Masquerada: Songs and Shadows

Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is an isometric, story-heavy hidden gem that I wish more people knew about!
You play as Cicero Gavar, once an inspector of the Citte del Ombre, now in exile. You are called back to the city to investigate the disappearance of a diplomat you were once close with. As you do so, you uncover dark secrets, old friends, and a big political mess. You also gain a colorful set of allies, each with their own agenda. What happened to the diplomat might also tie into the events that led to your exile...
A beloved 10 out of 10 for me.
I will always be sad that this game doesn't get more love; only very few people seem to know about it, and the studio that created it is no longer active. If there is even a sliver of you that considers buying this game, please do so. This is a beautifully made indie game with a deep story, engaging characters, and damn good writing.
Its greatest feat is how real the characters and their individual stories feel. Every single member of the party gets a proper backstory, character arc, and unique relationship to the others in the party. Next to Cicero, that gives you four others to get to know and love, who all fulfill different combat roles in classic RPG-style (tank, support, dps, utility, etc.). Amazing voice acting performances, from quite a few veterans, bring these characters to life even further.
The world they inhabit is rich in ancient history, diverse cultures, and political intrigue. Through Cicero's old job as an inspector, you will get to know a large supporting cast that represents different political and cultural groups. Masquerada tackles themes of class differences, inequalities, faith, rebellion, and leadership. There is nuance and complexity, and often very heartbreaking or bittersweet outcomes for some of the game's cast.
The game's weakest aspect is, to me, its combat. It is serviceable and occassionally fun, yes, but can quite easily get cluttered and clunky. The AI is not that good and higher difficulties make it a total slog. The combat is reminiscent of Dragon Age: Origins, with the ability to pause and make tactical decisions before letting combat play out again in real time. You can use different elemental abilities through different masks, which ties in thematically with the setting of the game.
Pros
+ STORY. I cannot stress this enough!!
+ Setting, worldbuilding & lore are a work of art
+ Character work & accompanying voice acting performances
+ Style, design, art & music are vibrant and beautiful
Neutrals
~ The game is entirely linear to the point where this might be a con for some
~ Story mode available with minimal combat
~ Not so much an RPG but rather a linear visual novel with combat
~ Game length is around 15 hours
Cons
- Combat is clunky, with subpar AI, no items & little character progression
- Autosave points are sparse
- Exploration is very limited
- Can get infodumpy with long cutscenes, dialogues & codex entries
I think this is the kind of game you will enjoy the most if you approach it as a visual novel before anything else. You cannot make choices to affect the game (except for your combat build) nor explore areas and interact with anything else except indicated areas (codex entries and masks). You are simply there to enjoy the ride and immerse yourself in the world of the Citte del Ombre, which is very doable considering the quality of the game's writing.
The dialogue is heartfelt and ocassionally quite witty. I easily fell in love with Cicero as a character, as well as the other party members. Next to the investigation into the disappeared diplomat, you will of course also delve into Cicero's past and his exile. I thought Matthew Mercer gave him the perfect performance of cocky yet humble; the scenes in which he finally reveals some of his true pain are etched into my brain.
Due to its linearity, the game can feel infodumpy; similar in some ways to Pillars of Eternity I. Cutscenes and dialogues are long, as are codex entries. The latter are fascinating, though, considering that they are written by Cicero and thus also reveal his viewpoints and biases to some extent.
This is a game that is certainly not perfect. It might not even be for you. However, I love and treasure it deeply, and still think back on certain scenes or parts of the setting every now and again. I bawled my eyes out at the ending. I listen to the soundtrack on repeat. I adore simply walking around the Citte and admiring all its beautiful sights. Playing it through a second time only affirmed to me that its strengths mean much more to me than its faults.
If there was one game I wish hit the mainstream, it would be this one.
Recommended for all you story-heavy, visual novel-loving folks out there.

Honestly the gameplay at first is a little meh but does get better and in the end is a great vessel for an amazing a touching story. Also the world is actually really interesting.

Great art, fun gameplay, great VA, and a fantastic soundtrack

This is actually high art - the visuals, the music and sound design, the voice acting, the writing, how the gameplay mechanics all tie together. I cannot say this about most games.

Want a Renaissance ARPG where you use magic masks to cast elemental magic? Then check out this Cheapness affordable gaming review of Masquerada: Songs and Shadows
Text Review:
-Good visuals (Nice cel shading and faction colour-coding, hand drawn backgrounds, better than average comic cutscenes and thumbnail facial animations, if they show little emotional range. Some details look blurry and some areas can look lifeless and too clean but some can look brilliant and overall it looks very good)
-Great music, if not that memorable (Nice operatic, choral singing and lilting music that's somber yet hopeful. A heart racing, blistering, combat track too)
-Great, extensive voice acting that breathes life into everything (Very beefy cast in voice acting circles but it doesn't handle the codex)
-Very good story (OK plot, good world-building, good interactions with the characters and great internal monologue from Cicero in the codex. The codex is where the most profound thoughts will be contained. Cicero is a lovely, morally compromised, yet understanding character but there are occasions where he behaves irrationally, where dialogue feels cut short to set up talking about it later and maybe some obvious reveals)
-It's a story based game, that's the main draw, it's most of what the game is and since the codex is not voiced over you will have to read a lot to fully appreciate it
-The gameplay isn't great and on normal difficulty it did not require much tactical thought, maybe it's harsh to put this here as a con but it's busy work adjacent. The systems aren't that deep, it's very linear, finding the engravings, inks and codex entries isn't hard. I'm really trying to find a con because I really like this game but the gameplay breaks up the story so that it feels less like a movie and an appreciation of the story is probably needed to buy this game!

Practical Applications:
-Great Value for money (R1.30/ $0.20/ £0.16 per hour for me)
-Fairly big at 11.03 Gb
-Almost easy to run (Can play on the warhorse well enough at decreased graphical settings)

it was fun, good story too

Amazing unique story game