Mask of the Rose Preview

Mask of the Rose is the latest title in the Fallen London franchise, developed and produced by Failbetter Games with the aid of £171,140 raised on Kickstarter. Most popular in this franchise is the browser game of the same name, Fallen London, where players explore a strange reimagining of London in an alternate late 1800s where the city has been relocated far underground. The other titles in the franchise, SUNLESS SEA and SUNLESS SKIES, both take place some time after Fallen London, but Mask of the Rose takes a different approach. Set roughly 40 years before the browser game, this new title explores the beginnings of this strange series.

Mask of the Rose is a visual novel and dating simulator covering the events following roughly 230 days after the fall of London into the Neath, a mysterious underground space in which the remaining people of London must now reside. Working for the enigmatic Mr. Pages, a robed figure with an interest in books, love, and secrets, the player works as a census taker, meeting a cast of potentially romanceable characters in order to record important information for the sake of making sure the powers that be know how much food and other resources need to be distributed. These important questions include how many people live in a given residence, the occupation of a given individual, their name, and, perhaps most important, whether or not they have been in love.

While Mask of the Rose cuts the player off from the rest of the story after completing the first two days of census-taking, plenty of intrigue can come into play by the end of the demo, including a murder, a large bat-thing that might or might not like music, the presence of presumed devils that directly ask for one’s soul, rats and spiders that have started growing too large and violent to be easily managed, and even housemates that eat your serving of soup. A dastardly act, to be sure. However, not all of this is visible in one playthrough of the demo. There’s not much time to spend on each day and it is surprisingly easy to waste much of that time. A lot of the game takes place in conversations with people around this fallen London and there’s no real indicator for how long a given conversation is going to last. In my own first time through Mask of the Rose’s demo, I found myself desperate for more time because I had managed mine incredibly poorly. On subsequent attempts, I felt much more confident in roughly how long I had for each conversation, though I often felt it was almost required to abandon interesting questions in order to actually progress without fear of wasting time.

Much like Fallen London and (to a lesser extent) the Sunless games, Mask of the Rose — even in demo format — has a vast swath of text and a plethora of different directions to take. While much of that comes from the several different locations one can visit, including a rat-catcher, a church, a devil’s den, and more, there are other, more subtle options. At the start of the game, the player is able to pick several starting details about their character. While there are some of the usual standard options, such as name, title, and basic appearance (here provided by a silhouette cameo, as is standard for the franchise), there’s also the option to decide one’s background and general attitude. The general attitude is decided soon after building the player character in their first conversation. In two separate prompts, the player can choose their character’s usual speaking tone and common reactions, whether that be with honesty, flirtation, a jokey manner, somber reflection, or standoffishness. From then on out, every dialogue decision will veer towards the player’s chosen elements, often completely changing what options two different player characters might have in a given scene.

For the character’s background, while the full game is stated to include six different options according to the game’s Kickstarter page, the demo only provides two: an academic with connections to the church and a dockworker’s kid that knows people of a criminal bent. Both provide knowledge backgrounds that assist in communicating with other Londoners and a special outfit that announces the player character’s former status to all. In addition, the starting wardrobe also features two hats that allegedly tell others that the character likes to be a charming flirt and a badge that proves the character’s affiliation with Mr. Pages, though the option to just wear a basic outfit is always available. A few other outfit pieces can be purchased or otherwise obtained throughout the demo with even more impacts on how the player character is seen, though it was difficult to get a good sense for how each and every difference in the character’s background, clothing, and personality changed all of the game’s events, as there was no option to save and load the demo for quick comparison.

Apart from all of these gameplay elements, I should certainly mention that the dialogue was fantastic. Each character felt distinct, with captivating personalities that meshed well together. Plus, there was a great amount of space for these characters to have some genuinely hilarious moments, with embarrassed responses to flirting, Mr. Pages’ at-times incomprehensibilating verbage and adjectivities (or, for the uninitiated: nonsensical choice of words), and even a moment where a character acknowledges that the player cannot see their workplace’s sign because their character art is standing in front of that very sign. At the same time, much of the narration maintained an introspective and dramatic tone that worked well with the uncertain state of Mask of the Rose’s London.

Smartly matching that dramatic tone, the soundtrack on display in the demo is equally impressive. Moving between gothic, somber pieces and almost warm tunes, Mask of the Rose’s consistent attention to atmosphere is strong. It also doesn’t hurt that the game is beautiful, with expressive characters — even considering that Mr. Pages is essentially just a brown cloak with amber eyes! — and intricately detailed backgrounds. Every locale is rendered with care, often seeming, in some way, broken by the fall of London. Yet, everywhere one can look, these places are being repaired and still being lived in. No two places, and no two characters, are the same, yet there is not a single dud among either in the demo.

While I will say that having to play through the same opening and ending of the demo each time I wanted to give Mask of the Rose another go exhausted me pretty quickly, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy a single moment of my experience. The only aspect of the game that could even remotely be considered a fault is that, at a few separate points, the demo had a hard time loading in one of the characters. I’d assumed at first that it was just some sort of temporary problem on my end, but this kept happening with the same character. Never for very long, but it seems appropriate to mention.

Incredibly minor nitpick aside, Mask of the Rose’s demo has left me unaccountably peckish for more of the game. With a demo that looks this nice, I’m personally very excited for the game’s planned release in October or November later this year. Whether you’re a fan of Failbetter Games’ prior works and oddly dark sense of humour or you just want to experience a fantastically historical dating simulator, keep an eye on Mask of the Rose. And as always with the deepest matters of Fallen London, look to love. Always.