Masquerada: Songs and Shadows’ Kickstarter campaign ends in little over a week, and they’re currently sitting at about 50% of their £45,000 goal. It’s as a fully-voiced, pause for tactics RPG, with “fully-voiced” being one of their major selling-points. It’s not the fact that it’s fully-voiced as much as it is the people that are voicing it; Matthew Mercer, whose work ranges from the Resident Evil franchise to Bethesda’s latest release, Fallout 4, is front-and-center in the game’s trailer. If you scroll down on their Kickstarter overview, you’ll find voice actors and actresses with similarly hefty resumes—Kalden Azrus (Diablo III, Arkham City), and Tiziana De Felici (Halo 5 Guardians), just to name two.
So I have to admit I was a bit disappointed when I watched the Kickstarter trailer, which starts off with some state-of-the-art visuals reminiscent of the Witcher 3, but then quickly fades to reveal the actual gameplay, which is nothing like the cinematic trailer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a snazzy first impression, but that opening video just seems a little over the top to me. That being said, the graphics are nothing to frown at, and I like how they’ve “eschewed an inventory system.” Not all RPGs need to be “loot fests” like Runescape, the Witcher, etc. They’ve implemented the conventional weapons upgrading system, which is much more approachable to players who might not have a background in RPGs but are interested in the look and feel of Masquerada. Developer Witching Hour studios has been updating their Kickstarter often, their most recent post being a journal entry of their time spent at gaming convention PAX, where they were visited by Angry Joe from the AngryJoeShow! Follow the progress of Masquerada: Songs and Shadows on our campaign calendar.
Track the progress of the Masquerada: Songs and Shadows Kickstarter in our Campaign Calendar.
Heya Felix, thanks for the write up! Ian here, a dev on Masquerada. Apologies for getting to this so late. Between PAX and a 26 hour flight home, I really haven’t been able to respond to everything. But I’m here now!
The trailer was something I wanted to work on with a new local animation studio — their first project, actually! I’m not sure where we’re headed, but I wanna take as many awesome people along. =)
Check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/voyageurstudios
Hey there! Thanks for sending that along. Like I said, the trailer looks amazing but it was strange to watch it and then see the actual gameplay. You can DM me on twitter if there’s anything else you’d like to add, or anything specific you’d like Cliqist to cover.