A condensed legend reforged — When visual novel storytelling meets musou action.
As you may know, Utawarerumono: ZAN was developed by Tamsoft, the company behind Senran Kagura, and published by NIS America. The Utawarerumono series started as a small Japanese franchise. It has long combined visual novels with tactical SRPG elements, with story and character growth being very important in each game. But ZAN takes a strange turn.
It turns Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception into a full-fledged action game, more like a Warriors-style hack-and-slash than a standard SRPG or visual novel. This big shift in genres is meant to be exciting for longtime fans who want to revisit a familiar story in a new way, but it can feel strange for newcomers to the genre.
The story of Utawarerumono: ZAN is based on Mask of Deception, but it is broken up into smaller pieces, with fast-paced action replacing more in-depth character moments.
Utawarerumono: ZAN has a story that is having trouble finding its feet. The main character of the game is Haku, who can’t remember anything. A mysterious young woman named Kuon saves him and sets him on a trip through the land of Yamato. He makes friends along the way with Maroro, Ukon, Uruuru, and Saraana.
Eventually, he gets involved in fights that decide the fate of the world. The story is told through narrated scenes over still images, partly animated scenes, and sometimes cutscenes, but it doesn’t go into great detail very often. A lot of things are skipped over, characters are barely presented, and important parts of the story from the original visual novel are only hinted at.
For fans who have played Mask of Deception before, ZAN is like a “refresher” or a shortened version of the story. But for new players, the story can feel scattered and hard to follow. There is a lot of dialogue in the game, and the pace can be off; whole chapters go by with little action, and plot points often jump around.
Sometimes, this fast-paced storytelling makes it harder for characters to grow and for dramatic moments to have an effect. Still, the game does a good job of explaining the story and the ties between the main characters. For people who are already into the series, it might even make them want to go back to the first visual novel for a more complete experience.
Although Utawarerumono: ZAN is mostly a hack-and-slash game based on the Warriors style, it has some interesting differences. For each task, players can pick up to four characters from a list of twelve. Each character has their own attack style, movement speed, and skills, which gives the party makeup meaning.
Most missions have goals that you must meet, such as killing specific enemies, staying alive for a set period, or gathering goods. There are 18 chapters in the story mode, ranging from straight fighting to a mix of story and battle.
Besides the story, the game has content that can be played again and again, such as fight memories, free missions, and the battle arena.
Each character has its own set of tasks in the arena, and mastering them unlocks special rewards. Free missions offer a variety of tasks and goals that break up the main campaign’s repetition. The game’s loop is quite simple: do activities to get experience points (XP), bonus points, and in-game money (Sen). Then come back to improve your characters and unlock new content.
At first, Utawarerumono: ZAN‘s combat seems very easy, but it gets more complicated as you play. For simple fights with weak enemies, you’ll need to press a lot of buttons. For combos, press the square button, and for strong moves, press the triangle button.
But tougher enemies and bosses make the game more difficult because players have to switch between party members, manage their skills, and avoid attacks. In battle, each character has unique strikes, healing skills, or buffs that can be used strategically.
Utawarerumono: ZAN also lets you break enemy guards, attack from behind for bonuses, and use an ultra attack once per fight, though these aren’t always very powerful compared to how many resources they cost. Party synergy is very important.
Some characters’ skills work well together, and “spirit” or connection benefits can change how well they do, which makes it exciting to test out new combinations.
You can also employ scrolls to change their attributes or powers, which adds another element of strategy to the game. Combat is fun, but it can get boring after a while, especially in the beginning or middle of the game when just hitting buttons is enough. Later stages and post-game content, on the other hand, reward players who plan and use their characters’ skills effectively.
Utawarerumono: ZAN‘s combat is strong because it has a lot of different characters, works like a party, and lets you unlock powers. You can switch between four characters in real time, which makes the game more interesting.
Also, each character feels different enough to make you want to try new things. Customization is possible through scrolls and equipment changes, allowing players to build characters better suited to offense, defense, or support.
The bad thing is that the combat method is often not fully explained. Some features, like how item drops automatically change to Sen or the best way to use Chains and Overzeal Mode, can go unnoticed for hours.
In the main campaign, repetitive tasks can make combat feel shallow until later chapters or side missions require more strategy. Some moves, like ultra strikes or chain attacks, can feel weak or unbalanced, especially if they are used in the wrong way.
Utawarerumono: ZAN has many different ways to move forward. Characters get XP just by fighting, which raises their base level but doesn’t have a big effect on their total stats. More useful are Bonus Points (BP), which you get by finishing mission objectives or sub-objectives.
You can use them to improve your character’s stats, learn new talents, or give them more scrolls to wear. You can also use sen, the game’s money, in a gacha-style lottery to earn better things, clothes, and scrolls.
This method makes things more interesting and makes you want to play missions again and again, but it can get annoying because you have to try many missions or post-game content to unlock all the skills and scrolls. Still, the customization is fun because it lets players make their characters work better with certain strategies and beat tougher challenges or arena fights after the game is over.
Utawarerumono: ZAN‘s look is all over the place.
Character models are well-rendered and detailed, especially in conversation scenes. This is because the series started as a visual novel. There are high-quality 2D and 3D backgrounds, partly animated scenes, and expressive character portraits in story scenes, making reading the dialogue fun.
In combat missions, the environments are fine, but they are usually small and focused on the goal rather than expansive. The visual effects in battle, like Chains, Overzeal Mode, and elemental strikes, look good, but they don’t have the cinematic feel of other Musou games.
The graphics are fine, and the character designs are well done, but some cutscenes are short or absent for long stretches. This creates a static, visual novel-like experience that sometimes feels off or disappointing for a full-priced retail game.
One of the best things about Utawarerumono: ZAN is how the sound is designed. There are many songs on the soundtrack that work well for battle, exploration, and story scenes, adding to both serious and funny moments. Voice acting is only done in Japanese; there is no English dub or subtitles for those who would like them.
The voice actors did a great job in their roles, and their performances made the story more interesting, especially in the later parts. The sound effects for attacks, abilities, and combos are satisfying, and they give fights weight even when they are simple. Overall, the sound works well with both the VN-style story and the hack-and-slash gameplay.
Utawarerumono: ZAN is a strange mix of a visual novel and a Warriors-style hack-and-slash game that will mostly appeal to people who have already played the other games in the series. Its best features are the wide range of characters, the way battles work with groups, and the way players can change how they move, which makes trying out different strategies more rewarding.
But the story is sped up so much that it’s hard for new readers to follow. Important plot points and character growth are skipped in favor of quick-moving “highlights.” Combat can be fun, but it can get boring after a while.
Adding layers with Chains, scrolls, and Spirit bonuses is possible, but they aren’t always explained well, and you have to grind to fully understand them. The game looks and sounds good. The characters are well-detailed, the settings are well-made, and the music and voice acting are appropriate.
