Welcome!

Welcome to /r/Utawarerumono, a subreddit for discussing and sharing things about Leaf's visual novel and anime series, Utawarerumono. We don't get much traffic, but we're glad to have you here! Please make sure you mark your spoilers, and try to link to the sources for artwork.

Wait, What Is This?

Utawarerumono is a trilogy of visual novels with tactical RPG elements. The original was developed by Leaf, a subsidiary of Aquaplus, and subsequent games were developed by Aquaplus directly. The first two have also had anime series based on them, both of which have received English translations, and the latter two games have been released in English by Atlus. The games are set in a fantasy world influenced by Japanese and Ainu culture. They're commonly praised for having intricate stories, complex character development, beautiful music, and mind-blowing plot twists. In terms of story structure and breadth of plot, they have often been compared to Nihon Falcom's Kiseki / Trails series.

The first game opens with a man who has lost his memories waking up in a forest and discovering that he has a mask permanently attached to his face. He is taken in by the people of a nearby village, and in turn he helps protect them from bandits and would-be conquerers; over the course of the story, he leads a war to unite the country and also seeks to discover the truth of his past. The story explores themes of war, political intrigue, love, and identity.

In terms of gameplay, the games are primarily visual novels and involve reading quite a bit of text accompanied by character and background illustrations. The VN segments are occasionally broken up by tactical RPG battles in the vein of games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, or Fire Emblem; I would personally estimate that the games are about 80% VN and 20% TRPG.

By the way, there's also a lot of kemonomimi.

That Sounds Neat, What Order Should I Play / Watch Everything?

tl;dr version:

1. Wait for NISA's release early next year of Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen and play it
   1. If you can't wait, watch the 2006 Utawarerumono anime; streaming for free at Funimation and available for purchase on DVD.
   2. (Optional) Watch the 2009 Utawarerumono OAV; streaming at HIDIVE and available for purchase on Blu-ray & DVD.
2. Play Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception (PS4/Vita)
   1. (Optional) Play Utawarerumono Zan; it's the same story but highly abridged and with different gameplay
3. Play Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth (PS4/Vita)

• Warning: Don't look at anything about Mask of Truth until you've finished Mask of Deception; there are massive spoilers!

I've got a few minutes, what's the non-tl;dr version?

The original Utawarerumono was an adult visual novel released for Windows in 2002. It never received an official English translation. The game is available for sale digitally on DMM (warning: NSFW). There is also a fan translation of it, but unfortunately, the fan translation was designed to work with the original DVD release of the game and not the digital version. In addition, the erotic scenes in the game are commonly considered to be superfluous, if not actively detracting from the quality of the story; the game was developed during an era when the common belief was that visual novels needed to have adult material in order to sell well, and so they are present in the game despite not being a major part of it or important to the overall story.

It was ported to the Playstation 2 in 2006 and had voice acting added to it, various enhancements to the gameplay, and the adult scenes removed. That version would later be ported to the PSP in 2009. Neither of these versions received an English release, and these versions are easier to import nowadays, but there is no translation patch for them.

An anime series based on the game was produced in 2006, and an additional three-episode OVA that covers some side-stories not present in the original series was produced in 2009. Both were officially licensed and released by ADV Films, although the license has since been sold to Funimation. The anime series omits a few details that were present in the original game, but overall it is considered to be a good adaptation in the story, and it's the best way to experience it in English.

The series was then dormant for several years, and fans were surprised when two sequels, Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen and Utawarerumono: Futari no Hakuoro, were announced, and they were released in 2015 and 2016, respectively. An anime series based on Itsuwari no Kamen was announced simultaneously and released on Crunchyroll as Utawarerumono: The False Faces. The anime series received a lukewarm reception; while it covers the same basic story, the general consensus is that compared to the game, the anime has significant changes to its tone and pacing, plus it omits or changes a number of minor but important plot elements. No anime version of Futari no Hakuoro exists at this time.

Atlus later announced their licenses of both games, and they released Itsuwari no Kamen as Mask of Deception on May 23, 2017 and Futari no Hakuoro as Mask of Truth on September 5, 2017.

The three games all happen in sequential order and the stories are tied together. After the original, Mask of Deception introduces a new cast of characters and is set in a different location, but several characters from the original return in minor roles. Mask of Truth is a direct sequel to Mask of Deception and continues with the same characters, but it also has strong references to events from the original and concludes some of its open plot threads. If you really want to jump right into a game, you could play Mask of Deception before watching the original anime, as long as you keep in mind that you'll be missing some references and there will be a few characters it assumes you already know; on the other hand, you definitely need to have finished both before playing Mask of Truth.

