Utawarerumono: Past and Present Rediscovered Reviews

TLDR: Don't view Monochrome Mobius and Past and Present Rediscovered as a continuation of Utawarerumono, otherwise you are setting yourself up for disappointment. View it as a self-contained story with no tangible impact on the originals told using a decent, but relatively standard & lower budget JRPG format. With a few unique ideas thrown into the mix. For me personally, the Mask duology still remains by far the best part of the series. MM and P&PR don't really come close outside of a few key moments, the former having more of them in its story while the latter has a more refined gameplay. Perhaps the most important point that fans of Utawarerumono should be aware of before going into this title is that Past and Present Rediscovered is not really a finale of the whole Utawarerumono series. It might be the last Utawarerumono game, but it is simply a finale of Monochrome Mobius, nothing more. It in no way enhances the original story told in the first 3 titles and further cements itself along with MM as a simple JRPG spinoff series with self-contained plot and lore that only shares a world and a few of the characters with the other Utawarerumono games. Which is not that unexpected considering these last 2 games are prequels to the originals. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed when it comes to how little this entire story matters in the entire series' narrative, almost as if these JRPGs were simply a dream one of the characters from the VNs was having. That's how little impact it has. As for this self-contained story itself, I'd say it was just "okay." I have to admit I enjoyed Monochrome Mobius a bit more, perhaps because back then conflicts were simpler and I had higher expectations of where the plot could be heading and how it would connect to the previous games. But as I progressed further and further into this title, I realized that the story is headed in the most "standard" JRPG direction possible with a very stereotypical JRPG climax during which I became emotionally disconnected from the whole narrative. That is not to say I hated the plot or the characters or the world building. It just never really distinguished itself from the norm I'm used to in this genre and storytelling that I have seen many times already. Not bad. Just simply not anything special either. Outside of a few highlight scenes, but those were few and far between and not as impactful compared to the Mask duology. As for gameplay, it's pretty much Monochrome Mobius with extra player-friendly quality-of-life simplifications and features. Plus some enhancements to combat and exploration, which I admit, made me enjoy both these aspects more compared to the previous title. Which I was already quite fond of due to some of the unique features it came up with. Nothing too groundbreaking, but fun enough to keep me entertained throughout the whole playthrough. And that is impressive for a JRPG this long.

To my understanding this is the final game in the Utawarerumono series which saddens me but everything has to come to an end, even though I think this game was a bit rushed and a lot of it's parts didn't add to the original story if we take it as an extra side story for the character Oshter then it was a good finale nonetheless because the main ending of the series didn't change. I recommend this game and the Utawarerumono series wholeheartedly to anyone who appreciate a great story. My recommendation to playing the Utawarerumono series is to play it in the order they were released, other way of playing it is by playing the games (Mask of Deception) and (Mask of Truth) after you played (Rights and Wrongs Forgotten) and this game (Past and Present Rediscovered) which will give you a different perspective, it's always better to start with the game (Prelude to the Fallen) before the other four, but at the end the choice is yours to play the series however you want because it's a great story whatever order you play it.

I'll be honest, I am disappointed. Aside from some QoL changes and mechanics update, it just feels underbaked on all levels compared to the first game, which, while it was bland and lacked direction, still felt perfected. I will assume this is due to deadlines and the devs just wanted to push out something that works, and while it feels very janky, it is in fact working. Despite it's flaws, the story and characters are there and it does feels like a continuation of the first game, so I am giving it a passing score as an Utawarerumono fan, but I would hope the game gets updated as it ages. The one annoying "bug" I noticed however is that for some reason, the game takes a very long time to boot up, leading to a black screen while you wait, but once it's done, it works fine. EDIT: now that I finished the game, I will say I was a bit harsh at the beginning. The game is still far from perfect, but once you get the momentum going and get used to it, it's a pretty enjoyable experience. Story wise, I will say, I am very satisfied.

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.

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.

A definite improvement from the 1st game. A fantastic conclusion to monochrome mobius but definitely flawed to say this is a satisfying last series for the Utawarerumono franchise. The story itself for this game just felt flawed, in that it just didn't feel like Oshtor was fleshed out and worked on in comparison to the other protagonists, a one-dimensional character that didn't really bloom until the end. It even felt like Halu was the de-facto protagonist that had more impact most of the game, however the ending is still nonetheless the saving grace for this character. So many things that could have been done better, a story that suffered due to the game format switching away from being a visual novel, however nonetheless a great game in it's own rights. The combat is definitely a lot more fun and engaging than the first game, not to mention knowing how rough the 1st game started out as, with the blank/basic models for npc. I can't help but appreciate all the QOL changes done to this game. Seeing all the familiar faces from the different games come back as fun easter eggs was definitely a happy surprise. Last but not least the ending is as good as I expected it to be, and I will definitely pick this game back up again when replaying through the entire franchise one day.

