Masquerada - RTWP 2.5D RPG from Singapore!

[Bubbles]

this is pretty nice i think i'll get it

Maybe you can write the Codex review.

 

[Abu Antar]

Whoever writes it, it won't be very favorable.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Bubbles]

"Revive fallen party members during combat by right clicking on them."

Taking lessons from Sword Coast Legends

 

[JarlFrank]

It's probably necessary to have such easy revivals cause your party members will just walk into the fray, waste all their abilities and die like idiots.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Same kind of system was used in Dawn of War 2 (single player campaign) and Aarklash: Legacy too.

I might actually buy this one from eventual sale.

 

[bminorkey]

this is pretty nice i think i'll get it

Maybe you can write the Codex review.

honestly i'd be up for that, but considering the pace in which i complete video games, some asshole will beat me to it

 

[Lyre Mors]

honestly i'd be up for that, but considering the pace in which i complete video games, some asshole will beat me to it

Judging by the size of this thread and that the game is RTwP, it seems unlikely anyone will be jumping at the chance. I'm pretty interested in the game myself, but I'm waiting for some impressions before I go for it. I really like the looks of the setting, and RTwP was never something that I hated much at all.

 

[Bubbles]

Released. The game has accidentally launched without an options menu, but this is expected to be fixed shortly.

edit: Currently #104 on the Steam global bestseller list. Can't find any launch reviews.

 

[Sloul]

hugh

 

[Mustawd]

RPG games

 

[Bubbles]

110th place on Steam now. If things don't turn around fast, this game will have a worse launch than SitS.

 

[Bubbles]

Any impressions so far?

Devs seem to have dropped the ball on marketing. Haven't seen anyone mention the launch.

I've seen one single site report it so far. Based on what I saw on twitter, it looks like they relied heavily on streamers and tweets from industry personalities to provide launch day word of mouth. That seems to have failed.

That said, their PR manager is giving it everything she's got:

 

[Mustawd]

DD also had a badass trailer with great art.

 

[Bubbles]

Masquerada's concurrent players on launch day have peaked at 46. SitS peaked at 43, so this has not set a new record for "least popular launch of a crowdfunded RPG with the words 'Baldur's Gate' in the tagline"

For comparison's sake, Underrail launched to 952 concurrent players.

it looks like they relied heavily on streamers and tweets from industry personalities

That is not a bad strategy. It worked for Darkest Dungeon. But Red Hook actually paid the piper and not just rely on guilt trip tweets.

Oh yeah. The most popular launch day stream had 4 viewers when I visited it; I rather doubt that they give those people any special treatment beyond throwing a free key at them.

 

[Whisper]

How is game?

 

[Bubbles]

SINGAPORE - Award-winning Singapore-based indie game Masquerada: Songs And Shadows was released on Friday (Oct 30) after two years in development.

Co-founder and creative director Ian Gregory Tan told The Straits Times the team faced a technical issue, and worked till 6am on Saturday to resolve it. Exhausted, they opened a bottle of Moscato to celebrate.

The response on social media has been very positive, said Mr Tan, who said the successful launch was a weight off his back.

"We are very proud to put Singapore on the map this way," he said.

A Playstation 4 version is in the works and is set to be released in early 2017. Tan said they are also working on a New Game Plus with additional features for avid players.

Game creators Witching Hour Studios raised £60,162 (S$106,440) on crowdfunding website Kickstarter in less than a month back in April and May.

Among the backers was Internet service provider MyRepublic, which pledged £2,500.

The Kickstarter campaign, Witching Hour's first, funded only a portion of the project, which had a budget of more than $1 million.

Five months on, the tactical action role-playing game launched on online video game platform Steam at 9am Pacific Time on Friday (midnight, Singapore time).

The game was awarded Best Indie Game at last year's Tokyo Game Show by established Japanese magazine Dengeki PlayStation.

It was also featured in news and gaming sites online, like Forbes, Gamespot and Polygon, even before it was launched.

Set in a Venetian city that is embroiled in a civil war, it features impressive animation and famous voice actors from the television and video game industry.

The gameplay is primarily spell-based, with a pause mechanic akin to that used in games such as Baldur's Gate, where players can pause the game to queue their next move.

