An incredible improvement over the original in every way. The combat system is better than in Prelude, the 2D visuals are absolutely gorgeous (probably my favourite VN art style), the music is even better (that opening is amazing). The slice-of-life is some of the best in the medium, and maybe even my favourite. The characters are vastly better than in Uta 1, too, IMO, especially Haku, Kuon and Oshtor. It's also very emotional. Despite being a setup entry for the last part of the trilogy, it is fantastic nonetheless. If Mask of Truth is even better, then this would be an improvement from the first to the third entry that I have not seen since Muv-Luv -> Muv-Luv Alternative and Aokana -> Aokana Extra2.

7/10

Bom dia, boa tarde, boa noite, venho anunciar anunciar finalmente terminei utawaremono itsuwari no kamen, 01/01/23, meu primeiro jogo finalizado em 2023, bensa.
Seguindo direto ao ponto, devo dizer que me senti deveras agraciado com um cast extremamente carismático e uma comédia muito divertida, acabou sendo uma experiência afável no fim, me sinto satisfeito.

A gameplay( combate) dispensa comentários, é boa, os elementos desse jogo uma coisa interessante e por si só reflete um certo charme.
Porém, Contudo as batalhas de main story poucas, somente na reta final existe um cumulo de batalhas a mais, mas antes disso, são poucos confrontos, pois está sequel se foca mais no texto.

Foi uma experiência com expectativas, sorte que por pouco cumpriu algumas, então foi um saldo positivo.
Está sequência é quase um soft reboot, usa os mesmo tropos e alguns detalhes específicos narrativos do 1 utawarerumono e devo dizer que ao mesmo tempo que não me desagradável, me incomoda, pois existe uma repetição de certas circunstâncias e eventos similares ao jogo antecessor, trocando por um contexto diferente e conclusão, mas não deixa de ser a mesma base que foi utilizada em em muitas coisas.
Provavelmente sinto que foi apenas para reapresentar ou fazer uma espécie de homenagem ao primeiro jogo, funcionou bem até.
Está é uma trilogia estranha, pois tecnicamente o 1 jogo fecha bem uma narrativa, é extremamente redondo, aí o 2 vem como se assimilando ao termo soft reboot e no meio (após 10 horas de gameplay no meu caso) ele decide tomar um novo rumo e quando aconteceu me peguei lendo com mais zelo e interesse, o ritmo ficou melhor.
Dito isso, este jogo é a parte 1 de algo maior, preparando terreno para o futari no hakuoro ( mask of truth), possuo grandes expectativas para o que vem no último jogo ( me falaram que é peak, espero que seja)

A trilha sonora ainda é a mesma do prelude, com algumas osts novas, a direção de arte é bonita, os cenários também, o design das personagens femininas havia desgostado bastante no início, após concluir me vi apreciando minimamente
Gráficos não vou nem comentar pq sério não dá pra falar sobre isso, se tu quiser abre o Google ou o YT e veja.

Finalizando... vou fazer umncomentario raso sem spoilers sobre o história e fala sobre os personagens, o coração desse jogo.

História: Sendo sincero mesmo, achei fraco. Até chegar na reta final ( ou talvez desde a primeira invasão a yamato, quem jogou sabe do que comento) é onde realmente começa a ficar interessante e ganha algum peso, mas tem a conclusão desta primeira parte, que é sem dúvida muito boa mesmo, o cliffhanger feito nesse jogo é algo que te deixa extremamente curioso e ansioso para seguir para o terceiro jogo, eles mandaram bem na reta final e me foi entregue algo bom.
Obs: Não me julguem, sei bem que esse jogo é algo que pode ou deve ser julgado junto com o 3 jogo, visto que se fossemos analisar de uma forma diferente, seria um split cour, então opinando a respeito da parte 1, do itsuwari no kamen de forma isolada foi esta a minha experiência.
Por sua vez esse jogo soltou as apostas muito altas mesmo para o terceiro jogo e espero que faça jus.