On April 26th, 2018, another remake of the original, titled Utawarerumono: Chiriyukumono e no Komori Uta, was released for the PS4 and Vita. This version has retouched character art, completely redrawn backgrounds, an expanded soundtrack, and uses the combat system from the PS2 remake of the game. The game has been licensed for release as Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen by NIS America and is due out in Early 2020. It also included an all-new animated OVA set between the original Utawarerumono and Mask of Deception, but due to spoilers, it's recommended to not watch it until after you've finished Mask of Truth.

On September 27, 2018, they released Utawarerumono Zan, an action game based on Itsuwari no Kamen. The game was developed by Tamsoft, developers of the Senran Kagura games, and has similar gameplay; it tells a heavily abridged version of Itsuwari no Kamen's story, and during the action segments you control a group of four characters and fight waves of enemies. Every controllable unit and Ukon from the original Itsuwari no Kamen are playable, and Oshtor and Munechika are available as DLC characters. This game was licensed by NIS America and released on September 10, 2019.

On July 2, 2019, Aquaplus announced a new game in the series titled Utawarerumono: Lost Frag. The game is going to be an iOS/Android-based social RPG. Fairly few details are known about it, but there is a teaser site with character artwork and a new song by Suara. The game is scheduled to be released in Japan later this year.

That brings us to modern day, where even though our resources are limited, it's at least possible to experience the entire story of Utawarerumono in English, and soon every game will have an official translation!

To sum everything up, here's a list of major Utawarerumono game / anime releases. Platforms with an official English version are highlighted in bold.

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FAQ

Where can I talk to more Utaware fans?

There's a Discord chat server at https://discord.gg/bgJ9rAF! Come join us.

So exactly what is Utawarerumono Zan? Should I play it?

Zan is an action game developed by Tamsoft (developer of the Senran Kagura series) based on Mask of Deception. Its story is the same as MoD's except massively abridged; it compresses a 40-hour visual novel into under 10 hours of action game. It's a fun game if you want to play as your favorite MoD characters and beat up some mooks with musou/Warriors-style combat, but if you're interested in the story, I would not recommend playing it as a replacement for MoD.

Are any other Utawarerumono games in development?

Aquaplus announced at the same time that they announced Zan that they're working on an Utawarerumono RPG, but there are no other details about it yet.

I'm not really enjoying the original game or anime series. Will I like the others? Do I have to be familiar with the original?

While I like the original, I do think it's the weakest part of the series, and there are a lot of people who like the sequels much more. If you're just not getting into it, go ahead and skip to Mask of Deception and see if you like it more. There are events late in Mask of Truth that tie heavily into the original, but the game is still understandable even if you haven't finished it, and seeing the end of the series might give you more appreciation for the beginning.

I watched the The False Faces / the Itsuwari no Kamen anime, should I still play the game before playing Mask of Truth?

Yes! The anime made a lot of changes from the story of the game. Character introductions and backstories are different, a lot of character development was cut out, story arcs were removed, and details around major plot events were changed enough that some things in MoT just won't make sense.

I try not to be too harsh on the series -- I know people who enjoyed it and got into the Utawarerumono fandom because of it, and that's great -- but it really is not a good adaptation of the game.

Where can I buy Utaware merchandise?

Many online retailers such as CDJapan or Play-Asia carry CDs and DVDs.

If you want things like figures, posters, or other collectables, those are hard to come by from English retailers. Aquaplus and Toranoana, a chain of Japanese doujinshi stores, are owned by the same company, and Toranoana is the only place where most Utaware merch is sold. They have an online storefront at https://ec.toranoana.shop/aqua/ec/. Almost everything there is limited edition; they put new things up every few months, and sometimes they will make reprints of things, but very often after something sells out, it's gone for good.

Sometimes you can also find merch that is in used-but-good condition at used goods retailers such as Suruga-ya or Yahoo! JAPAN Auction.

All of those sites are in Japanese and don't ship internationally, which means that if you want to buy from them, you'll need to do so through a proxy shopping service. I have personally used White Rabbit Express many times and like them; also, Buyee specializes in Yahoo, and I've used BuySmart Japan, too. There are others out there, so feel free to share if you have success or failure stories. Be forewarned that proxy shopping can be expensive, and often the shopping fees combined with shipping and handling can be almost as expensive as the items you buy.

Last, sometimes you can rarely find merch on eBay, but the sellers there have markups so high that often it's more expensive than proxy shopping.