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.

Bringing a much needed revamp to the tactics gameplay, Mask of Deception is a decidedly more ambitious followup to Utawarerumono. You likely won’t feel that ambition until halfway in, but it’s a fun romp up throughout and by the midpoint you’ll begin to see what it was all for.

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(I played the 3 main Utawarerumono games back to back, so this effectively a “Part 2” to my series review. Part 1 can be found here.)

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It’s rather impressive to me how consistent Mask of Deception feels as a followup to Prelude to the Fallen. There were about 12-13 between the original releases of the two titles, and yet the art and writing all feel like natural continuations. The exception being combat which came back much better than it’s first iteration.

The way I see it, is that Aquaplus pivoted into more traditional JRPG combat in terms of the flow and challenge, but kept the party sizes and positioning elements of a tactics game. The result is something more focused on being a “skirmish” battle game. Rarely are there any major environmental gimicks or special objectives, instead the challenge of combat lies in the flow and dance of units that results from type matchups and using their varied attack types in their optimal situations.

The active input system was improved as was the Zeal resource. Characters now have 3-5 different, multi-stage attack/support skill routines which get more complex as they level up. Each stage of these moves has different properties and build or expend Zeal in different ways, and the active inputs are how you traverse these routines, both choosing when to cut them short and eking more damage and Zeal out of them with critical timings.

Individual attacks in a series will have different areas of effect and secondary effects. The most effective ones will probably cost more zeal or have specific range requirements. Some have secondary effects that are life-saving in one scenario but will get you killed in others. And even the standard routines stay interesting by having the most “hidden” critical points you can exploit for a bit more mileage and access to a character’s finisher abilities in the late game. And even on defense there are now active inputs, though those trigger mostly on random chance (there are equipment options to tweak the odds, however).

While the effect is far more subtle, the arenas you fight in are improved as well. The best of them won’t be until Mask of Truth, but even here they introduce a “height” variable to the grid along with characters with variable “jump” distances. Combined with better use of impassable terrain and the other combat elements promoting more movement, the arenas provide a firm foundation to the encounters. They don’t make the fights on their own, but they’re pleasantly relevant to proceedings.

One thing some may find disappointing is that fights never have nail-biting tension to them. This is largely due to the player’s ability to rewind a fight whenever and to wherever they wish to change a decision or retry a routine. Considering how many elements are at play and how the game is still primarily narrative focused, I think this was a necessary and welcome addition to the game. There is still challenge to combat, especially on Hard, as sometimes life and death for a unit can come down to whether or not you let them go too far into an attack routine or use up too much zeal. Sometimes your failures can originate from 30 actions back and you have to decipher where you went wrong. Ultimately, though, this remains a low-pressure series when it comes to gameplay.

So then, if the combat is still engineered at its core to support a narrative experience, does that narrative justify it? In my opinion, yes, though I will admit that there were times early in that I was worried it was going to veer too far into the more slice-of-life inspired elements. Mask of Deception takes its time to set its stage. There is plenty going on in the moment to moment, so I wouldn’t call it boring, but coming right off of Prelude I was feeling the itch to get into the thick of the war drama sooner. By the end, however, I felt a bit silly being so impatient.

Most writers seek to make their readers attached to their characters so they can buy into the plot and its emotional beats. The more you show the readers who the characters are, the more likely they are to sympathize and become attached. Spend too much time on that, however, and you risk losing the readers who are looking for a consistent central narrative to follow and more weighty stakes. Mask of Deception takes that risk because it doesn’t just want the reader invested in the life of its protagonist, it wants the reader to understand exactly what that life means to the protagonist.

It might not payoff for everyone, but it really did for me. I’m getting a bit into Mask of Truth saying this, but the character growth across the two games was top-notch. This is a tale of characters with conflicting wishes who lack the strength to fulfill both their duties and desires. So, they must make a sacrifice somewhere—and they do.

It’s also a story that made me giggle a lot. I might be alone in this, but its sense of humor in the lighter parts of the story felt very Konosuba-esque. This game hits a wide gamut of tones in the adventure it takes you on, and yet all of those pieces feel connected in the end.

So, if you got through Prelude to the Fallen and enjoyed your time there, then set this title high on your priority list. They’re delightful. And if you just need one excuse to help you push through Prelude, then let this game be that excuse.

