Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen Reviews

I finished Utawarerumono and I must say that though it has great world building and characters and beginning the middle really drags when the story turns into a cringe haram anime of all things. Also lots of the humour really falls flat for me with characters acting bizarrely to fufill unfunny jokes and fanservice. Not what I signed up for... While I enjoyed it again as the plot is heated up I cant say I would really recommend this despite my enjoyment so far. I kind of regret buying the series but still feel Like I have not wasted my time. The game most frustrates me with jokes about consent, which as someone who was abused in the past really pissed me off. The protagonist frustrates me the most with him acting noble and assertive in one scene but acting like a child in others, not telling the truth when it comes to problems to avoid "getting into trouble" over simple misunderstandings. YOU DO RELIZE YOU ARE THE FUCKING KING RIGHT???? He has no backbone and literally has his servents push him around. Its just frustrating to no end. The protagonist litteraly says to people constanly yo, you are acting too formaly. My dude. This is a fucking royal court. This is the only place people SHOULD be acting formally. Perhaps if you actually put some effort into being polite and enforceing some fucking decorum you would not have to deal with your very own subjects constanly bullying you and treating you like a fucking butt monkey when you are the most powerful man in all the land. One moment we're in a meeting room discussing the possibility and ramifications of being dragged into a war, the next moment we're being kidnapped by our gang of waifus and dragged into a plan that is definitely going to cause all those awful things we just had a meeting about. Its ridiculous and fails to suspend my disbelief. 7/10

The hidden masterpiece. Unfortunately, not many people know about this gem, that shines dimly even in the dark. And the re-imagining of this original game with music from the next games makes it even better. *Though, I would suggest setting music to "original", if you are new to this game/story. Only if you have experienced the next games, you come back to this original one, set music to "special extended edition" and enjoy it again. [+] 1) Epic story 2) Heavenly music 3) Excellent character development 4) Masterful story progression 4) Legendary characters 5) Outstanding VA 6) Nice RPG elements [-] 1) FPS lock The game is locked to 30 FPS. Even though it's a VN, but it has RPG elements. And PC versions should have 60 FPS as a standard by now... 2) Bad port The same thing will all Japanese games - this is more a unpolished port from PSP, than a full PC version. Unfortunately... 3) Sound volume bug The sound volume is bugged. The lowest setting is almost the same as the highest... 4) Bad keyboard & mouse controls All minuses come from the PC port being bad. The game itself outshines any minor inconveniences on the technical part. Conclusion: Masterpiece, 10/10.

Good story, gameplay, and everything else besides some of the slice of life moments. 7.1/10