Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen is the first game in the Utawarerumono trilogy and it's a remake/remaster of the original VN from 2002. The trilogy is an absolute masterpiece: it's one of the best stories ever told in videogames and it rightfully deserves its spot among the most highly rated VNs ever created together with like likes of Muv-Luv and STEINS;GATE. Utawarerumono also contains an SRPG component, but 80-90% of the game is story, and the gameplay is well integrated into the story and is generally used as part of the storytelling. That said, the gameplay elements are enjoyable on their own merit. Just keep in mind that gameplay is something that improved significantly with each game, peaking in the third part in the series, Mask of Truth. Prelude to the Fallen is the weakest entry in the trilogy, but don't let that discourage you from picking it up. It's still a really good game and it's clear that a lot of care and love was put into each element that makes it up. The characters are very endearing and the worldbuilding, while a bit slow at the start, is fantastic. Since you follow the perspective of Hakuowlo, who can't remember anything about himself or why there's a mask mysteriously fused to his face, the first several hours is just him getting used to his new life. However, it's not all just slice-of-life fun. It takes a while for him to properly start remembering things about his past, but there are several little hints here and there that there's more to him than meets the eye. Despite his lack of memories, he knows things that are common sense to him while to everyone else they might as well be magic, and he's also the only character with no animal-like features. It's a very entertaining experience to watch the game slowly build up its mythos an the mysteries surrounding it. By the end of Prelude to the Fallen you'll have some answers, but not all of them. This game does a good job of setting the stage of the next two while still being fun on its own. Another strong point I would like to highlight is the music and the art. The music in particular is very memorable and it's always very well timed. Any time there's a powerful and emotional scene, you can count on there being a matching soundtrack that enhances the experience. For the visual part, the aesthetic is very pleasing and it definitely looks sharper and cleaner compared to the original VN. The major cultures in this world seem to be based on the real world Ainu culture, and the visuals depict this very well. If this is not something that you're familiar with then you're in for a very unique experience. A worry that some people have is that the game is in 720p 30 fps. Being a Visual Novel, graphic fidelity is not a major point of interest and it's not a focus of the game. Despite this, in my opinion the game actually looks pretty good an I don't think that running at 30 fps detracts from the experience at all, which honestly surprised me a bit since it's standard for modern games to run at 60+ fps. My expectation was that the 3D section (which is to say, the combat and some specific parts of the story) would be choppy but this isn't the case at all. The visuals are smooth and fluid, and they work perfectly fine. The SRPG part of the game is arguably the weakest part of this installment. I still enjoyed them plenty, and it created the base for the combat in the next two games, but once you pick up Mask of Deception you'll quickly be able to tell just how much the gameplay improves. The basis for the majority of the game systems and mechanics are definitely in this game, but the level of polish is much greater in Mask of Deception, and specially in Mask of Truth. To name my main complaints with it: > The equipment system is a bit clunky. Most equips either have vague effects or just aren't very good, and it's also confusing that several of them are exclusive to 1 unit but don't list who the user is. The consumables aren't great either because when you start it's not clear how many of them you will get in a playthrough and what their best use case is. By the end of the game you realize that consumables are quite plentiful but also not very useful. In theory they should be pretty valuable because Eruruu is the only healer you get, but 99% of the times she's is all you need and she's surprisingly not that hard to defend and keep alive. Items will be the most useful in the first few maps because of the game's weird difficulty curve (more on that later) and because you have 2 or 3 maps with isolated characters that Eruruu can't reach in a timely manner (plus some maps where Eruruu is unavailable but that's not very frequent). Incidentally, the devs very clearly took a lesson from this: Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth do away with this system entirely. In those games, all equips are universal, non-consumable and have clear use cases (as well as several strategic uses that add depth to the game in a way that the Prelude to the Fallen equips can't). > The difficulty is very front-loaded. In the early maps your units are much more frail and Eruruu can't always reach them in time to heal damage. Ostensibly the game gets harder again later, but it's very easy to trivialize the difficulty without even trying because of how some game mechanics work. The Bonus Point system is very easy to abuse. After completing any map, the participating units gain points that they can use to improve one of their base stats. The cost varies by stat and character. For example, Hakuowlo is very balanced, while for a character like Oboro improving his attack stat is dirt cheap at the cost of improving his defense stat being expensive. The cost of improving a stat never changes (in the sequels it increases every time you improve a stat), so the game very blatantly tells you to minmax. The most obvious result of this is that your damage dealers will probably be doing several magnitudes of overkill damage by the endgame, which makes the game not very hard even on hard difficulty. If you're itching for a challenge though, you'll definitely find that in the other two games. The systems are more balanced, the story maps are slightly harder, and their post-game maps range from decently challenging to completely brutal. More importantly though, Prelude to the Fallen DOES feature a single challenge post-game map. Be warned, however, that it's locked behind obtaining every item in the game. This isn't a problem for most items (they're all either gained by story progression or can be farmed after ending the game), but there are 2 that are permanently missable. Look up a spoiler-free guide if you're interested in unlocking the map. > Lastly, the zeal mechanic, while interesting, is much better in the sequels. This game has a few skills that scale off your current zeal, you don't lose it if you don't use it (sans getting hit with certain status effects that drain it), and it carries over from one map to the other, so there's no strategic depth to it: the obvious play is to hold on to your zeal forever unless you absolutely need the damage from the Final Strike. The overzeal mechanic from the sequels + zeal restarting every map is significantly better. This game is the beginning of an epic tale where you slowly discover how the world before you came to be. It's full of emotional moments of friendship, love and loyalty, and by the end of it you'll be left wanting to know how the story continues. To avid VN readers, this is an absolute must read. To gamers in general, I think this is an amazing first VN to read. It's easier to get into than something like Muv-Luv (and I say that as a big fan of that game). While it also has its big payoff in the form of the third game, both Prelude to the Fallen and Mask of Deception are very enjoyable on their own right. I can guarantee you that you'll quickly grow to love the characters, the story, and the world that they exist in.
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