There’s a world where a limited number of masks give their users magical abilities. Those who hold the masks are the high class aristocrats of the society, and the oppressed seek to steal the masks and start a rebellion. Cicero is an inspector who is faced with inspecting the disappearance of an individual, and whose loyalties between the Masquerada and the lower class will be tested. Cicero will lead a team of other mask wielders into battle, each one with their own story to tell and their own piece of the grand puzzle that is Masquerada.
The first thing to easily notice about Masquerada is the wonderful hand drawn artwork. The background plates of the levels look outline by colored pencils and filled by chalk. The characters are beautifully drawn, each one have their own distinct look, while maintaining the overall unique art style of the game. Masquerada is a great looking game, and I assessed all of this before I even sat down for my demo.
Sitting down and being handed the controller, I was a little overwhelmed at first. Masquerada is an isometric RPG — equal parts Dragon Age, Baldur’s Gate, and Transistor. The complexity and depth of the character abilities is a bit much to deal with in a brief demo setting. Fortunately Masquerada allows you to pause the action to tactically set up your battle settings, similar to Dragon Age: Inquisition. This made things a little bit easier as I was able to assess what each character was adding to the battlefield and utilize their unique classes and abilities to my advantage.
Tactical Combat RPG
Hopefully the final game will have more of a progressive build up, allowing you to first get used to the combat before overwhelming players with a wealth of character abilities. Once I got the hang of what I was doing, battle management was fun and I found myself tactically laying out my character positions and attacks for maximum efficiency against regular groups of enemies and the demo’s boss alike.
If you aren’t a tactical player, don’t worry, the slow and purposeful gameplay isn’t required. You can charge into battle mashing the buttons to activate abilities and take out enemies, or you can even mix and match, using active battle and tactical gameplay cohesively. This is the way that I found myself playing through most encounters, with a couple of pauses to make sure that my party was healed or positioned just right before attacking the enemy relentlessly.
Masquerada looks delightfully simple but hides a deep battle system beneath its colorful exterior. While my demo didn’t dive too deeply into the lore of the world, I was told enough by one of the devs that I am itching to return to the world, put on a mask, and discover the mysteries of the Masquerada when it releases on PS4 early in 2016.
PSX 2015 On Site Gallery
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PlayStation Experience 2015
The enormous autograph wall allowed fans to share in their PlayStation love.
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Ratchet
Waiting in line to pick up his badge, Stephen gets a glimpse of his first PlayStation character!
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Badge Pickup Desk
Heading to the third floor to watch the keynote!
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Keynote
The hall was packed with PlayStation fans eagerly awaiting Sony's announcements.
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Final Fantasy VII Remake
What a way to open the show! We were excited to get a glimpse at more of Final Fantasy VII Remake.
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Battleborn
Randy Pitchford talks more about the upcoming beta for Battleborn.
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Street Fighter V
Fighting fans rejoiced as more was announced for Street Fighter V.
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PlayStation VR
The PlayStation VR offering was expansive, with two floors of virtual reality units ready for players to try out.
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Dead Star
Dead Star is a competitive, twin-stick, MOBA style game, featuring 10 v 10 battles in space! Keep an eye out for our preview soon!
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Destiny: Sparrow Racing League
Chandler previews Destiny's Sparrow Racing League ahead of its Dec. 8th release.
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Dark Souls 3
This enormous fountain was a photo op that sprayed "blood" from the body of the fallen soldier.
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Dark Souls 3
Here's the blood fountain in action.
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MLB: The Show Trophy Bar
Want an easy way to grab a beer and play some baseball? MLB: The Show's trophy bar offered both!
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Uncharted 4
No, the main game wasn't playable, but anyone missing the multiplayer beta of Uncharted 4 was able to play the multiplayer at this enormous booth.
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PlayStation Vue
Not only were the games on show, but PlayStation's media features were given a focus too, with this booth giving more information on Sony's PlayStation Vue service.
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PlayStation 4
Who can resist checking out a variety of PS4s, DualShock 4s, and that sweet PlayStation VR headset?
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Abzu
The underwater game that evokes feelings of titles by thatgamecompany was playable on the show floor.
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Helghast
Stephen is caught by some Helghast for being an ISA spy. Fortunately it was all just a misunderstanding and we were allowed to go about our business without further delay.
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Disney Infinity
Disney usually brings their massive arch of Infinity figures, and they were showing off the latest additions to Disney Infinity 3.0 at the show.
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RIGS (Livecast Stage)
The creators of RIGS talk more about the competitive VR game on the livecast stage.
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RIGS (Livecast Stage)
The creators of RIGS talk more about the competitive VR game on the livecast stage.
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Capcom Cup
Sunday morning the Capcom Cup gets underway!
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Tim Schafer (Double Fine)
Tim Schafer sits on the livecast stage to talk about the games that Double Fine is bringing to the PS4.
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Battleborn
A huge display showcases some of the characters from Battleborn.
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Hob
Indie game Hob was popular despite being tucked along one of the walls.
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Far Cry Primal
Fans got a chance to tame beasts in Far Cry Primal's first playable showing.
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Abzu
Due to the lit up sign, this picture's exposure turned out pretty cool.
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Destiny
Destiny's guardians wandered the show floor keeping guests safe from the darkness and waiting for a Gjallahorn drop.
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Masquerada
Chandler is shown indie game Masquerada by one of the devs.
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Randall
An enormous statue of the character from Randall looms over their booth.
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Uncharted 4
Walking by the Uncharted 4 booth kept having us question if we were still in San Francisco.
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Drawn to Death
An enormous notebook for fans to doodle on. Who knows, maybe David Jaffe will take future character inspiration from it?
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PlayStation Network
The back wall was a showcase of the PlayStation Network and its media features.
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LEGO Hulk Battle
It's Hulk vs. Hulkbuster in this fight of epic LEGO proportions.
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LEGO Hulk Battle
It's Hulk vs. Hulkbuster in this fight of epic LEGO proportions.
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MLB: The Show Trophy Bar
Because just one picture of the place where you can get beer at the show isn't good enough.
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Livecast Stage
The livecast stage was host to a number of awesome events, talking to developers and showing off games.
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RIGS
The RIGS demo station pitted two teams against each other in one of the most desired demos at the show.
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Yoda
This giant statue of a Disney Infinity Yoda is bigger than Yoda would be in real life.
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Destiny Sparrow Racing League
If only this Sparrow had an actual engine so that we could race around the show!
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Destiny Sparrow Racing League
We're ready to race our sparrows for some loot!
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Chandler and Kratos
Chandler met Kratos and somehow survived the experience!
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Stephen and Ratchet
Ratchet's a movie star now, and Stephen just had to get a picture with him on the red carpet.
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Chandler and Ratchet
Ok, Chandler decided to grab a picture with Ratchet too.
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Atoi and Iota
Chandler and Stephen take a moment to visit with messengers Atoi and Iota.
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Fat Princess
Fat Princess needed some protecting from the minions of darkness! Luckily Chandler and Stephen were on the scene with funny hats and menacing looks!
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Kat (Gravity Rush)
Stephen had to ask Kat what manipulating the world's gravity was really like.
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Uncharted 4
You've seen those Uncharted 4 trailers with the crazy vehicle driving? Turns out it was Stephen behind the wheel!
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PlayStation Experience 2015
PlayStation Experience 2015 may have come to an end, but you'd better be certain that PlayStation LifeStyle will be on the scene to cover the show again when it comes back next year!
