Masquerada: Songs and Shadows wants you to care about what people sing after you die. Witching Hour Studios built a tactical RPG around that idea, then wrapped it in a Venetian city where masks are weapons, religion means nothing, and your reputation is the only afterlife on offer. It came out in 2016 on PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, Xbox One and later Nintendo Switch, and it earns a 7.2 of 10.
Trailer, via Witching Hour.
The Citte della Ombre Runs on Songs
The setting is the Citte della Ombre, a city in turmoil where religion holds no sway. Only the songs sung of one’s deeds carry an Ombrian’s legacy beyond death. That single rule does more work than most RPG lore dumps. Everyone with even the smallest morsel of power makes every effort to ensure their songs live on. The stakes are social, not spiritual, and the game knows it.
The Mascherines are the other half of the equation. These masks from an ancient time let their wielders channel the elements into destructive magic. They also built a culture of inequality between the power-hungry guildsmen known as the Masquerada and the impoverished lower classes, the Contadani. A prolonged civil war, ignited by Contadani rebels who steal Mascherines from the Masquerada, has drawn scars of mistrust across the Citte since.
That is a lot of proper nouns in a short space. Masquerada: Songs and Shadows leans on them hard, and the first hour asks you to hold a glossary in your head. The payoff is a city with real political texture rather than a painted backdrop.
Cicero Gavar Comes Home
You play Cicero Gavar, an expert investigator exiled for a crime against the state five years ago. He has now been summoned back to Ombre to solve the mysterious kidnapping of the diplomat Razitof Azrus, whose wake has left a trail of death.
Cicero’s companions join the investigation one by one, and each has doubts about the others inside this culture of deception. Their faith gets pushed to the limit as a deeper conspiracy lurks in the shadows of Ombre. The game is fully voiced, and that matters more than it sounds. A conspiracy story lives or dies on whether you believe the people lying to each other.
The cast splits into three distinct classes: the roguish Sicario, the monolithic Pavisierre, and the bardic Dirge. Cicero’s four companions each specialize in one stance combined with a specific element. Cicero himself chooses his own element and swaps between stances at will, which makes him the flexible piece on every battlefield.
Elemental Tags Do the Heavy Lifting
Combat is pause-for-tactics, played from an isometric bird’s-eye view. The hook is the Elemental Tag system. Cast particular elements in succession and you leverage element-based status effects for crowd control, such as blinding smog or a debilitating cloud of steam. An earth spell inflicts an enemy with an earth elemental tag, which a water spell can trigger to ensnare the enemy in show-stopping mud.
Skill modifiers add another layer. Zephyr, Cicero’s teleportation spell, can be modified offensively to blast out hot air when he re-appears. Modify it defensively instead and it blasts cold air to freeze enemies at his original location, buying time to recover or cast other spells. Same button, two completely different jobs.
That is the best idea in Masquerada: Songs and Shadows. It turns spell order into a puzzle you solve while people are trying to kill you, and it rewards planning over reflexes.
Armour, Flanks and the Rear Attack
Positioning carries great importance. Every player character and enemy has armour, whether physical or magical, that must be dealt with before you can hurt them. Flank attacks let armour mitigate only half the damage dealt to a target. Attacks to the rear cause full damage.
So the geometry of a fight is the fight. You are not just picking spells, you are walking Cicero and his companions around armoured targets to find the angle that actually counts. Planning where your magic lands becomes vital, and the game punishes you for treating movement as an afterthought.
It also slows everything down. Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is a game you play at a deliberate pace, pausing to line up tags and flanks, and anyone hoping for a fast action RPG will bounce off it.
What the Citte Gets Right
The art direction is the strongest argument for the game. A vividly Venetian city of masks and canals gives the tactical maps a look that most indie RPGs cannot manage. The masks are not decoration. They are the magic system, the class system and the class conflict all at once.
The voice work carries the conspiracy. When every character has something to hide, performance is the only way the player can track who is lying, and the game commits to being fully voiced rather than half-measuring it.
The writing has a thesis, too. A society that measures your worth by the songs sung about you will produce exactly the kind of guildsmen the Masquerada are: hungry, performative, and willing to step on the Contadani to keep their verses alive.
Where the Masks Slip
The same density that gives the Citte its texture also buries it. Guildsmen, Contadani, Mascherines, Ombrians, Sicario, Pavisierre, Dirge, Elemental Tags — the game front-loads vocabulary and trusts you to keep up. Some players will, and some will spend the first act confused about who wants what.
The pause-for-tactics pace is a second filter. Armour that must be stripped before real damage, flank and rear positioning, element tags that need a setup spell before a payoff spell — every fight asks for the same careful sequence. That is a strength when the encounter design varies and a chore when it does not.
And the conspiracy, for all its talk of deception, leans on the familiar shape of an exiled investigator pulled back for one last job. Cicero Gavar is a good hook. He is not a new one.
The 7.2 Verdict
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is a smart tactical RPG with a genuinely original magic system and a setting that commits to its own rules. The Elemental Tag system and the flank-and-rear armour math give every fight a real puzzle underneath the story. The Venetian city of masks is one of the better-realized indie fantasy settings of its year.
It is also a game that asks a lot before it gives anything back. The proper-noun density is real, the pacing is deliberate to a fault, and the central mystery runs on a frame you have seen before. Witching Hour Studios built something worth the patience, but the patience is not optional.
This is the part worth watching: the Elemental Tag system is the reason to play, and the reason a sequel would be interesting. The conspiracy is the wrapper. The masks are the meal.
The Numbers
- Title: Masquerada: Songs and Shadows
- Release year: 2016
- Developer: Witching Hour Studios
- Publisher: Ysbryd Games
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
- Genres: Role-playing (RPG), Strategy, Tactical, Indie
- Themes: Action, Fantasy
- Modes: Single player
- Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
- Critic aggregate: 7.2 out of 10, across 8 outlets
- Clay Tribune score: 7.2 out of 10
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows at a Glance
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Protagonist | Cicero Gavar, investigator exiled five years ago |
| Mission | Solve the kidnapping of diplomat Razitof Azrus |
| Setting | Citte della Ombre, a Venetian-style city |
| Magic system | Mascherines, masks that channel the elements |
| Classes | Sicario, Pavisierre, Dirge |
| Core combat hook | Elemental Tag system |
| Positioning rule | Flank halves armour mitigation; rear attacks deal full damage |
| Signature spell | Zephyr, Cicero’s teleportation spell |
| Factions | Masquerada guildsmen vs. Contadani lower classes |
| Conflict | Prolonged civil war over stolen Mascherines |
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows does not need a bigger budget. It needs a tighter first act and a sharper mystery. What it already has is a combat system that treats spell order and footwork as the same decision, and a city where your legacy is whatever the survivors decide to sing. That is enough to carry 7.2.
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