The capstone of the trilogy and the payoff for everything that comes before it. Even better combat design, a setting as charming as ever, and satisfying conclusions to the narrative threads the series was weaving.
It’s good.
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Part 1 - Prelude to the Fallen
Part 2 - Mask of Deception
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I don’t believe I have too much to add on this final part, as the trajectory of the series was set with Mask of Deception and I can happily report that the launch was good.
Using the same technical foundation as its predecessor, there are few bits of polish and shine added but nothing major. Perhaps one thing to note is that—with their newly acquired confidence in their turn-based skirmish gameplay—there’s a lot more of it. New actions, new equipment options, more robust arenas, a set of trial missions, and overall the most full feeling gameplay experience yet.
That comes at no cost to the narrative, either, as it picks up right where Mask of Deception left off and goes in almost exactly the direction it promised. It doesn’t entirely lose the lighthearted charm of the previous game but—as I loved with Prelude—the weightier side of the story stays always in the background adding another layer of color to events.
It could be that in the last year I’ve finally become a sincere person. Whether I have or not, however, I found myself getting consistently swept right along into the struggles and triumphs of the cast.
And as a war story, it’s also quite adeptly put together at a technical level. It doesn’t really want you to focus on the hard details of the logistics and politics, but what it does show was sufficient enough that I could buy into decisions characters make and the strategies they employ. It’s a bit of a less is more approach, but for a story with as many elements as this, finding that balance between detail and illusion is the only way to make it work.
To levy some critique, I do think the last act suffers a bit on pacing and some of my callousness as a reader did make it hard to trust the vision in the moment, but the final conclusion was satisfying and felt true to the themes the series had been operating on since the start.
So, yes. I do recommend this game quite highly.
It’s good.
---
Part 1 - Prelude to the Fallen
Part 2 - Mask of Deception
---
I don’t believe I have too much to add on this final part, as the trajectory of the series was set with Mask of Deception and I can happily report that the launch was good.
Using the same technical foundation as its predecessor, there are few bits of polish and shine added but nothing major. Perhaps one thing to note is that—with their newly acquired confidence in their turn-based skirmish gameplay—there’s a lot more of it. New actions, new equipment options, more robust arenas, a set of trial missions, and overall the most full feeling gameplay experience yet.
That comes at no cost to the narrative, either, as it picks up right where Mask of Deception left off and goes in almost exactly the direction it promised. It doesn’t entirely lose the lighthearted charm of the previous game but—as I loved with Prelude—the weightier side of the story stays always in the background adding another layer of color to events.
It could be that in the last year I’ve finally become a sincere person. Whether I have or not, however, I found myself getting consistently swept right along into the struggles and triumphs of the cast.
And as a war story, it’s also quite adeptly put together at a technical level. It doesn’t really want you to focus on the hard details of the logistics and politics, but what it does show was sufficient enough that I could buy into decisions characters make and the strategies they employ. It’s a bit of a less is more approach, but for a story with as many elements as this, finding that balance between detail and illusion is the only way to make it work.
To levy some critique, I do think the last act suffers a bit on pacing and some of my callousness as a reader did make it hard to trust the vision in the moment, but the final conclusion was satisfying and felt true to the themes the series had been operating on since the start.
So, yes. I do recommend this game quite highly.