If you do not wish to play this mini-game, you can opt to enable the Auto mode. If you succeed, you move on to the next attack in the chain, with successful chains dishing out critical damage and allowing you to move on. During battle, you can attack an enemy, with your attacks prompting a timing-based mini-game. Though they are typically small in scale and, in many cases, quite easy, they are still interesting and enjoyable.Īs battle begins, you can choose which characters you wish to include, as well as your starting positions and equip some items. The battles themselves play out as you would expect in a tactical RPG, featuring rather straightforward objectives, such as defeating all opponents, defeating a certain opponent, or even luring an opponent to a specific area. An additional twelve do unlock once you have finished the main story, however. On the visual novel side, the story is also rather linear, as, while you do have a few choices during some scenes, the order in which they play out has no effect on the story or outcome.
You will spend most of your time reading and listening to the actors, with the original Japanese voicework, as the battles are spread out, with a total of sixteen throughout the main game. Mask of Deception is primarily a visual novel, although it does feature strategy role-playing game-style battles. That said, there is quite a large and colorful cast of characters, featuring varying personalities, and, though this can hinder the character development a bit, there are plenty of scenes featuring all present to help really build the game’s story up. The majority of the game’s story consists of introducing you to the game’s world and characters, setting up the scene perfectly for the upcoming Mask of Truth. The two head to the country’s capital, meeting quite a few people and challenges along the way. As he cannot recall his name, Kuon opts to name him Haku and proceeds to take him under her wing. Unfortunately, the slime wasn’t just acting to save him, and, indeed, appears to be preparing to eat him as well when a beautiful young woman named Kuon shows up and rescues him. He is attacked by a monstrous insect, and flees, eventually falling into a cave and being saved by another strange creature that looks like a gigantic slime. You take on the role of an amnesiac man who awakens in a snow-filled landscape with little on. Mask of Deception is set several years after the original game, which released on PC back in 2002 in Japan only. That said, how well does the title hold up?
This is the first of a duology, and, as such, you can expect a bit of a cliffhanger ending. We were granted a chance to check out the second title in the Utawaerumono (but first to be localized) series, Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception.