Utawarerumono: Past and Present Rediscovered

How do I praise this game without turning into an incoherent emotional ramble......? The team at AQUAPLUS really found their footing here after delving into proper 3D RPGs since Monochrome Mobius. The gameplay is much more fun and streamlined, even it's less involved than MM because they focused more on the story this time around. And the prerendered cutscenes are GLORIOUS, some of the best I've seen from JPRGs even After 5 games of being emotionally invested in this series, Past and Present Rediscovered wraps up unanswered questions and gives yet another beautiful ending to close this book of songs of legends. Knowing how it all might end, I can't really think of how this could even be improved on aside from some issues in the first half of the story It is with a heavy heart that I part with favorite series of games ever and I am glad that this is how it ended. Thank you AQUAPLUS for this wonderful journey and I am very much hoping that you make more RPGs like this one

I really can't recommend this game. I was hoping it would be a big improvement on Monochrome since that was their first attempt with Unity/JRPG format and it took 4 years to put out. Unfortunately it is very much still built on Monochrome. Don't get me wrong, the gameplay is improved but not massively to make up for the frankly padded story. Basically, only buy this if you played Monochrome and want to see how it concludes. Just don't expect it to be much different. The Good: [list] [*] Cutscenes are noticeably better animated. There are a few standout moments [*] Inclusion of new "form" system helps make overdrive feel like more of a choice than previously. Even if it is just taking unshakable calling mechanic and giving it to Oshtor + MIkazuchi [*] No senseless grinding. Although this felt more like bandaid fix. [/list] The Bad: [list] [*] The story felt like padding for 80-90% of the runtime. Literally just go around the country again and get a little Munechika character development. Other than that the story is practically on hold between chapters 2 and 12. They throw [spoiler]Uta1 cast in which was kinda fun but frankly I'd rather have something expanded in the actual story. [/spoiler] This game could almost have been just DLC for Monochrome if you only put in Ch 12-End. And this is coming from a Trails player, where they revel in reusing locations/assets and slow pacing But at least I feel like they keep character development and plot going usually. [*] There is very little different about each character combat wise from monochrome. They end up with all the same skills + 1 or 2. You still just end up spamming the multi-hit moves since they just kinda outclass other options. Only Shunya I felt like I sometimes did other stuff and only for mob battles. HALU is arguably more broken than before as well. [*] They reset your characters only for you to learn the same ♥♥♥♥. I'd have preferred if they consolidated skills, kept the level counter going, and then went from there. I can see removing a few and relearning them but redoing all of them was a bit much. [*] General gameplay outside of battle is barely improved. Your character still feels kinda weird to control (Turn radius?). Camera is servicable at best. Switching characters still causes camera snaps. Woptor mount still spins your camera for some reason. Weapons are occasionally invisible outside of battle. [*] Side quests are actually a massive downgrade from the first game. They weren't amazing there but here they are just trash. Your characters never comment or speak at all. The NPC vomits text at you that amounts to "Kill this bandit/monster please". Then you return and they talk at you a bit more and that's it. [*] After finishing I kinda felt like my time was wasted on a prequel that didn't need to be made. I liked Oshtor in Uta 2 +3 but I don't think this was necessary. A sequel in a new part of the world would have been preferable. They also wouldn't have been hamstrung by having to make it match with Uta2+3 and even there I think they failed. Munechika was the only one I felt was improved by this game. I should also mention I don't think the story told here was very good either. Even given the prequel constraints. Although I still do like [spoiler] Mayacowl's voice [/spoiler] [/list] I really wish this game was better as it is likely the last Uta game we will get for a long time but I just can't recommend it with all these problems. Here's hoping Aquaplus uses this experience to make something great now that they are moving on from Uta for the time being.

最後までクリア。おすすめに関しては2つしか選択肢がないので強いて言えばいいえと思い選びました。 強くてニューゲームは意味を感じずにクリア後のデータでちょっと遊んだ程度です。 まずシナリオは満足。偽りの仮面につながるというのが良くも悪くもわかっているので「そうなるよね」という感じ。意外性は全く無い。ファンの人は安心して最後まで楽しめます。 偽りの仮面が出た時は本当にワクワクしたものですが、オシュトルの過去編である二作は正直消化するだけのプレイでした。 ここまでしょぼいグラフィックとわかりにくいシステムで出すくらいなら過去作のようにシナリオだけを放出するパターンで良かったんじゃないのと思います。10年以上前のゲームと言っても全然通じます。キャラの立ち絵やイベントの一枚絵は素晴らしいものの、ムービーがとにかくしょぼい。うたわれシリーズに触れている方にはある種馴染みのあるしょぼさですが本当に良くないと思う。声優に失礼とすら感じました。 一応、前作から改善された細かいシステムとしてダッシュの削除（常にダッシュ速度）や、無駄に広かった街は少し小さくなりました。でもマップが基本的に無駄に広いのはそのまま。行ったことのないエリアはそもそも名前が地図に出ないので案内柱？を見つけて読まないとどこに行けばいいのかわかりにくい。 戦闘は基本そのままだったと思います。円環という非常にわかりにくく楽しみ方もわからないシステムは継続。 敵キャラは大体使いまわし。なんなら味方キャラの武器も前作と変わりない。 難易度普通でも色々アップデートしておかないと割と詰みます。 シリーズ完結！といっても終わりが分かっているストーリーなので、オシュトルの最後はああなったんだな。というエモさはあったけどそれ以上は湧いてこない。これでうたわれ完結か！とはならないです。正直。 うたわれシリーズに興味を持って、今までのシリーズは全てプレイした。オシュトル達の話をもっとみたい。という人にはギリおすすめできます。

4 years ago, I came to the end of Monochrome Mobius, feeling quite conflicted on how things ended. Earlier this week, I came the the end of the final Utawarerumono game, and thankfully, things have somewhat changed, but on some level, that confliction still hasn't left. The TL;DR: If you liked the last game, you'll probably like this one since it's more of the same. Just beware of bugs that might happen. Cons: > I don't think that the gameplay has changed much from before. I didn't like it much in the previous game, and while it is a tad bit better, it's still not quite my thing. I was hoping that they'd add some kind of action chain system like the VNs had, but nothing like that. Then again, I actually liked the combat in the VNs, so maybe I'm the weird one in that regard. If you do like it, then this is more of that for you. > The game is weirdly buggy. Buggier than the last game, I swear. I've had a couple of moments where the battle would not progress and I had to completely shut down the game. Thankfully, the few times that did happen, I ended up not losing too much progress. Also, Mikazuki's Phantom Flash most definitely does lower enemy morale, so either it was programmed improperly or the English text lied to me. > This one's a personal taste, but I'm including it here since I'm not sure why it was taken out to begin with. In the previous game, when you swapped weapons, it was reflected in the cutscenes, but this game didn't do that for whatever reason. > Since I'm obligated to include it, something something Shiravune could do a bit better with their translation jobs. I did notice a few actual errors aside from my nitpicking, like a moment where they accidentally called Masamune (Munechika's ancestor) by the name Murasame (Munechika's mother). I also recall seeing a block of text from Oshutoru completely copied and pasted by accident, where it replaced whatever Shuunya said. Neutral elements: > The story ended up mostly how I was expecting it to be. I will elaborate further below. > The difficulty was weirdly okay until it felt like a hit a sudden spike somewhere in the middle of the game. Since the game decided to put a bunch of super bosses before the end of the game, though, I ended up grinding myself to around level 97 for everyone by the time I got to the actual final boss. Relatedly, that daikon post-game super boss is unironically probably the most difficult boss, even at max level. > They give you more weapons than I had any use for, and you unlock a decent chunk of them near the end of the game. They look cool, but at the same time, I'm not sure how useful any of them were because they were overall much less useful than the strongest things I had at the time, even with their upgrades applied. > I wish the game overall looked better graphically, but at the same time, I know that Aquaplus isn't that big a company. > The final boss felt weirdly less imposing than the previous one, and I can't for the life of me explain why I even feel that way. I think it's just the sheer physical scale in comparison. Pros: > The general cutscenes feel slightly less stiff than they did previously, and I liked those cutscenes where they really put effort into the movement as a whole. I do wish they did more of those, as I recall only about 4 instances of them. > I like the new outfits, especially Mikazuchi's, but I'd like to be able to switch between the old and new costumes if I could. Hell, give them their usual outfits that they should have in Itsuwari no Kamen if you can. The options would be nice. > HALU's new bodies are nice, I just wish that I could have gotten that EP upgrade earlier in the game than when you actually get it, which is over halfway through the thing. > Mayacowl/Mayacaua is very cool. I knew he was voiced by Shuichi Ikeda for a reason. I just wish he had a bit more of a physical presence in the games so I could hear him speak more. Varga is also cool. > Kikuko Inoue, the woman that they got to replace the late Atsuko Tanaka as Karula, did a really good job. It's a shame that both her and Keiji Fujiwara can't come back to reprise their roles. The story (spoilers below, of course): Divorced from the original VNs, in particular Istuwari no Kamen, I did enjoy it. I definitely would have enjoyed the previous one more without feeling so off about everything if it was advertised as how it ended up being, which I pretty much called by the end of the previous game. I am mostly completely fine with how things ended, since it was really the only way any of the events of these games would make sense, but there is one thing that I'm not as much of a fan of. Shuunya being a clone of Mutsumi is something I'm willing to buy, and I'll even buy her skills derived from Mutsumi that are mostly shown near the end of the game. One thing that I didn't enjoy out of that was her seeing the events of Itsuwari no Kamen and informing Oshutoru of those events. Granted, while he doesn't even remember anything due to the events of the ending of this game, there's just something about recontextualizing the events of Itsuwari no Kamen as something that was inevitable. It leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, like it was supposed to happen as opposed to it being the result of Nekone not trusting her brother enough to end that fight himself. It doesn't strictly negate the meaning that the events had on the people involved, of course, I just can't shake this feeling. At the very least, Shuunya meeting up with Oshtor after all was said and done was nice, at least. I did enjoy the dynamic between them. So, here I am, somewhat content, somewhat conflicted. In the end, I suppose that I could always consider this game canon to itself without too much trouble, since it doesn't really step on the toes of the VNs too much and I can pretend the thing I don't like doesn't exist. Truthfully, I'm not sure if this is the route that Aquaplus should be going down, since it really feels like they don't quite have the budget for what they're trying to aim for. Still, as a fan of their Utawarerumono games, I nonetheless remain interested in what they plan to do and hopeful that they can improve on their shortcomings with their next big projects.

