Aquaplus’ Utawarerumono games that blend visual novel storytelling with tactical strategy RPG battles debuted in the West on PS4 and PS Vita thanks to Atlus West and Deep Silver a few years ago through Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth. Since then, NIS America has taken charge of localising the games and we’ve had Utawarerumono: Zan and Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen release in the West. Read my PS4 reviews of Utawarerumono: Zan here and Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen here.
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen is a remake of the first Utawarerumono game and is the best entry point into the trilogy. While many including myself got into Utawarerumono through Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception, I’d recommend all newcomers play Prelude to the Fallen first which is now available on PS4, PS Vita, and PC via Steam in the West.
On the PC side of things, Shiravune previously brought Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth to PC via Steam last year. Read my review of the PC port of both games here. A few days ago, Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen finally released on Steam completing the Utawarerumono trilogy on PC. I’ve been playing it on PC and here’s what you need to know.
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen PC requirements
Unlike Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth that were released on PS Vita, PS3 (only in Japan), and PS4, Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen only released on PS4 and PS Vita worldwide. The Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen system requirements are lower than normal as expected but same as both prior Utawarerumono PC ports. After how well the last two games ran on PC you will likely have no trouble running this since the recommended GPU is a GTX 750 Ti which was released in 2014.
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen minimum requirements
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Celeron G1820
Memory: 8GB RAM
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 5GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen recommended requirements
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i3-3220
Memory: 8GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 5GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen PC settings
If you own Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth on PC, you will know exactly what to expect in Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen on PC. You can change the screen mode, resolution, and toggle V-sync. Those are the only options and the resolution option isn’t even accurate. The 1080p (native) option still upscales from 720p. Toggling V-sync on or off did nothing for me and the game remained at 30fps throughout my time playing in and out of battles.
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen PC performance – frame rate and resolution
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen just like Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth is locked to 30fps. There is no frame rate option in the PC graphics settings as shown above. You can only toggle screen mode, resolution, and V-sync. The resolution despite indicating a native 1080p is still upscaled and looks identical to the PS4 version which was also upscaling from 720p. One other issue with the port is the text rendering that is similar to the PS4 version. While the PS Vita version’s text wasn’t as big of an issue because it was being rendered on a much smaller screen, the text on certain backgrounds still looks bad. Given this is a game that has lots of visual novel segments, rendering text is something that shouldn’t have been an issue. Hopefully at least this will be fixed in the future because it reminds me of the Danganronpa PC ports that had lower resolution text. Shiravune has patched both Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth with auto-save which is a nice touch but I hope the text display for dialogue can be fixed in a future patch.
I’ve been playing Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen on a laptop with an AMD Ryzen 5-3550H processor (2.1GHz Base speed up to 3.7GHz), 16GB DDR4 RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GPU and had no performance issues at all. This isn’t surprising considering Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth ran flawlessly on a much weaker system. Given the very low requirements and the 30fps lock with 720p output being upscaled, you likely will be able to run this exactly like the PS4 version with no trouble.
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen PC control options
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen has full keyboard and mouse support just like both prior Utawarerumono releases. The customisation options for keyboard controls are above. When it comes to controllers, there are button prompts for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and even the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen will detect this automatically or you can use button prompts for the PS4 controller regardless of what controller you use if you’ve played the games on PS4 before. I even tested it with a DualSense controller and it worked well for me with PS4 button prompts.
Should you play Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen on PC?
Now that Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen is on PC, the complete Utawarerumono trilogy is now available on the platform. The trilogy includes some of the best stories in adventure games and have superlative music, voice acting, and art. The SRPG battles serve as nice breaks between the long visual novel moments as well. The big draw for playing Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen on PC over consoles is the price which will follow Valve’s recommended regional pricing making it cost less than half of the PS4 price on Steam. There are also two bundles with Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth and all the DLC.
While the port is barebones just like Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth, Shiravune has put in work to polish up the script and bring in auto-save to make this a better overall release than the PS4 version. There is also full keyboard and mouse support like the prior Utawarerumono PC ports which is always good to have in a PC port.
If you don’t own a PS Vita or a PS4, this is your only option to play Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen and it is absolutely worth the asking price on PC. If you’ve already played it on PS4 or PS Vita, the few additions and changes do not justify a purchase again. For those who haven’t played it before, Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen is a must play for anyone who enjoys great stories, excellent art, and brilliant music and the PC version is definitely a good way to get into Utawarerumono.
