Kemonomimi Master Race
Its title might be a bit of a mouthful to pronounce, butUtawarerumonois a good time. I’ve sung its praises over the years, and despite some missteps, I’d recommend the core series wholeheartedly…bar one problem: The original story is only available in English as a mediocre TV series adaptation. Atlus localized thetwo–partsequel for PS4 a couple of years back asUtawarerumono: Mask of DeceptionandMask of Truth, but the 2002 original was too old and janky to make for a viable port, leaving it Japan-exclusive but for some technically illegal fan translation patches.
Thankfully, developer Aquaplus opted to remaster the original recently asUtawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen. An English version is on its way to PS4 this year courtesy of NIS America (who also published theUtawarerumono: ZANspinoff).
Which brings us to the even better news: All three games will be getting PC ports from ShiraVN (a team based atKantai Collectionpublisher DMM games), starting withMask of DeceptionandMask of Truthdebuting on Steam this January 23.Prelude to the Fallenis “planned” for PC this year, presumably coming sometime after NISA brings out the console edition. ShiraVN promises that the PC editions will preserve the localization and translation work from the existing console editions, which is reassuring considering poor translation is a common complaint of Steam users perusing the store’s “foreign language” offerings.
All in all, good news for all three existingUtawarerumonofans (hi!). If you’re new to the franchise and want to see what all the fuss is about, I’d actually recommend holding out forPrelude to the Fallenif you can stand to wait for it.Mask of Deceptionworks decently as an entry point, but by necessity it spoils some background details that will blunt some key points inPrelude to the Fallen‘s story.
