How to Take Off Your Mask Remastered review for PS4, Xbox One, Switch

Platform: PS4
Also on: Xbox One, Switch
Publisher: Ratalaika Games
Developer: ROSEVERTE
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: T

Before I say about How to take off your Mask Remastered, I should probably acknowledge that, as a straight male, the game isn?t meant for me to enjoy. It?s an otome visual novel, which means that it?s designed to cater to players who like the escapism of boys trying to woo them. As such, any criticisms I have should be taken with a grain of salt.

And yet, I feel like I?ve played enough of these games that I have some idea of what a good otome looks like. And How to Take Off Your Mask Remastered just isn?t that.

Like any novel, visual or otherwise, the problem is that these characters aren?t that interesting. This issue is particularly acute here, seeing as there aren?t all that many characters to begin with. Somehow, all the characters come off as one-dimensional tropes, which is actually kind of surprising when you take into account the fact that most of them also have multiple personalities. You?d think this would make them seem a little more interesting…but if you think that, you?ve clearly never played/read one of these games before.

I should also add that even by the standards of visual novels, stands out for being especially kawaii. Like, the main character is literally a cat girl, who ends all her sentences with ?nya”. So if you?re going to play it, you?ll need a strong stomach for that sort of thing.

Again, I recognize that How to Take Off Your Mask Remastered is clearly not for me, so I?m not going to complain too long or too loudly about this. But given that other, better otome games are out there, I just don?t know why you?d want to play this one instead.

Ratalaika Games provided us with a How to Take Off Your Mask Remastered PS4 code for review purposes.

Grade: C+