Personagens: Não desgostei de nenhum.
Haku dublado por um dos meus seiyus fav, keiji fujiwara( dublador do leorio de hxh, ardyn de ffxv, maes hughes de fmab, byakuya ishigami de dr Stone e o ACDC de jojo.) jaz falecido atualmente, faz um excelente trabalho dublando esse personagem
É sensacional acompanhar esse protagonista junto com a kuon.
Obs: o elenco de dublagem desse jogo é pica, não sei como, mas tem muito dublador reconhecido.

Já mais uma vez digo, os personagens desse jogo são espetaculares em fator carisma, conquista fácil.
Kuon e haku tem uma dinâmica e química muito boa, diversão total acompanhar as """"desaventuras""""" deles com mais personagens no meio.
Gostaria de comentar sobre a kuon, sobre a atuy, sobre o meu favorito ukon, mikazuchi, nosuri e outros, mas optei por me comprometer a fazer um vídeo sobre a saga uta e deixarei para falar sobre eles lá, caso nao consiga cumprir eu deixo um pdf sobre cada char.

A sinergia cômica e o aspecto mundano ( slice of life tbm) em suas interações são o ponto alto desse jogo, é como jogar um anime/filme/manga é uma experiência gostosa, difícil por em palavras, mas diria que é sensação muito relaxante.

Concluindo, foi uma boa experiência acima de tudo, vale a pena jogar essa trilogia? Até agora sim, voltarei daqui a umas semanas ou 1 mês pra afirmar se vale mesmo.

Feliz 2023 para todos e bons jogos

A good portion of the game consists of serviceable slice of life scenes with a likable cast of characters. The scenes with the girls could have been trimmed a bit considering how many of them are focused on food and romance and it begins to feel repetitive. Haku is a fun main character when he's not stuck in harem-esque antics and the scenes centered around his past are some of the most compelling in the game. The ending is absolutely kino and really brings up the whole experience. I would have liked more scenes with the male characters interacting for some variety, especially considering how fun characters like Ukon, Sakon and Maroro can be. The gameplay is decent, mostly made fun by the QTE attacks though the strength of the enemies can feel inconsistent at times. The CG art is great but the presentation of the silly little chibi models can take the oomph out of some scenes, especially in the first war. The story is unfortunately prone to relying on cliches at times but makes up for it with a strong cast and intriguing underlying plot.

Uma ótima preparação para uma das minhas histórias favoritas da ficção, e um improviso em quase tudo que o primeiro jogo fazia. Primeiramente, vale dizer que a caracterização se permanece no mesmo nível, porém, as partes de convivência, nesse jogo funcionam muito melhor, o ritmo é muito mais consistente e mantém muito melhor a curva de seriedade, esses momentos são muito mais divertidos, e eles ainda ajudam a construir o mundo. Portanto, enquanto o primeiro jogo tinha interações fechadas em um castelo, e construia o mundo paralelamente disso, nesse jogo, os protagonistas interagem livremente na cidade de Yamato ou na pousada em que ficam, e com isso, cada momento apresenta algo a mais sobre esse mundo, seja sobre sua culinária, cultura ou sistema político, é tudo muito bem construído e cheio de detalhes, além de que o próprio contexto desse mundo já é algo muito interessante. Além disso, Mask of Deception finaliza perfeitamente, não só com momentos emocionantes, mas também com um gancho muito grande para o Mask of Truth, que é bom o suficiente para dar um status de catarse emocional para o próximo jogo por inteiro.

The writing style makes it feel like things play out as they would in an episode of an anime with the way things are paced and presented. It makes the whole experience enjoyably palatable. There were a few characters who I wasn't a fan of, not because they were bad but more that they fell into a archetype I don't particularly care for, like Ruluteih or Atuy. I also really liked a lot of the cast, my favorites being Kuon, Nekone, and Mikazuchi. I thought the huge cast would be a hindrance but they dole them out throughout the story in perfect pacing so they were welcome additions each time. The combat was pretty brainless, so I'd recommend playing on the harder difficulty. Combat isn't really the focus of the game though so it wouldn't be a big deal if you just coasted on the normal difficulty. That's how I went through it and it was still a meaty ass run time. The ending was great, and I'm very interested to see where this goes in the sequel.