First before anything. I LOVED this game. A massive upgrade from Monochrome Mobius in many aspects, and similar is others. I loved the way the story concluded, and am sad that this is the final game in the franchise (hopefully one day they continue, I love this world). Now on to the review: This game is a upgrade from Monochrome mobius, Attacks/Magecraft tiers are in one place with a toggle instead of left to right 1-4 taking more space then needed. The world building is lessened greatly as this meant to be the final game you play in the series/after Monochrome. If you read my review of Monochrome I hate turn based games. This franchise is an exception to that rule. Compared to last game I feel like I used my BP more reasonably and was decently leveled throughout the game (little grind, maybe 1 hour at most) Gameplay is similar to Monochrome (albeit almost the same, minor differences) The Story mostly continues from Monochrome (a massive spoiler for Mask of Deception near the end) and knowledge from Prelude is required before playing. Now that the JRPG Duology is finished, I can confidently say there's two routes you can go. Route 1: Prelude->Monochrome->Mask of Deception (MoD)->Mask of Truth (MoT) - Past and Present Rediscovered (PaPR) This route will provide the best way of getting to know the characters and makes you feel more for them in the Mask Games. Route 2: Prelude->MoD->MoT->MM->PaPR This route is the release order and generally seen as the best way to see it. I would argue Route 1 is better, for getting to know Oshtor, Mikazuchi, & Munechika before MoD/MoT. Besides that, I will miss this franchise and the world of Yamato and Tuskur. This franchise isn't for everyone, but at least give it a try with Prelude and Monochrome or Season 1 of the Anime (which does cut things out) I would 10/10 would recommend this game. Scoring: 10/10 -Mistress Jumingi, "Goodbye Yamato and Tuskur. Goodbye my friends. I hope one day to see you again. Alright Haku, It's time to go..."

The end of an era. Turn back if you haven't played any of the other games, as this is the final entry of the Utawarerumono series and requires a LOT of context established by prior games. Yes, I do recommend to play the entire franchise. No doubt. They're visual novels so have patience if things seem too slow and passive. Utawarerumono is a unique and beautiful story. Gameplay systems feel much more polished compared to Monochrome Moebius. It's a solid JRPG and is better balanced than its predecessor. Great for Aquaplus' second attempt at switching from SRPGs to Dragon Quest-like RPGs for their visual novels. The soundtrack is nice, Suara is great as usual. They've reused and remixed a few familiar songs and used them when it hits hardest. *Nudges subtly at Kimi ga Tame leitmotif* The 3d models are an improvement from MonoMebi but it's a shame we've seen a sizable reduction of the beautiful artwork CGs we've have over the entire series' lifespan. Finally the story, why we're all here. God. Like every entry they've made, it's got soul and the journey and ending is going to stick with me for awhile. I haven't quite figured out where it fits in the rankings of Uta games. It's best to approach this entry as a sendoff for Oshtor rather than a conclusion to the franchise. Timeline-wise it's a prequel but Oshtor has a big impact on the story as whole and is arguably one of the three protagonists of the series alongside Hakuowlo and Haku. This game mostly serves to flesh out his journey and tie up loose ends of each entry that weren't explained. Looking forward to replaying the games with this new entry in mind. For now, farewell pain and kemonomimi.

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

As a fan of the Utawarerumono series, it breaks my heart to write this review. Utawarerumono: Past and Present Rediscovered tries to be many things. It wants to be a JRPG, a visual novel, an epic emotional story, character driven experience, presenting a wonderful world, add onto the existing lore of the world in meaningful ways and an evolution to a great series with more story that we could love. And it failed on all accounts. The game is not a good game. It's not even a good VN. It doesn't even tell a good story. For JRPG, the game is extremely linear. You run from one point to the other to trigger cutscenes. That is it. There is no gameplay gimmick to break the monotony of running and doing battles, no puzzles, no sidequests beyond go here and kill this monster. The gameplay is too simple to be a JRPG. And the ruler mechanic that allows the player to instantly kills anything on field once they defeated a certain number of enemies + area rulers meant that the combat, one of the most enjoyable aspect of the game, is cut short, as players are punished for doing combat, as they will be wasting resources compared to just instant killing the enemy on the screen. It is not a good VN. For every poignant scene that drives the story forward, the game gives you four other scenes reiterating a point that the player have already known but told through another person, flashbacks that are filled with nothing except a sentence or two of important information and attempts at levity when the situation does not call for it. It is like watching Naruto pre-Shippuden where about 40 episodes out of 200 are actual story, the rest are just mindless, repetitive fillers. And the scream, oh the screams. Please learn that people can express grief by being silent or sobs, and that screaming all the time just makes them grating. The 'supposedly' emotional moments of the story are unearned, because they are not set up right. Plot points are thrown in there to try to elicit feelings out of players without proper set up and backstory, and aspect that the games before this was excellent in doing, which is puzzling why this game failed to do so. And characters doesn't stay dead with so many supposedly 'dead' people keep coming back, just to die and then come back again for emotional scenes that loses more pay-off every time as the whole thing just borders into the absurd. And not everything needed to be explained, something can remain a mystery and the story would be better for it. It doesn't need to be explained 3 times as well, that's just insulting the player's intelligence. And it leans so heavily on other games in the franchise, if you cut those out, there isn't a skeleton here that can stand on its own. It is also not a step up to the series. It's a hurtle downhill. Graphically, it is not impressive. Mind, the artsyle is beautiful, but they did not translate this well into 3D models that clips and have texture issues, making the game looks like a late PS2 early PS3 game rather than a modern product. I can tolerate a lot, but this is the limit. Largest problem of this game is that, alongside Monochrome Mobius, a game which I liked, this is a game that did not need to exist. It tells a story that is shoehorned into the mythos that added more problems into the story that depreciate your appreciation for the games that came before. And it is heavily in need of an editor. The first 3/5th of the game is not needed, it's just a prolong sidequest that leads nowhere. And the final 2/5th of the game is such a bore, because it is dominated by 5 minutes of walking to be subjected to hours upon hours of cutscenes of people explaining and repeating things that ultimately amounted to nothing. 5 hours game stretched into 30. Don't get it. Its bad. Even if you have played Monochrome Mobius and liked it, don't get this. It will ruin Monochrome Mobius for you.