Utawarerumono: Past and Present Rediscovered

Big fan of Utawarerumono and this game is absolute garbage, story is terrible and worthless and the ending is so atrocious. Hard to believe this is in the same series as the previous games

Honestly, after the end of the game, I was disappointed. Gameplay was solid - no shade there. However, the new abilities didn't really add much to the game play itself, and the encounters and encounter types did not change to make use of said new abilities. Story, however, felt padded and wandering for no reason. While the first half of the game wandered, the second half fell into so many bad writing mistakes and clenches I was table flipping. Ending, is not bad, but was not good - just meh. And, for some reason, left me very put out. As a whole, the game feels like it was canceled 1/2 though, then handed to a different team much later to polish up without given any real roadmap, or world book, to work with. It also felt like lots of execs put their fingers in the pie and forcing references to the other Utawarerumono games that were not really needed. (I don't know if any of this is true, but that's how it feels during the playthrough.) I did not have the same level of stupid fun I did in playing the original Monochrome Mobius. And that left me sad.

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

let me say this first i enjoyed the turn based battles and the exploration it was well done. the characters weren't bad either. my issue with the game was about the storytelling which has a few plot holes throughout the game and the end specially. the story reads like fan fiction stuff. the writing could have been better and the end could have been done much better as well. despite liking the characters the game felt hollow for me and i invested 50 plus hour in this game. should i recommend it for the story, nope. the gameplay is pretty good to great and the exploration is satisfying but rpgs are more than gameplay and exploration if the story is incoherent then its not a good game to me, regardless. the previous games and visual novels had more quality story wise

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.

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!

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.

玩过前作的都能感觉出来，不锁30帧、战败不读档、战斗加速、修娘技能优化、ABL强化优化、投资溢出保留、原野扫荡骑马创怪、自动拾取、删除体力条、取消道具上限、随时传送......虽然即便如此可能也算不上“优秀的游戏”，但是相比于前作已经更像“现代的游戏”了。 但是有一说一主机版没有中文多少有点难蚌了。