get there. After that point it starts to have more plot and a little less slice (though still more than it probably should have) I would say finish it, it does get better and goes into some very fun and interesting places, also I’m pretty sure they say the next game Mask of Truth is the best one. That game is phenomenal if you care for what’s going on lol Update me when you get to the end of this game with your thoughts and if your mind changed. Mine did, so I hope yours does to!

[@44milosLP]

​@@Lytane Now that my anger settled. I think I will have to start over at least from the beginning of the capital because from there I lost my patience and started indiscriminately skipping scenes. So if first game took me 2 weeks, then this will take me atlest month, but I will try.

[@44milosLP]

@@Lytane So I did finished it and I hope I will never need to ever again. You were righ,t it does get better but at that point I just didn't care anymore, I just speed read through it as fast as possible just to get closer to the finish line. If you dont mind I will write my own review here. Characters Most of them I found boring, only few were somewhat interesting. Haku, I dont get why he is protagonist other then they needed someone same as Hakuowlo. Kuon, about only interesting charater, but compare to the first cast still bland. If she was protagonist it would be much more interesting and it would be more connect on the first game, but I do know that this game was release long past the first game so I will give them that. As for other charaters they vary from boring to forgettable, or just annoying. I just didn't like how they interact with each other, in first game the act like family or as a good friends, in here they mostly beat eache other or laugh at aeche other. Gameplay Good news it is better, but before you get to next fight you will mostly forget there is some. In first I had fun with it, in here I just wanted to be done with it. Sub-stories It feels like they needed fill up quota before they would continue in story, and it's really funny when in second part there is max 3 sub-stories at the same time.As for their content. It is mostly about food, if they cut that out it would so much more shorter. For my closing thoughts so it wouldn't be wall of text here. I don't know how I could recommend this to anybody and telling them it will get better after 30+ hours just doesn't sit right with me. As for next game, I realy want to replay Banner saga again just to cleanse my palate after this, but I know myself and if I would do that I would just hate that third game. So I will try to push myself throuth it, it can't get worse then this so that is my only hope. I might write someting similiar on your third review once i finished it, if not then I mostly drop it. And thanks for encouragement, without you I would most certainly never finished it.

[@texben123]

I guess Haku is, probably Hakuro’s son from the previous game because of Eruru. I just started rewatching the anime. he looks exactly like Hakuro but without a mask. The writers are Making it obvious that he’s his son. And the girls that found him, could be his distant cousins because they look exactly like. Eruru and Aruru meaning those girls could be related or very distant cousins. Because Haruro, was named after Eruru’s father, but he looks exactly like her father, except for the mask. So it is possible, that Hakuro is a very distant cousin. As an example, Hakuro’s ancestors thousands of years ago, probably had two children. One lived in another country had children. And the other child went to their country and had children there. Which would make Hakuro( mask) and other Hakuro( aruru’s) very distant cousin, and the back then marrying your cousin, was actually normal when Jesus Christ was still around.

[@Lytane]

I honestly don’t think that they are related and if so, the genetic gap would be massive. Hakouro is thousands of years old and was in ice for a lot of it. When he awoke he started a family line but about 200 years pass between that and the first game. So even if, like you said, he had two sons they would still have a massive gap between them. And while he could have become a father in the first game the VN and show point out that Haku is NOT his kid. In the Game Haku is an engineer during the Iceman discovery, he talks about it, so he was already alive when it all happened. I think a lot of the similarities are only face value (pardon the pun) to make characters look a little similar, they also reuse many themes such as masks, amnesia, protective female protagonist etc. And if you want I can go into more details with heavier spoilers, I’m just not sure how much of the games and anime you’ve experienced so I do t want to ruin stuff

[@texben123]

@@Lytane you’re right, I just started watching Utawarerumono: masks of deception, I was just basing it off the anime and the game version too. Hakurowlo is technically the ancestor of all of humanity, or so the scientist claim. So Haku probably a Descendent, of Hakurowlo. Camyu is the daughter of Hakurowlo who was genetically altered by the scientists, she’s also the ancestor of the angel people( I can’t remember their name) and for the record, a lot of people look like their ancestors. Like Michael Jackson for example, his ancestor was well a Egyptian, and look exactly like Michael Jackson, which is not a weird coincidence. and there are look-alikes that look exactly like you , because they’re distant cousins either on your grandmother, side or grandfather side, move to a different country, had a bunch of children and past their straight down the generations to a distant relative. In 200 years , the genetics will be passed down, they gain same facial traits as their ancestor or even their grandparents.

[@Splintercelmaster1]

You mean it helps spice the game up

[@Lytane]

I can barely handle pepper so I’m not the audience for extra spice hahahaha

[@ChaolaoFueChi]

I see that in this Utawarerumono playlsir of yours have 5 videos but 2 of them are hidden. Are they set to be unhidden?

[@Lytane]

They are! I've been way out of the KZbin game due to a baby, work and study but I'm releasing the ones I worked on back in October now (so one is a little outdated with the announcment of the third Anime season) so look for those in the next few weeks!