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Masquerada: Songs and Shadows Review


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510536993_Masqueradalogo.png.5f3f84071748fe4e9147566083f9cc46.pngIn a Venetian-styled city overrun with political intrigue, factionalism, and classism, an elite investigator is called back from a five year exile to uncover the deadly threats lurking in the shadows. Masquerada: Songs and Shadows from developer Witching Hour Studios and publisher Ysbryd Games takes players on a colorful adventure with hand-drawn graphics and real-time tactical combat in order to explore the city's elaborate history that revolves around elemental magic. But gameplay elements take something of a backseat to Masquerada's entrancing storytelling.
 
Masquerada takes place within the city of Ombre, a wealthy and powerful city thanks to the Mascherines found there—masks that grant the wearer power over one of the four elements. Though the origins of the Mascherines is something of a mystery, one thing is clear: their use has created distinct social boundary lines, causing an ever-growing tension between the ruling elite and the common public. The developers have done an incredible job of establishing a rich backstory to the lore and setting of the game. As you play you'll be positively bombarded with journal entries describing the city's districts, factions, and history, and although it might seem a bit overwhelming it's well worth taking the time to read them all. It also helps that the journal entries are written from the main character's perspective, which adds a layer of personality to the text. The fantasy setting is vivid, unique, and engaging, and the amount of detail poured into backstory elements is staggering considering the fact that some are only tangentially touched upon in the main plot. Masquerada's rich history will be an absolute delight to anyone that enjoys reading fantasy lore.
 
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And my praise for the writing isn't limited to the backstory. The main story and the development of the main characters is beautifully handled as well. Each has a potentially painful history that is thoughtfully and carefully unveiled as you progress, making it easy to care about each member of your party. And as the subtitle might suggest, there's an ever-present layer of intrigue and mystery that easily propels you through the narrative. Masquerada isn't afraid to delve into more serious topics either, and manages to do so with a delicate hand. Potentially cumbersome topics like social class issues are handled in such a way that the game never feels overbearing in its messaging. The writing is beautifully nuanced and engaging thanks to this blend of fantasy elements with real-world issues—in fact it's a shame that there aren't more games or stories written in this setting, as even by the end of the story there's plenty of interesting questions waiting to be explored.
 
Coincidentally, exploration of dungeons, towns, or overworlds is not a major aspect of Masquerada. The game's progression is actually highly linear—you don't even earn experience points per se, but instead earn skill points at specific checkpoints—which might seem a bit odd for an RPG. However it's the storytelling that really drives the action in the game, not the combat or adventure mechanics.
 
But that's not to say the battle system is without merits of its own. Masquerada is a real-time tactical RPG with up to three characters in your party (Cicero, the protagonist, is always one of them). You'll only control one character at a time but by using the tactical pause button you're able to take a moment to survey the battle and direct your two AI companions. Characters will auto-attack nearby enemies and the real heart of the gameplay is in managing your skills (each of which has a cooldown) in order to efficiently defeat enemies. Combining different skills can have powerful cumulative effects—for example, a fire skill might attach a fire tag to an opponent, and activating that tag with another skill will cause additional burning damage. Given the real-time flow of combat you need to be thoughtful in how you approach battles and quick to react to changes—it's easy to lose control of things if you're attacking haphazardly. Additionally, you'll need to consider the positioning of your characters, not just because each skill has a different area of effect (single target, straight line, circular, etc.) but because some characters are "tanks" with higher defenses while others need distance or excel at backstab damage.
 
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The combat system is a bit much to learn initially but after some practice there's a satisfying ebb and flow to combat. Battles may not be particularly flashy in Masquerada, but efficiently dealing with enemies is always rewarding, even if things can be chaotic at times. Plus there are plenty of boss fights that offer more challenge and require more thoughtful approaches, which helps the focus on managing skill cooldowns shine a bit better. Admittedly combat does get a bit repetitive by the end of the game, especially basic fights, but not so much that fighting ever becomes too boring. You're also limited to equipping up to four skills (they correspond to the ABXY buttons when you're controlling a character) so you have to decide which skills you want to upgrade and use in battle. Each character doesn't have a huge variety of skills but it's enough that two players can have significantly different approaches to combat. A few hours into the game you'll also be able to reset your skill points if you want to try something new, so experimenting is convenient. And perhaps most importantly, you'll select Cicero's element at the beginning of the game which determines his selection of skills, so there's a decent promise of replay value if you want to play around with different elements. A single playthrough can last a good 15 hours or so though, a lot of which is in cutscenes and dialogue, so replaying the game just for the combat can be a time-consuming endeavor.
 
The game's rich storytelling is brought to life by an all-star cast of voice actors, including recognizable names like Matthew Mercer and Jennifer Hale. Every character is beautifully voiced—thankfully, since there is so much dialogue in Masquerada—and every actor does a fantastic job of giving depth and personality to characters that emote and grow over the course of the game. Rounding out the game's top notch audio is a brilliantly atmospheric soundtrack that perfectly evokes the shadowy mystique of a city defined by secrets as well as the elegance of a high society that prides itself on appearances. There's a suitably operatic tint to the music that makes it epic and impressive whether you're simply walking through town or battling a giant beast.
 
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The game's visuals are no less striking. Masquerada's presentation nails the sense of grand opulence that one would expect of an Italian city at the height of its power—the intricately detailed patterns in the scenery alone captures the beauty of a powerful and wealthy culture. The game also isn't afraid to flood the screen with brilliant, rich colors which adds just the right otherworldly quality to the environments. Cutscenes are presented as slightly animated comic book panels which are undeniably stylish, though at times the game's visuals seem to suffer from compression issues, or the artwork's resolution is simply too low, giving the images a smeared, blurry quality. The frame rate can also be a little choppy as well, most notably when walking through an area with a lot of NPCs and other background animation, which is especially disappointing given the not insignificant loading times that pop up regularly. Still, these technical issues do little to spoil the elaborate and colorful style of the art design.
 
Even moreso than the typical RPG, the story is the star of the show in Masquerada: Songs and Shadows. The real-time tactical combat system is solid, even if it's mildly repetitive by the end of the game, and the linear game structure means that there's virtually no opportunity for exploring or finding side quests. The good news, though, is that Masquerada features some of the most interesting stories, engaging characters, and fascinating world-building that you'll find in a recent Switch release. The time you spend with the game may be tipped in favor of cutscenes and lore over actual combat sequences, but fans of rich fantasy storytelling won't find anything to complain about on that account.
 
Rating: 8 out of 10 Mascherines
 
Review copy provided by publisher
 
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows will be available on the Switch eShop on May 9th for $19.99.
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