Review: Utawarerumono Zan (PS4)

Utawarerumono Zan is a an action-adventure game based on two other entries, Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth. A reimagining of Haku’s story, the game is also part visual novel, a surprising element that adds more dialogue to the story. It takes place in country reminiscent of ancient Japan and features many characters from the series.

US release date: 9/10/2019
Developer: Tamsoft
Publisher: Aquaplus
Platform: PlayStation 4

Story

The story begins with Haku, the protagonist who is love physically and mentally.  An often-used origin, both in the Utawarerumono and in games in general, makes for a boring start, but the game speeds up a bit after you begin meeting other characters who join you in your journey to help fend off invaders to Yamato, the country of the game. The dialogue is often made up of the interactions between the characters before a fight or while they are in town.

My Great Capture

For fans of the previous games like Mask of Deception or the anime, you will enjoy seeing familiar faces. If you are new, then expect a confusing journey. The game has issues with its pacing and not properly introducing the player to what is happening as the story progresses.

Even though I’m more than halfway through Utawarerumono Zan, I’m not 100% sure what the main goal is. There are many characters that join your party with little to no explanation except that they want to help you, and new characters appear in the story and you’re not sure why. This is my main gripe with the game—the story does not flow nor are events explained. Utawarerumono Zan assumes you know what’s going on and keeps on going, often leaving the player behind.

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2 thoughts on “Review: Utawarerumono Zan (PS4)”

  1. For what it’s worth, this game technically only adapts Mask of Deception; it doesn’t get into Mask of Truth at all. It actually also doesn’t even cover the entire ending to MoD, but, to be fair, it cuts out huge chunks of the rest of the game; a lot of story and character development was lost in compressing a 40-hour visual novel down into a 6-hour action game.

    The VNs themselves are really fantastic, though, and if what you saw of Zan’s ending (which was actually adapted pretty well, unlike the rest of the game) intrigued you, I’d recommend checking them out.

    1. Thanks for your insight. I haven’t played anything else of the series aside from Zan, so my knowledge is limited but I still feel they should have added more content. Making it 6 hours is too short, it could have been much longer.

      But its all good, it was fun for what it was, I am just objective with plot in games.

      I will check out the VN for it 🙂

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