Masquerada: Songs and Shadows

Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is a top-down RPG that does a lot of things right: it tells a good story, developing a fascinating protagonist, and presents an efficient combat system that, despite being quite simple, works well for the most part.

The game’s story follows a man called Cicero Gavar, who is summoned back from exile to assist an investigation on the whereabouts of an important researcher. He assumes the role of Inspetore, but his findings will make him tread dangerous waters as he uncovers long-forgotten secrets about the world he lives in.

Cicero is a character haunted by his past, or more accurately, by his brother’s legacy. Cicero’s brother, Cyrus, organized a revolution, taking the tools of power in Ombre – masks – and distributing them to everyone in the city. Cicero, however, didn’t support the movement, and the revolution failed and his brother was killed. Because of his neutrality in the revolution, he is shunned by both sides: the politicians in the Spire accuse him of having not done his duty, while and the remnants of the rebel group, the Maskrunners, accuse him of cowardice, blaming him for never standing up to an unjust government. As one of the rebel leaders tells Cicero, “You didn’t choose at all! A spineless pathetic man is easier to hate than even a traitor.”

So, when he is called back to the city of Ombre, Cicero must confront his past mistakes. He’s starting to understand that his past neutrality was disingenuous: silence is always the reaffirmation of the status quo; to remains neutral is to choose the side of the oppressor. But, at the same time, he is now employed by the very same government that killed his brother. The revolution failed, and he must live with this fact.

That doesn’t mean that he has to like it, though. When questioned by his friend on why he is so bitter about wearing the Inspetore uniform again, Cicero’s answer is revealing: “Because this symbolizes everything about me that my brother would disapprove of. And I am wearing it.” This small response shows how Cicero still doesn’t care about the Maskrunners, about the revolution, about the injustices of the world. He is aware of them, but what he cares about is Cyrus. For Cicero, things are still not political; they’re personal. It’s the ghost of his brother that haunts him throughout the game.

And Cicero’s solution to that is not ideal: he wants to hide from it. When questioned by the same friend, he answers: “You think getting me to talk about my past will help me get over it – it won’t. I’ve spent the past five years burying the man that abandoned his brother and fled the city. Stop trying to bring him back.” Cicero is an interesting protagonist because when faced with political problems, his reactions are not based on his ideologies, but on his personal flaws. He was neutral in his brother’s revolution because he’s incapable of engagement. He can’t choose sides. He can’t stand politics. He wants to hide in a shell and be left alone. In his journals, Cicero explains this very well:

“My entire life thus far has been an attempt to disengage. When I was young, my brother and I kept to the shadows of the streets – we hunted where the other children would not, we stole from the houses that were the targets of no others. This was a choice I made for us, because I believed that the fewer ties we developed with the world around us, the less they had to hurt us with.”

Cicero doesn’t choose sides and wants to stay away from politics simply because it feels safer to do so. He’s a coward. He sees risk in being an activist and so he hides. That the game focuses so much on masks makes him a fitting protagonist: what Cicero wants most is to conceal himself behind a mask, to construct a persona that makes him safe.

However, as the plot unfolds, he learns that his mask – although powerful – demands a cost in lives. In Ombre, masks are a symbol of power because they bestow power. They separate castes – the Masquerada and the Contadani – and enforce social inequality. Those who wear masks have magical power at their disposal, creating a cruel circular argument: they have masks that make them stronger and they argue that because they are stronger they deserve those masks and have the right to rule. It’s no surprise, then, that Cicero’s brother wanted to distribute the masks to everyone: he wants to break the wheel and socialize power. But Cyrus failed.

Cicero’s journey starts with a criminal investigation but quickly derails once again into a political revolution. Cicero begins to uncover the secret behind the masks – their true nature and purpose – and, eventually, he stumbles upon the menacing figure of the Herald. The Herald is the antagonist: a religious fanatic that wants peace, but wants to achieve that by killing a lot of innocent people. It’s the classic case of the villain who has a noble goal but terribly misguided methods. What makes the Herald a bit more interesting is the fact that they know what they are and it pains them. They comprehend that they are the author of carnage and basically genocide. They don’t like being part of any of that, abhorring senseless violence, but their faith binds them with the promise of an elusive reward: the greater good. There is a great scene in which, after questioning their God and obtaining no answer, the Herald releases a deep cry of frustration and pain: it signals that they are finally starting to question if faith is enough of a justification to violence.

Cicero, meanwhile, manages to form a group of so-called friends to assist him in his journey, even though it’s far from being a united one. It’s telling that, when one of the characters reveals to Cicero the truth about their sexuality, the protagonist advises them to hide that information from the rest of the group, fearing reprisal: they all have secrets and no one trusts anyone. One of your party members is even honest about being a spy infiltrated in the investigation to report to others all about Cicero’s findings.

They all have simple character arcs that become less effective each time they’re spelled out.  Even Cicero’s arc is put in clear terms in his journal, as he learns the fallacy of neutrality: “By those immutable facts, we impact the world, no matter how deep a hole we try to isolate ourselves in. We are accountable for the influence that we have on those around us, no matter if it was inflicted by our design or by uncontrollable circumstance.” Another similar problem in Masquerada is the overabundance of pointless lore. Everywhere you go there’s a codex entry describing a place or a historical event that doesn’t matter. The game proves the maxim “show, don’t tell” by telling too much and showing too little, making us bored in the process.

On the gameplay department, we could describe Masquerada as a “Pillars of Eternity lite”. It’s a Top-Down RPG in which you control a party of three characters with skills. It’s lite because the game doesn’t have exploration and sidequests, the characters only have four skills, there are no complex combos, and the basic attack activates automatically when near an enemy. It’s a linear game, with pretty basic systems: even skill points are awarded at predetermined times instead of when defeating monsters or completing missions.

There are still some small issues, however. To revive a team member, for example, you have to get near them and press “A”. However, this is the same button that activates one of the four skills, which can make the action frustrating. Moreover, the skills are all too similar, which makes the ability to change the character you control on the fly a bit superfluous, as they all play basically the same.

The game’s art style is a colorful one, giving it a striking look. Cutscenes are presented in animated panels, and the general aesthetic is clearly Italian. The only downside of the presentation is the lackluster soundtrack, considering it has only one mood: solemn. When you are at the Spire, the music is solemn. When you are in the streets, the music is solemn. When you are visiting any other place, the music is solemn. The only exception is your headquarters – the music is melancholic – and the combat, when the music has a bit, but just a bit more energy. For a game that has “Songs” in its title, this is definitely a disappointment.

Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is a simple RPG with a good story. It could have been much better, though, if it had developed its side characters a bit more, been more selective with its worldbuilding, and boasted a more varied and exciting soundtrack. It’s still a good game, but it had the potential to be a really memorable one.

June 12, 2019.