Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is quickly becoming my favorite gaming convention find. I’ve written extensively about the game’s stunning art style and star-studded voiceover cast , but at PAX East 2016 I got my first look at a retooled combat system and started to get a real sense of how this gorgeous title will actually play.
“It’s been great. The reception hasn’t really changed from PAX to PAX. Everyone loves the art style, but the combat’s improved from what it was before,” said Nicholas Chan, lead writer for Masquerada: Songs and Shadows .
This is the fourth time I’ve been able to play a bit of Masquerada: Songs and Shadows and the improvements are noticeable. I give Witching Hour Studios a lot of credit for being as bold in their gameplay as they are in their art style. The game is a visual stunner, and it would be easy for a studio to just use generic hack-n-slash mechanics. But MSS plays more like a hybrid of Dragon Age: inquisition and Diablo than it does a straight iteration of either. And showing off this new combat system seems to the focus of this action-packed PAX exclusive demo.
“The demo is specific to PAX, you can’t get it anywhere else,” said Chan, lead writer for Masquerada: Songs and Shadows . “We’ve polished a lot of the game and introduced a lot of skills. We’ve refined the AI and abilities and how they work. We’ve put in the skill tree we’ve been talking about.”
The work is there. The demo takes players through a tour of a renaissance-style sewer system as they investigate … something. There is a LOT of narrative depth in Masquerada: Songs and Shadows so it was tough to pull a lot of details from a quick demo, but I’m happy to report there were no eye-rolling moments. The dialogue felt natural, the humor was effective and although this was just one small part of a much larger plot there still managed to be a bit of tension as I crept around looking for clues. While waiting for my turn at the demo a steady stream of impressed gamers congratulated Chan on a game well done.
“It’s been great. The reception hasn’t really changed from PAX to PAX. Everyone loves the art style, but the combat’s improved from what it was before,” he said.
Chan said Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is slated for release in late July/early August of 2016, and explained that the recent launch of a Kickstarter campaign is designed to help put the final touches on a game that’s near completion, not salvage a project that went off the rails.
“We’re not the kickstarter that takes your money and runs,” he said. “But we just want to buy ourselves a little bit of time to polish the game up and get it to a level we’re satisfied with.”