Honestly after playing Prelude to the Fallen I was kinda scared that maybe this beloved series just wasn't for me. I liked it fine, but it was definitely on the lower half of the VNs I've played and the gameplay was pretty boring. Thankfully this game made me understand why this series carries such acclaim!

One of the most notable improvements is how much of a more interesting MC this game has. Haku is a great character who only improves as the game/series progresses. The writing in general I think is stronger here, there were actually some lines that made me chuckle aloud. The art style is also improved here, most characters look really good. It has a great and fairly expansive cast, not all can be fully explored naturally but I was interested in almost all of them. One of the strengths of the first game was that final act and ending, which I think is a shared strength for this game. Especially the ending in this game that shit goes insane.

There are two main negative for me in terms of the VN portion of the game. The first one being that this game still struggles with pacing and being REALLLL sluggish in the middle just like the first game. The second one being that this game lacks a good antagonist. The Uzurushan General is just comically evil and unbelievable and the guy who ends up as the main antagonist in the end I found really boring as a character.

The main negative overall is that the combat is still pretty bad. There's some improvements here but also some regressions. The level curve on normal difficulty was so poorly done that I didn't unlock like any final strikes until the last fight so I only saw like 3 of the animations, what a waste! You don't have to press "Wait" 500 times per fight now which is cool and some of the attacks have hitboxes that aren't just the single enemy targeted which adds some more strategy. There's no co-op strikes here though which is sad.

It is expected of a sequel to improve upon what the original work laid out, but it's not always so common to see a sequel quite simply blow it out of the water. But in this case, Mask of Deception falls under the latter.

I had very mixed feelings on the original Utawarerumono (or Prelude to the Fallen as the rereleased version is titled). I thought it had some neat things going for it, such as the premise, art direction, etc. but it just SEVERELY suffered from some really bad pacing, an awkward and imbalanced story structure, characters that were just a tad bit too simple for my taste, and a combat side of gameplay that was far more irritating than it was at being a welcome addition. I'm starting to go off on a tangent, but the gist is that Prelude left much to be desired and, despite people claiming the rest of the trilogy was a big improvement, I still had my doubts. However, those doubts were very quickly erased once I got settled into MoD.

Over a decade passed between the release of the original Utawarerumono and this one, and you can definitely feel that amount of newfound experience from the original creators shine through in this sequel. When you have such a huge gap in time between two titles, you almost have to consider that many will go in with no prior experience. In that way, Mask of Deception feels almost like a soft reboot of the franchise. Undeniably a sequel to the original, but largely what feels like a brand new beginning within the universe already pre-established.

In MoD, you play as Haku. I'll spare you the details of Haku's character, for the sake of spoilers, but what I can say is that Haku is a sharp contrast to that of Hakuowlo in Prelude. He's a scrawny fella who has little to offer in terms of physical attributes but makes up for it with his sharp thinking, intellect, and natural charm. Unlike Hakuowlo, who is a very heroic and nigh almost flawless protag, Haku is rather lacking in many ways. Nor are many of his ideals or acts exactly what you'd expect of a more conventional hero in a story like this. However, it's in those flaws and attitude that Haku shines as a very likable protagonist who very quickly became a fun character to have as the leading perspective of this narrative. If Hakuowlo is like a Steve Rogers, then Haku is something more like a Peter Quill.

Besides Haku is Kuon, the character I'd consider to be like a dual-protagonist of MoD. Over the course of the game, Haku and Kuon meet a collection of intriguing characters in search of fortune and opportunity and, as you progress, you'll slowly learn more about the world of Utaware, as well as unravel the overarching narrative of the game.

Suga Munemitsu has improved immensely as the lead writer of MoD. In many ways, it feels like they directly heard all of my issues with Prelude and fixed them here. I see that, especially, in the cast and dialogue writing. The characters in MoD are lovely, while also being more abundant in numbers and presence here than in the original. Despite a more intimidating number of characters, they all mostly shine abundantly through the entirety of the game. The party members are all extremely likable, from the insanely adorable Rulutieh all the way to the badass samurai dad that is Jachdwalt. Not every party member has some extensive backstory or layers of depth, but Munemitsu succeeds in making each one of them a joy to interact with one way or another. A skill that is, perhaps, the most difficult to pull off in video game writing.

