Dating sim-slash-murder mystery Mask of the Rose is an intriguing setup – but its experimental nature strains against its own structure. In the familiar-to-some setting of Fallen London, developer Failbetter’s gothic world that’s grown to house Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies – and the original browser game of the same name – Victorian London has only recently . Its cast are all having to adjust to new ways to relate to their society, to their communities, to their belief systems, and potentially to love. Foundations are shattered – not least among them the meaning of life and death, when their new world’s first murder turns out to be an impermanent thing.
Mask of the Rose reviewDeveloper: Failbetter GamesPublisher: Failbetter GamesPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch.
While the systems are intertwined, it’s difficult not to think of the murder mystery and the dating sim as separate ideas within Mask of the Rose. The bookends of the game, the character creator and the epilogue, say ‘dating sim’, but it’s London’s mysteries that lead you through. There’s far more not-romance to do than romancing – but complex relationship dynamics underpin everything. When the murder victim’s sister refuses to discuss the grisly details, it isn’t about our relationship, but that of the siblings. If he hasn’t decided to trust me with those details yet, then she isn’t going to divulge them behind his back.
Other than showing up in places to chat, the primary way you interact with Mask of the Rose is its storycrafting system, which you’re introduced to as a way to unpeel the mysterious Masters of the Bazaar’s incentives. It’s spiritually a notecard-and-red-thread conspiracy board, where an unknown motive – or unknown reaction – populates the world with questions to ask until you have your answer.
The same system builds into the more complex structure of the ‘whodunnit’ at the heart of the game – not just ‘what’ and ‘why’, but ‘who’ and ‘how’, sending you around London to ask just who would have the motive to do such a thing (surely not primary suspect and housemate Archie? Who somehow always has a crush on me even if I call his mother an interfering old bag?) As you talk to people, they provide potential prompts to add to the board, letting you refine and reiterate.