Review: Masquerada: Songs and Shadows (PlayStation 4)

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.