If there’s one unfortunate wrinkle to the writing’s strength at drawing endearing relationships, it’s that some of those relationships carry unfortunate baggage. That all this is fully voiced by a number of highly capable Japanese voice actors is just icing on the cake. There’s squabbling, idle chatter, hilarious squabbling and hi-jinks, and sometimes bloody combat (thanks, Karulau!) to power the group through situations ranging from a hunt for delicious honeycombs to reckoning with what happens when you find out God is real and pissed off.
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Almost everyone gets an opportunity to shine, and players will come to see the cast as a misfit family of sorts. All the main cast members, from the caring Eruru, the quiet tiger-whisperer Aruru, the hot-blooded swordsman Oboro and the stoic Benawi, grow from their basic archetypal personalities into deep, varied individuals over the dozens of hours it’ll take to run through the game. That said, though these influences are largely kept superficial they do the job of making the game’s setting and world stand out from the crowd of less distinctive fantasy motifs.īut if the visuals are the hook, the line and sinker are the game’s strength when it comes to characterization. Terminology and naming in particular don’t sound particularly “Japanese,” as is popularly understood. Taking light inspiration from the visuals and language of Japan’s indigenous Ainu people, the game sports an aesthetic that seems exotic, even to its original Japanese audience. That all sounds a bit generic, admittedly, but Utawarerumono sells its unique setting well.
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Caring for him are the inhabitants of Utawarerumono‘s world: A diverse array of what are best described as “anime people with animal ears.” Before long, the nameless man is given a name, “Hakuowlo.” and making his way in the new world brings him into an escalating series of conflicts, as he tackles threats to himself, his family, his nation, and more beyond. Permanently grafted to his face is a fearsome metal mask, its origins even more mysterious than his own. A nameless man wakes up in a bucolic village, remembering nothing of the world or even his own identity. Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen is a straightforward, but engaging and heroic story. Then again, the narrative isn’t all that tiring. They do at least break up the otherwise unending tide of narrative, though. If anything, the battles are a little too familiar, and after nearly 120 hours of playing through it in the sequels, I found them equally perfunctory, despite the impressive effort that went into animating flashy attacks and combo movies. Players who’ve tried those games will find Prelude‘s blending of linear visual novel with occasional turn-based tactical battles instantly familiar. Just as Kiwami rebuilt the story of the first game in the engine and with mechanics drawn largely from Yakuza 0 (itself a true prequel), Prelude to the Fallen adapts the original narrative and visuals of Utawarerumono and plugs them into the battle system used for the Mask duology. Putting things plainly: If you want to start with Utawarerumono, you have every reason–for good and for ill–to start here.įor the uninitiated, the Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen remake works in roughly the same way Yakuza Kiwami did for the original Yakuza game.
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The character of its writing and the richness of its world hasn’t diminished in the intervening years, and the experience of playing it retroactively elevates the sequel duology. Regardless, its presence is welcome, as it makes for an excellent opening act to the now-multipart Utawarerumono saga.