The gameplay is jank. But let's be real you already know what you're getting into if you played Monochrome Mobius! This game is the sequel to MM, and together makes the prequel to the Utawarerumono trilogy. The game's got more lore/backstory, art, voice acting, and music that did not disappoint! You might even recognize a reference to another visual novel by Aquaplus if you do the side quests. Listening to the VA's livestream discussion of the game in the background while I cleaned up the last achievements also added to the whole experience. With this, the series that began in 2002 has finally come to an end. (Lost Frag archive when??) I have thoroughly enjoyed this game, and can recommend it to every Utawarerumono fan!

It's the gaming equivalent of 'could have been an email', but the snacks at the meeting were really nice. It's probably worth playing if you're a big fan of the main series, mostly just to see some of the characters again and to get some additional world building, but plot wise, most of it doesn't really....matter. Quite a bit of it is essentially filler, and while I did enjoy my time playing it, it's hard not to be disappointed by the end.

通关了，剧情还算平稳落地，机制相比前代也优化了很多，但是为什么要打差评？后期打boss一关半小时起步，未知原因会时不时卡死，只能重来，纯浪费时间

困难模式65小时全成就达成。 传颂之物系列收官之作，纯粉丝向作品。 发售前看到本作又是RPG还担心传颂之物不能善终了，好在官方还是发现了粉丝不喜欢RPG，所以本作RPG系统做得非常人性化，每个地图只要打两三个杂兵就可以挑战领域主然后开启全图秒杀扫荡，连攻击动作都不用直接骑乘撞怪无脑升级。 音乐方面，可能因为传颂系列的音乐太神了，与梦想歌、君だけの旅路、ヌエドリ、不安定な神様、星灯、キミガタメ和恋梦等相比，本作音乐还是有亿点相形见绌。 插画方面，又是一个制作敷衍的地方，本作的插画少得可怜，基本都集中在结尾，当然为数不多的插画中，奥修与哈克交接面具、三人屹立于大和山头、修娘的等待与奥修和修娘的拥抱都属上乘。 剧情方面，前期注水严重，前八章完全没有存在的必要，即使是后面，也存在诸多注水情节。当然本作将正传三部曲全部串联了起来，既是传颂之物1.5作为假面、白皇的前传，也可作为系列收官之作，就主线剧情而言可算善终了。但传颂系列的另一大优点——各种角色之间互动的各种无厘头日常，在本作中没有得到很好的编排。 最后，再见了，传颂之物，只能算部分善终吧。希望手游剧情能早点打包补全出来，让和我们的最后的一对——哈克和久远不要再天人两隔了吧！

The game mechanics is much more streamlined than the previous title. The story is pretty good. Hoping that they make some remakes of their older titles using this style of engine.

やってよかった 今クリアーしました 他人がこれをどう評価するかはわかりませんし、蛇足という人がいるかもしれません でも、今ここに、やってよかったと思う自分がいます やってよかった ただ、そう思います