I'll get straight to the point: I've been gaming, reading, and watching TV/movies for 30 years, and the Utawarerumono trilogy is, as a whole, the most impactful work of fiction I've ever read. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I've been a fan of the series for 15 years now, and every time I come back to it, I'm reminded why I fell in love with it in the first place.

This is a modern remake of the first game in the series, and as such, it's the best entry point. I will say that I consider the first game to be the weakest one in the series -- but saying that is misleading, because it's still a great visual novel that I would recommend to anybody who likes serious fantasy stories. It's a story about war, personality identity, found family, and the hubris of humanity. On its surface, it can sometimes seem lighthearted and colorful -- and there are a lot of genuinely heartwarming moments of bonding and familial affection -- but it's also not afraid to have serious drama with meaningful consequences.

What makes this game stand apart from the crowd? One is its cast of characters: the protagonist is an adult man who is level-headed, reliable, and intelligent. He's not a schoolchild or an idiot; he genuinely earns the trust and affection of the people around him. The rest of the cast is also a wide range of characters who all may seem tropey on the surface, but all of them have a surprising amount of depth and characterization.

The artwork and music are also great; they stood out in the original 2002 version of the game and have been polished up and remastered here, and they're still some of the best in the business. I would also be remiss to not mention the game's combat system; adding a turn-based, tactical combat system into a visual novel was unheard of in 2002 and is still rare now, and Utawarerumono's battles both help to break up long stretches of reading and also get the reader more immersed in the seriousness of the conflicts. If I had one complaint to make about the first game, it would just be that the combat system is pretty simple; it's enjoyable, but it won't challenge SRPG veterans. Like every other aspect of the game, it keeps getting better in the sequels, and Mask of Truth, the final game, is also the best SRPG I've ever played.

I will say that the PC ports of these games have one technical issue I'm not a fan of: they're locked at 720p/30Hz. It's not a huge problem; you're going to spend 80% of the game just looking at still images and reading text, after all. It would be really nice for the 3D battle sequences to at least be rendered in a higher resolution, but sadly, that's not an option.

Despite that, I'm still confident in saying that this is one of the best hidden gems of fantasy storytelling to ever come out of Japan. Please play it.