Taking place in the rich world of the Citte della Ombre, the world of Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is full of a little too much of everything.
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows
Developer: Witching Hour Studios
Price: $20
Platforms: PS4, Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PC, PS4, XBOX ONE
MonsterVine was provided with a Switch code for review
Everywhere you turn in Masquerada you’re unlocking paragraphs of lore and history about the religion, wars, factions, tensions, characters, the city, the founding of the city, the founder of the city, the ruler of the city and that just … isn’t the way to go about that.
Take, for instance, our dear friend JRR Tolkien. There is an entire, aeon-spanning history that precedes the events of the Lord of the Rings – but there’s a reason it starts in the sleepy Shire. Because introducing an entire world and its history needs to start small. Special attention must be paid to pacing and the tenets of showing and not telling. Masquerada dumps the player into scenes that we have no context for (or throws that context into journal entries which may or may not ever be relevant) which makes it hard to care or about the events taking place.
It would also help if our protagonist, Cicero Gavar, was more than just a pair of pants for the audience. We’re supposed to like Weakchin McHairdo, our daring hero, because he’s nice to poor people but otherwise shows as much personality as a slightly jaded sockpuppet. Mercer does a fine job of voicing him but he’s not given the best dialogue to work with, and there’s really no risks made to make Cicero stand out from literally every other beige video game protagonist. That said, most of your little squad of ruffians are great characters, and their quips add a much needed levity.
Despite my gripings, Masquerada has a lot of things going for it. The magic venetian aesthetic is truly unique and there were so many environments that I just ran around for the simple joy of exploring. Together with a resounding score and a much overlooked attention to sound design, places like the Hall of Songs come to life.
Jam packing a lot of story into a game is not the same as having a good story.
The gameplay is solid, there’s a lot of big hitters in the tactical, squad-based RPGs right now but Masquerada manages to stand on its own two feet. You operate on the standard ‘pause and issue orders’ routine that should be familiar to any fan of the genre – the switch controls aren’t the best suited for it but the devs have managed to make the best out of it. The elemental sets of abilities feel distinct from one another. I had a great time as an Airblade teleporting enemies around and generally being a whimsical nuisance.
Masquerada is pretty and plays well but I think it’s reasonable that we can expect more from a game’s story than just having one. Storytelling basics like pacing and ‘showing not telling’ are the difference between Masquerada and Journey. Jam packing a lot of story into a game is not the same as having a good story.
The Final Word
A lot people are going to have a wonderful experience because Masquerada looks good and plays well and they’ll be skipping through most of the dialogue scenes. And that’s fine. But we can start expecting more from our favourite medium.
