Review: Masquerada: Songs and Shadows (PlayStation 4)

Rating: 7.6
Author: Jim Smale

by Jim Smale · August 11, 2017

Masquerada is a single-player tactical RPG set in a Renaissance-inspired city of magic, where real-time combat can be paused to set up elemental combos powered by Venetian-styled masks. Come for gorgeous hand-drawn art; stay for the rich lore & a thoughtful, fully-voiced tale of intrigue & tragedy.

Pros:

Beautiful hand drawn graphics.
12.23GB Download size.
Three difficulties- Story, Normal and hard.
Pause on combat option.
GUI scale slider.
Prologue (Tutorial)
Autosaves regularly.
Platinum trophy.
Operatic musical score.
Nice art cut scenes.
Combat-Has auto attack and you can also use your abilities and change opponents and indeed your team members at will. Combat is very free willing and easy to get into.
Can skip or fast forward dialogue.
Fast loading times.
Chose to use one of the four elements. These determine what type of attacks and abilities you have.
Lore, Bios and manual is uncovered by collecting entries and playing the game.
Stances-Easily changed with the d-pad and changing your stance opens up new attacks and more importantly attack speed and damage.
Team-Deep customisation. You can assign their upgrade points, Set teams behaviour and even how often or the criteria of how they use their abilities.
Earn upgrade points and unlock new abilities and buffs in the extensive skill tree.
Strong decent story.
Good chemistry between the characters.
Simple trophies.
Marker to help navigate the map.
Big boss battles.
Stream lined casual experience.
Find mask parts to get new ones which grant buffs.
Training area unlocks later where you can practice party composition.
Can reset upgrade point allocations.
Some nice locations.
Chapter select.
Powerful star studded voice acting that really shines through.
Easy to get into.

Cons:

A lot of loading screens.
Pop ups are constant.
Lot to take in.
Very stop and start.
Combat can get confusing in big numbers.
GUI is all or nothing.
AI are unpredictable.One time they dont move but more times than not they just run away in a random direction. Especially annoying when fighting said AI.
Little room for exploration.
Lot of hand holding.
No run button meaning getting from point to point is a long process.
Little world interaction like smashing crates etc.
Music is not for everyone.
You stop worrying about collectibles very quickly.

The Numbers:

9/10

Graphics - 9/10
7/10

Sound - 7/10
7/10

Accessability - 7/10
7/10

Fun Factor - 7/10
8/10

Length - 8/10

7.6/10

Summary

I came in hoping for a proper deep RPG adventure. What I got was a very RPG lite. With little to no real exploration and very simple skill trees, The game is more like a casual adventure game. The story and voice acting is superb but the actual gameplay really lacks the mechanics that make it a RPG. I got frustrated with just walking from point to point, Fight a few guys then watch a cut scene over and over. The combat is good but its over before it starts. If you want to play a RPG but dont have the time to sink in then this is for you. Going for a stream lined little interaction approach, Gamers may well like the smaller options. RPG die hards will hate the hand holding and little variation or indeed customisation.