I played all 3 games. I just gotta say, I enjoyed all of them, but... Mask of Truth just felt like the devs just sort of got tired and started to try less and less.
ALSO JUST IN CASE YOU DIDN'T READ TAGS, NO HENTAI!
Here's my review;
Gameplay: 5/5, same as the prequel.
No major problems here. Some crits seem harder to get than the prequel for some reason, and some crits have less of a timing window then they seem, while others are much more forgiving. Example: Atuy's chain is super fast but I was able to consistently get it, while Kuon's close range attack, I'd constantly miss the second hit's critical. It just felt strange TBH.
It adds Munechika's Trials which help introduce new challenges and things. It actually teaches you some things. However, it's ratings of difficulty seem to be off. Some 3 stars are very... Dynamic? And require some thinking, while some 5 stars were easy enough to just figure out the order of stuff.
Has like, 25 or 26 stages? Has a lot of battles and the difficulty went from medium (early), to hard (mid-game), to easy (late game). Some of the stages felt really difficult to try and "perfect" and I tried pretty hard while some others I just ran off instinct and won.
BTW, I've beaten FE:Echoes on Hard, so I do believe I know a thing or two about strategy. So if you're new to strategy games, it might be harder.
Overall, nothing particularly bad. Also the "VN" part of the game is... Just like any other. You read. And listen. Or just read. Or just listen if you understand Japanese.
Soundtrack: 5/5, actually really good.
Nothing much to say here, some music you might get sick of because of how long this game is and you'll DEFINITELY re-listen to some of them, but overall, they're all good. Sounds are really good too.
Story: 3/5, I... Felt Disappointed.
The OG Utawarerumono and Mask of Deception made me feel actually sad. Mask of Truth? Not really. Not even in those emotional scenes. A lot of stuff felt "Deus Ex" where rules are specifically bent for our MC or they get EXCEEDINGLY lucky or something, and some stuff felt like it broke the logic set up by the previous games. And many a times, it'd go over EVERY character and their opinions or thoughts and whatnot, and by the end, I was like, "Oh I'm almost done" but I wasn't. I was several hours off. Credits roll TWICE, and there's a scene after BOTH sets of credits.
Basically, some things were off, not as emotional, felt like it violated previous rules, lots of cliches and stuff. Early on, it's good, but by the end, it starts to drop the ball.
Art/Animations: 5/5, A N I M E
It's consistent with the prequel, and even on it's own, it's good. Some designs are still questionable like, why are all transformations... Sharks? Not really bad per se but... Also some animations during cutscenes are desynced or something, and just look weird. But the designs of... A certain shota trio post-mortem were pretty cool.
TL;DR: 4/5, some flaws but great nonetheless
I would still highly recommend getting the game after playing the prequels. On it's own, it's really good, story is great-to-mediocre, art & music is awesome, and gameplay is really good. I just wish that the plot didn't go so downhill. It just felt like it got dumb and "lucky" in certain situations. Can't get into those scenes because spoilers.
