Masquerada: Songs and Shadows, is an RPG from Ysbryd Games and Witching Hour Studios featuring the voice talents of stars the likes of Matt Mercer, Felicia Day, Jennifer Hale, Dave Fennoy and Ashly Burch. While it is definitely one of the game’s strongest points, it’s on the strength of the story and animations that the game really shines.
When playing this game, you’ll experience a fantasy world inspired by a Renaissance-era style which illustrates a colorful, hand-drawn art style. It’s amazing. You’re essentially going through a journey to unravel a mystery that begins with the disappearance of a friend and ends with intrigue and an epic struggle for power. Deep and intuitive with plenty of twists and turns, it’s a cool experience that rarely lets up.
Now, let’s talk about Masquerada’s combat system. Its style is not too far off from similar games such as Diablo and Deadlight. The mapped button fighting engine works well on a PS4 controller. It’s simple and easy to use controls help elevate the game and are aided even further by the mini short tutorial of the game. You’re allowed to have multiple people within your party to help aid you in the game as well, which spices up combat as well. You’re also able to move your character or have it set to an auto fight setup.
Let’s now get into the sound and how everything fits so well within the game. In most games like this, you’ll get a simple text style format that you’re forced to read and think of how the characters and things around would actually sound like. In Masquerada, you’re hearing everything of actual dialogue from various actors such as: Matt Mercer, Felicia Day, Jennifer Hale, Dave Fennoy and Ashly Burch. These are actual people who have done voice overs for a plethora of movies and other games. Having a sense of actually getting to know the characters based on how they feel when they speak, within the tone of their voice makes you want to know more about these characters and other MPCs in the game.
The story takes place in a Renaissance-era kind of style where you are fighting a war between different groups that use the same powers as you do. The story isn’t complex to understand either- it’s all in full animation sometimes in real gameplay and within cut-scenes with full dialogue at all times. Away from the ending and plot development sometimes being obvious, it’s hard to complain about this game. Ultimately, it immerses you and drives you to finally see what is at the end of the game.
Overall, thanks to the colorful characters, if you’re into RPG/tactical kind of style game, then this will eat up plenty of hours of gameplay. It may not be as deep as a Final Fantasy game, but the story and the animations are amazing and it tells an excellent story.
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