Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception - PlayStation 4

I bought this on a whim and had no idea what to expect. I only knew that it was from Aquaplus, and I enjoyed Tears to Tiara II, one of their earlier games. I was pleasantly surprised with my choice.The game is a visual novel, so it's like a book with pictures, music, and sound effects. Being new to this style of game, the amount of reading was a bit off-putting at first, but I quickly became enchanted by this fantastic world and it's characters. One minor flaw is that the story starts off a bit slow while they show you the world and introduce most of the characters, but this makes the second half of the game and it's sequel so much better when the story picks up. You feel like you really know the characters and the game's world.It's not all reading. There are also about 16 battles in this game that play like a tactical role playing game. Think Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, Shining Force, or Disgaea. The system is fairly simple, but it is well designed and has some interesting scenarios. The characters all have a fairly unique playstyle. The battles are easy for the genre, and allow you to rewind up to 50 actions if you made a mistake or want to try something different. The 3D graphics in the battles are below modern standards, but the gameplay is solid.There is voice acting, but it is only in Japanese. This was probably a budgetary consideration because this style of game isn't too popular in North America. I don't speak Japanese, but I found the voices to be quite enjoyable. Just hearing the tone and emotion in their voices really helped elevate the story I was reading. It made the touching scenes more emotional, the humorous scenes funnier, and further defined each character's personality.Despite a slow start, I absolutely loved this game by the time I reached the end.

Let me just say that prior to this game the only exposure I had to this was the first episode of anime, which didn't interest me too much. Fast forward to now I regret that decision because this game is incredible, extremely underrated unless you are into the series. The story was very tantalizing to the point where just reading through "just one more" event before bed turned into an hour of reading and a battle which I was inclined to finish because why not?I'll admit the gameplay threw me off at first and it took a few hours to become fully invested because you spend roughly 75% of your playthrough reading due to it being similar to a visual novel. Actual battles are rather meaningful and can be challenging unless you know your characters and have a somewhat decent strategy that doesn't involve going 1v1 against everything. There is a normal and hard mode for each stage(post game only has one). Normal is what I played on and it wasn't too bad, but I could see where it could get tricky if I played on hard. Even if you struggle the game allows you to rewind turns to try out different strategies and so forth.The characters are very interesting as well, everyone has their own personality and while some were annoying at first I grew to understand and like them. Getting to know your characters battle-wise was fun becauseeveryone is unique, especially in regards to the critical strikes since some are fast while others are slow. The game allows you to replay levels you've beaten.The only thing I have to complain about is the lack of tutorial. Not that there wasn't any, but they didn't really force it on you so you had to go look it up yourself in the menu. Normally that's not a big deal for me if I understand the game, but there were many new concepts I wasn't used to or aware of like the rewinding, critical strikes, what some of the status ailments did, and how to use some of the characters to their full potential. I got by in the end, but all that would have helped in the beginning. I repeat, there are tutorials, they just don't force you into a tutorial mode like most games.Overall, it was an incredible experience that has caused me to look more into the series as a whole. Also, I loved it so much I bought the sequel right after beating it because I just had to know what happened next. A great game for anime lovers and those that enjoy tactical/strategy rpgs.