First, the premise: At the center of the civil unrest roiling within Venetian-inspired Ombre de la Citte are Mascherines, magic-imbued masks. Those who wear them form a collective known as the Masquerada.
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows
AT A GLANCE
Developer Witching Hour Studios.
Publisher Ysbryd Games.
Genre Role-playing.
Platform Playstation 4, Xbox One, Windows, Mac.
Players Single.
First, the premise: At the center of the civil unrest roiling within Venetian-inspired Ombre de la Citte are Mascherines, magic-imbued masks. Those who wear them form a collective known as the Masquerada. Those with naked faces are the Contadani, your citte commoners. As they revolt against the guilds and The Registry (Ombre’s government), the number of Mascherines that exist are dwindling.
Our hero and inspettore (inspector) Cicero Gavar returns from exile to investigate the disappearance of Razitof, a scribe last known to be researching the mysteries behind the Mascherines. Now, it’s clear that Masquerada’s strength lies in storytelling, and it can be as detailed as you’re willing to read or eavesdrop about it from citizens’ idle chitchat.
The game leaves much of its worldbuilding responsibility to its Codex, which archives every scrap of information that Cicero collects by either interacting with colored icons placed throughout Ombre or as new mechanics and characters are introduced. The only issue I have with info collecting is that it affects pacing.
When you’re in a scene that’s set up to be urgent, you want to fight and head to the next battle your characters are urging you to rush to, not collecting a Codex page. All characters enter battle with full health, focus (a shield equivalent), and a mask charge, which fills up as you dispense Mascharine abilities and allows you to perform a Mask Ultimate Ability when maxed out.
It’s a special ability that helps things along with a buff or boost, but don’t expect it to be flashy like a Final Fantasy limit break. Another aspect of combat is stance. Party members each take on Sicario (rogue-like), Pavisierre (tank-like), or Dirge (added range) stances, each essentially a different attack style that affects speed, Mask Charge regen, and focus.
You’re made to choose what element Cicero’s Mascherine takes on early in the game, but you’ll be able to equip other masks later as you pick up Raw Mascherines and decorate them. Fighting itself is a micromanager’s wet dream. Combat is a frenetic spacebar-spam of pause-unpause, especially in higher difficulties. For some reason though, the party AI that you aren’t directly in control of only performs your first command, then runs off, usually towards enemy line of fire.
Unfortunately, they don’t really listen even when you set them up. There are enemy swarms that can overwhelm if you take your eye off a companion for too long, which has turned out to be a frequent point of frustration for me. With that mindset, the checkpoint save system can get aggravating.
Masquerada doesn’t let you save whenever you want, and autosaves are infrequent too. Imagine having to fight three hordes, each with travel time in-between, then failing in the next one, and finding out your last checkpoint forces you to do it all over again.
Despite marketing itself as an RPG, Masquerada whittles it down to bare-boned basics. There’s no loot, inventory management, currency, crafting or levelling. Skill trees are short and modest. The game isn’t even particularly generous with skill points. It’s extremely linear, with nowhere else to go but straight.
There are, however, very bright spots that I think helps keep the entire experience afloat. Voicework is impeccable, for one. Masquerada made headlines for casting renowned vocal veterans like Matthew Mercer and Jennifer Hale. The small cast delivers the made-up Italianinspired naming conventions with aplomb, making dialog sound natural without taking away the emotional value of performances.
Visually, Masquerada‘s Venetian influences are obvious through its architecture, fashion, and menu designs. Characters appear as celshaded in certain angles and as storybook pop-ups in others, but the overall look and feel is always full of color and opulence, even in the underground caves.
Cutscenes have their own French-style art presented in motion comic format, where a scene is set with a still image and panels of character dialog are layered onto it as each person speaks. Call it CRPGlite if you will, but the Masquerada story is solid. If you’re a fan of high fantasy tomes wrought with politics, the fighting is forgivable – just play it on Story Mode and enjoy unraveling the truth about Mascherines.
If you want a rewarding tactical combat experience, satisfaction is fleeting unless you’re up to the task of aggressive micromanagement. I don’t fault their decision to strip down the systems. I just wish it weren’t so bare.
Conclusion
Rich with narrative detail, a good high fantasy to occupy you while you wait for the next AAA title to drop.
Read more at gameaxis.com
PICTURES WITCHING HOUR STUDIOS.