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Part 3 - Mask of Truth

I struggled to play through the beginning because I didn't really like the characters as much as the first game and also because the first 25 hours is literally just slice of life with VN moments that will hurt as much like staring at 10 CSGO flashbangs being throw at you at the same time, but the last 15 hours of the game just got better and better and the characters starting to grow on me. BRUH WHAT AN ENDING???? what an amazing build-up to mask of truth, i can't wait to play the next game EXPAND FOR SPOILERS...
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Yeah this is probably my favourite 15 hours of a videogame, how the fuck is mask of truth gonna beat this. so it starts with this huge war scene and shit is fucked, I really enjoyed seeing the characters go sicko mode in the battlefield and how serious it suddenly got. After that I think we met the characters from the previous game and I LOVED SEEING THEM AGAIN, I fucking love when videogames connect with their previous games and see how all the characters have changed, this made me like aruruu A LOT more she's so silly. after that we get more lore because we explored the ruins so that's also pretty nice. Then suddenly out of nowhere mikado declares war on tuskur and we end up going there, this makes the universe feel even more connected. we get to meet some of the prelude of the fallen characters and see them in combat. we find out mikado passed away while we were here and we have to return back, later we find out he has died of poisoning. Oshtor gets suspected for attempted murder of Anju ( she gets poisoned right after the death of mikado ) and they fucking TORTURE MY MAN OSHTOR?????. we rush to the castle and rescue oshtor and Anju. We defeat Vurai and we travel to Ennakamuy, and bruh this fucking guy isn't dead so he wakes up and goes sicko mode rage in the city. on our way to ennakamuy we notice he's nearing us and oshtor decides to stay behind and fight vurai alone and shit is getting fucking dramatic. nekone is worried and refuses to leave him and she just runs away and haku decides to catch her. Haku tries to get her back to ennakamuy but refuses so we end up watching the battle between oshtor and vurai, when oshtor prepares for the final blow NEKONE INTERRUPTS AND FUCKS UP SO OSHTOR MISSES BRUH I WAS LITERALLY ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT... Oshtor sacrifices himself to defeat vurai and protect haku and nekone who nearly got killed by vurai. before he fades away he gives haku his mask, man i feel so bad for nekone and haku. Now haku has to step in oshtor shoes and when we finally meet the rest of the crew haku pretends to be oshtor, we lie and say that haku died during the fight in front of everyone. seeing everyones reaction and especially kuon destroyed me, and to see her slowly walk away after hearing that and haku couldn't do anything about it was just..... bruh i have no words. and now nekone has to pretend haku is her brother just after losing him and i just can't get that out of my mind. I wasn't expecting to like the ending so much I felt kinda dead inside during those fucked fanservice slice of life parts but i don't even regret playing it, this is my favourite videogame ending ever. it is peak fiction

So i didn't realize I only had like 4hrs or so left when I put it on hold a couple months ago. I'm glad I came back to it as the end is by far the best part.
I'm not sure why I wasn't invested in the cast or plot enough to be moved like others especially as I am a very sensitive person usually. Very mediocre hard read up until the last couple hours where it got really good for me, which is rough considering it took me 34hrs to complete. But seems like the potential is there for the sequel at least.

Rating Mask of Deception on its own is kind of a joke since this is very clear "part one of two" and not meant to stand on its own merits. That being said, it continues to be a really fun chill visual novel mixed with subpar somewhat tedious srpg gameplay like the first game. Much like the first game, it is incredibly of its time. This game could only have been written and released in 2015, the characters and plots are all pastiches of that specific post-sao pre-isekai era of anime and it just feels dated if not bad now. Or at least, I liked that aspect of the original and I'm glad it continued here.

The one part I'd say is really funny is that builds off that is one of the characters is a gay spymaster and this was really the only point in time in otaku culture where you could write a scene where he sexually tortures an opposing spy and not have it be played as a joke. If it was written any more modern, they would have not written the scene for fear of pissing people off, and if it was written any earlier the whole thing would be a very distasteful gag. Funny how that works.

After a first failed attempt at getting engrossed by the game and having to drop it at around the 12 hour mark I gave it another chance and absolutely enjoyed the heck out of it. I have to say it's a slow burner but the worldbuilding is really well done, I loved reading the glossary and the characters are likeable and interesting (a bit annoyed regarding the role of the twins), even the gameplay which I was expecting it to be a merely addition was genuinely good although a bit easy.

Can't wait to start Mask of Truth now.