Atlus Bringing Utawarerumono Games To The West
It’s quite a mouthful: “Utawarerumono.” It’s pronounced the way it’s spelled, but it’s better to read with the syllables separated: Uta-wa-re-ru-mono. Atlus is currently translating two PS4 games under that name to bring them to America later this year.
Utawarerumono is a franchise spanning games, manga and anime, but it started as a game: a visual novel released back in 2002. There was no visual novel market in America, so we never got our own version of it….but the manga and anime were translated anyway. This will be the first time Utawarerumono is seen around these parts in interactive form.
These games don’t play the same way as the original Utawarerumono; they are strategy RPGs (though there is plenty of story to go alongside it). The first one, Mask of Deception, will be coming out this spring. The second, titled Mask of Truth, has no release date but will be out before the end of the year. The games are two parts of the same story, which is why they’re both coming at once.
Now for the hard truth: this is one of those Japanese games that explore adult themes and situations American publishers are increasingly squeamish about. And as such, there may be a couple things changed or altered in the translation process. Atlus says this:
A brief note on content: While Atlus is committed to bringing over games that are as true to their original forms as possible, in the case of Mask of Deception, a scene had to have a small content edit to comply with various regional regulations about the depiction of physical discipline to minors. We worked with Aquaplus to keep the scope of the editing to an absolute minimum, and we both agree the change made to the scene in the game still conveys its full meaning without running into issues.
Look for Mask of Deception on Playstation 4 this spring.