The game is available on the Steam store, gog.com and Humble store for US$24.99 (S$34).

http://www.straitstimes.com/tech/ga...nning-video-game-masquerada-launches-on-steam

So they launch at midnight local time on the final day of Q3. Wonder what kind of production deal they had.

Also, a budget of $1 million seems higher than what the SitS people had. This might end up setting a new record after all.

Meanwhile the Steam user rating has fallen to "Mixed."

 

[Abu Antar]

If the demo is anything to go by, this game is a good fit for tablets. There's nothing Baldur's Gate about this if you don't count rtwp combat.

 

[Bubbles]

There's nothing Baldur's Gate about this if you don't count rtwp combat.

Apparently most of the plot takes place in a large city.

By the way, the Mac version failed GOG's internal testing, so its launch has been delayed.

 

[Bubbles]

If you want more info on the game, be sure to check out the official forums!

 

[Infinitron]

RK47, how about a patriotic LP?

 

[Morkar Left]

If you want more info on the game, be sure to check out the official forums!

Holy shit...

Anyway, such a game could only be good for me if you have an open world and quest approach aka Fallout 1, BG or Planescape Torment. Only being able to play a story in a restrict linear fashion will get boring really, really quickly. Unfortunately this seems to be such a game. A bit of a shame since the setting seems interesting.
I guess they failed to set the right priorities with the big budget they got.

 

[Rahdulan]

At least they put out a demo.

Tried out the demo. I think it might be on the level of Shadowrun Returns from what I've seen, even if they did put in extra effort into cinematic presentation with things like simulated motion comic scenes and voice acting. Would've preferred turn-based combat, though. It's not that combat takes too long but there's that "characters going through motions until their skills are off the cooldown" flow to it I'm not sure how I would feel about couple of hours in.

 

[Bubbles]

Hardcore Gamer has reviewed... the demo:

Masquerada and the Importance of Quality Demos


I have been writing up a lot of previews recently, and if I had to be honest, an article summing up my thoughts on a demo of Masquerada: Songs and Shadows was quite low on my list of priorities. Not because the game was bad, mind you. No, the isometric tactical action RPG from Ysbryd Games and Singapore-based developers Witching Hour Studios is legitimately good. In fact, it should officially be out by the time you read this article, so you may want to consider giving it a shot. It’s just that even after making my way through the entire demo, I barely have any memories of it that stand out.

The demo centered around a group of rebels storming a castle in order to confront some of the higher-ups in the land, but save for one twist during the final cinematic, there wasn’t anything that stood out any more than your typical RPG. Which is odd, because going over the story as seen elsewhere, with its themes of class struggles and Robin Hood-esque action as the city of Ombre is divided due to the haves with their magic-granting Mascherines oppressing the have-nots, sounds quite intriguing indeed. And it looks like the developers have indeed taken the time to craft an incredibly deep, unique fantasy world, but not much of that was on display in this bit.

Maybe it doesn’t exactly help that one of the game’s selling points – the ability to pause the action and then take the time to set up each character’s next action, in a manner similar to Transistor – felt unnecessary in the demo. Throughout it all, I just found myself commanding one lone character and striking whatever enemies my fellow NPCs were attacking with alternating regular and special attacks. Another of Masquerada’s selling points, elemental magic tags with status effects, didn’t even appear to be present in all in the portion I experienced. Perhaps both of these features are more prominent in the final game, but it puzzles one why they wouldn’t be more up front and center in the demo showcased to the press and public.

As mentioned back in our YIIK preview, it can be difficult to show off RPG demos at public events, but what Masquerada had on display didn’t seem to really do it justice. Well, either that, or the final product is actually weaker than expected, but I had also play a build of Masquerada at E3 a couple of years ago, and felt more memorable back then.

http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2016/10/01/masquerada-and-the-importance-of-quality-demos/228700/

Quite a puzzling article. He's saying that the demo is not representative of the final game, but he hasn't played the final game or any other preview build in the last "couple of years"? He says that the designers have crafted something "incredibly deep" from what he's "seen elsewhere", but he can't rule out that "the final product is actually weaker than expected"? And he starts the article calling the game "legitimately good" and gives a purchase recommendation? How odd.

 

[Bubbles]

GOG review: