Platform: PC | Demo Length: 40 minutes
Unmasked Truths: Shattered Dreams is a murder mystery narrative game that will be split into three narrative arcs. It is inspired by games such as Persona, AI: The Somnium Files and Danganronpa, and fans of these series (myself included), would be able to tell immediately.
The plot focuses on 10 individuals who have earned the title of World☆Class based on their skill sets, ranging from World☆Class K-Pop Idol to World☆Class Barista. The game introduces us to their world as they attend a summer programme, with some meeting one another for the first time.
What is meant to be a nice college campus experience ends up turning on its head when the two AI bots on campus, Alice and Thomas, lock down the school. The only way to escape is if they graduate, and in order to accomplish that… they need to murder their fellow classmates!
But hang on, no one would just agree to that, right? Well, apparently, they all did.
When they signed the terms of service.
My Impressions
Subtlety is a vocabulary word foreign to the game. Even as you open the game, you’re greeted with shattered glass before being launched into the menu. It immediately throws you in as you’re introduced to the characters and their loud personalities (again, in a good way), while the dialogue and scene transitions are all aggressively stylised and slapped with sound effects.
The demo states that it was created using an amalgamation of scenes from different points in the game, so that might have contributed to how sudden the pacing felt
The exploration segments have a clear inspiration from the Danganronpa series, as you take the perspective of one of the characters in a 3D-rendered environment and speak to characters that are 2D-rendered.
The game also features 13 characters, all voiced by an impressive cast of well-known voice actors from the anime voice-acting world, and you’ll be sure to recognise quite a few names.
I did experience one crash during the demo while the game was rendering its backgrounds. After making a few tweaks, however, I was able to get it running properly.
I was also pleasantly surprised by how comfortable the first-person exploration was. As someone who gets motion sickness from games ridiculously easily, I was fully expecting to suffer through the exploration segments—but somehow, I didn’t experience any nausea whatsoever.
Would I recommend this game? Yes!
The game is a love letter to all the games that inspire it, bringing the best elements together to create something new and ambitious.
We’ve only scratched the surface of its world and characters, and I’m intrigued to find out more, as well as uncover the mystery of the killing game.
With the star-studded cast already in place, future cast members still to be announced, and the impressive presentation shown in the demo, I’m extremely impressed by the level of quality from an indie development studio, especially for its first game.
You can try out the demo to Unmasked Truths: Shattered Dreams on Steam.
This game was reviewed as part of the Fall in Love Visual Novel Festival on Steam.
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