Beyond that, you have the non-playable characters that are part of the story. These, too, are just as excellent as the former. I was very quickly intrigued by each member of the Pillars. Some are more developed than others, some not at all, but the abundance of characters to consider in the overall narrative of MoD who aren't just enemies or playable makes the whole story feel that much more tangible and easy to get lost in.

As opposed to Prelude, which felt too scared to ever let its story and visual novel angle go too long without reminding you of its actual gameplay, Mask of Deception is quite the opposite. The ratio between VN and combat segments is more significant here. You're gonna be spending a lot more time just reading text than you are going through the motions of its Tactical JRPG system. For some, this is a big negative. For me, however, I couldn't have been happier. MoD is not afraid at all to just let the writing and story do what it wants. A whole lot of this game is simply slice-of-life or politically-driven interactions that Haku or other characters share with members of its cast. Once again, for some, they'll dread the stretch in story content between gameplay. However, I loved it all for how it really excelled at world-building, immersion, and characterization. By the end of the story, I felt like I really was Haku, and these were my comrades that I had gone through so many situations with. I think I wouldn't have felt that strongly if it wasn't for how well structured the story of MoD is.

Of course, there is STILL gameplay and combat here. While it's still not the most impressive combat system you've probably ever seen, what I played here was considerably more enjoyable than Prelude. Party members have a lot more to offer in battle, which means there's a noticeable increase in actual strategic thinking you'll make through each confrontation. There's also just some little neat touches like a more simplified battle UI, and that the characters on screen will actually banter or do little animations and stuff. It's small stuff, but it definitely makes Utaware's gameplay look a lot more competent.

Of course, we have to talk about the presentation of MoD. Amazuya Tatsuki, from the original, returns to do the art as well as Mitsumi Misato. The jump in clarity is abundant. Character designs are amazing here and only further complimented by a lovely color palette. Beyond that, there's a respectable amount of sprites per character that really just makes interacting with each of them all the more enjoyable. Background art is just as impressive as what we got in Prelude, and there's a LOT more of them to look at as well which really helps to creative a vivid picture in your head of what the world and landmarks of Utaware look like. This is certainly some of my favorite art direction in a visual novel title.

I had already heard a lot of Deception's OST within Prelude's soundtrack so I feel like whatever I've said has already been more or less stated. However, once again, it's really great stuff here. There's some vocal tracks on here that give me BIG goosebumps, and the rest of the OST is also excellent. Rarely does it ever feel like you've been hearing one track play too much throughout your time with this game.

I love this game. I really do. It took a little bit for it to settle in, but once it did I was sold on Utawarerumono. It made me smile and laugh, and it made me even tear up a few times. By the time I got to the end, I was just blown away and deeply affected enough to know that this will be probably one of my most treasured experiences in this medium. It's a fantastic game and I can only imagine how apparently Mask of Truth takes what was so great here and does it even better.

An improvement over the first, particularly with its characters. The cast in general is more endearing than Prelude, as most of the game is spent just seeing them interact and gradually getting attached to them. This felt more slice of life in comparison, but I was actually more into it. And the new protagonist Haku is especially likable compared to Hakuowlo.

There’s more effort poured into the world-building too, with its very specific details about the setting’s culture, regions, history, etc. It comes together in a way that makes the world feel believable which is impressive.

And production wise it’s really well made. The art style, variety of backgrounds, voice acting, music, and battle scenes are all great. And dialogue flowed very well due to a strong localization. Combat was basically the same aside for some expanded mechanics, but it’s serviceable enough. Great VN.

A slog of a VN that markets itself heavily on the SRPG combat, but it's so poorly paced it's not even funny. I'd often go several hours without a new battle, to the point I felt a constant urge to skip the boring, irrelevant filler text to get to the decent strategy battles. It's sad, too, because the gameplay that's here is actually pretty good and gets a little challenging in the post-game, but the VN itself is very mediocre and filled with harem trash. In fact, this game also features a lot of loli bait, throwing it right into the trash pile. A star and a half for the combat, that's all I can give it.