#Mask of the rose spoilers

[starryeyed-seer]

me: I'm not a bat

Mr pages: (stuffing novels under its robe): I must abscond

[irrigos]

breaking my posting fast to share the most important things from the motr lorebook finally dropping

reggie nude boxing AND a sick theo burn

[amygdalae]

I'm enjoying Mask of the Rose quite a lot!!! the Fallen London setting and atmosphere are very charming to me

I'm so torn wanting to make friends with literally everybody. Can't stretch myself to thin tho cuz there's a limited amount of time to do things. Gonna hafta check out certain things in later playthroughs

My scottish victorian doctor boyfriend just got hauled off to jail as a prime murder suspect though. Not very swaggy. I gotta get him out of there so we can fuck (I don't think he did the murder)

[banrionceallach]

Mask of the Rose (Eldritch Edition)

Further new blorbos from Motr. But BC, I hear you say, they can't all be blorbos.

Wrong, I assure you they can. All of the characters in this game are so layered and interesting (and I adore the art).

Behold Milton and Virginia. They don't 'do' surnames. They do very stylish attire. Totally normal, definitely not trading in people's souls. Don't mind the amber eyes.

Batachikan. Just a friendly dude living in the cavernous warrens beneath London who would love to talk to you about an amazing business opportunity. Well, sort of talk. Don't mind the tentacles.

Mr Pages. Your friendly employer. Absolutely not connected at all to the fact that the entire of London is now stuck in a cave. Likes Paperwork. Really, really likes paperwork. Don't mind the glowing eyes. Perfectly normal.

Heading a bit into spoiler territory

Moss Upon Limestone. A Clay Man from the land of Polythreme. Came to London to deliver a Very Loud piece of headwear. Needs a hug.

The Man with Bright, Bright Buttons. Makes A+ sartorial choices. A man who knows quite a bit about dreams. You could think of him as a consulting expert. Long-time resident of the Neath.

[ieidolon]

Mask of the Rose is such a great game because in one playthrough you're involved in a passionate, deeply emotional romance with your housemate and co-conspirator, but in the next your little tailor/census-taker instead gets invited to join what's apparently both an aromantic polycule situation and a new spiritual movement. And that's not even taking into consideration the fact you can seduce a giant bat who's also a government official. Iconic

(On a more serious note, it's really cool that the game features multiple characters that seem to be canonically aromantic and that you can play as a character who's asexual, aromantic or both. I just think that's neat)

[hellhoundmaggie]

Mr Pages, is this a date?

[artisanoftheredscience]

AHHHHHHHHH!

Okay.

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR MASK OF THE ROSE AHEAD.

I'm going to be discussing the Reunion ending of the game, as well as some major story beats. This is a semi-hidden achievement and the content is filled with major lore spoilers. If you want to experience this for the first time yourself GO GET THIS ENDING FIRST! :)

Having said that: THE REUNION ENDING IS ACTUALLY SO INTERESTING!!

I'll put the discussion under a cut to spare anyone scrolling from accidental spoilers.

Alright. So the big reveal in this one is that Archie is in fact, not Archie.

Well, actually, he sort of is Archie. Archie exists! He is a real person! But, as you learn from May, he wasn't always Archie. Before the fall he was, in fact, LUCIAN. The dude who was erased from reality!

That might not seem like a major twist but I actually DIDN'T REALIZE IT until May started explaining it. In order to get this explanation you first had to conclude that Archie might have done the murder, but he wasn't himself for it. He's been having all kinds of weird dreams down there, right? So perhaps he got possessed.

And that's true! Archie wasn't in his right mind, because when he Fell into London, Lucian was destroyed and he was all that remains! Which explains... god, it explains so much.

Archie and Harjit then go on to make it clear that Lucian was part of the GREAT GAME. And Lucian was erased explicitly to prevent him from warning Harjit about the Fall! That's INCREDIBLY interesting because it suggests he was deliberately erased. How or why I don't know, but he was.

All this information makes a couple details abotu Archie and his story more interesting:

1. His odd behavior: The obvious depression, strange dreams, feelings of 'wrongness', the fact that he flat out disappears in endings where you don't prevent his conviction, all of these make more sense in the context of Lucian. Dying likely erased him completely, and the dreams make sense if he was already touched by the Is-Not. The depression can also be explained by the general suck-assery of the Neath, but the confusion that the amnesia and being literally not-oneself anymore likely excerbated it.

2. It means that if Archie DID INDEED KILL DAVID (other endings suggest otherwise but I digress) it could be possible that it was for a reason that Lucian would have wanted him gone. Something related to the Great Game? Thought to be pondered later.

3. And if he didn't, well, there's a conversation with Phoebe you can unlock in which Archie suggests someone may have wanted him out of the picture. You can assume its for the manifesto stuff in game, however: if the person framing Archie knew about Lucian and his involvement in the Great Game... well, it may suggest that whoever was behind the murder wanted him gone FOR THAT REASON.

4. It adds an interesting wrinkle to Harjit and Archie's relationship that I enjoy. 10/10 I love the way it turns them into a tragedy in every other ending. Harjit misses him so fiercely, and may never realize just how close his lost lover is...

5. It also kind of adds an interesting element to the PC? The game heavily imprints that you, the PC, are having similar memory issues and bouts of depression. Perhaps there's more going on there than meets the eye... if you knew Lucian previously and had a connection, that also explains why Archie is immediately gung-ho about you relationship right off the bat, moreso than the rest of the cast who seem to be infatuated with you (platonicly or otherwise) from the word 'start'. This is likely up to the individual player to decide for themselves tbh.

So, in conclusion? That shit slapped. MOTR isn't always the best written game but this was a satisfying conclusion.

[bacchusen]

Finally played Mask of the Rose. My gay ass trying to woo the sexy tentacle squid man, imagine my rage and anger when I found that he is actually future venture capitalist The Tentacled Entrepreneur. God gives his cruelest battles to his horniest comrades.

[jane-d-ankh-veos]

Previously that actor from RE/Tut appeared in my fan-casting only as a pre-canon younger Manager because I expected the latter to look older... Now I can't unsee him at all.

[believerindaydreams]

new iteration of Mask will apparently double the length of time you have to do things. that would probably have prevented my unhappy ending with Pages dumping a negative plot point conversation on me at the Feast, among other things, as there would have been time to follow up on the Griz situation before the Big Date.

Getting a remarkably strong sense that people were so excited about programming a system capable of self-testing its own procedural generation (which from a technical point of view is pretty dang neat and a natural thought given Em's history in the field)... that nobody gave adequate consideration to what would happen when the game was unleashed on an audience besides a program that does not care how many bad endings it got. What kind of playtesting did this get. Did it get playtesting from people who did not already know how to speedrun an optimized scenario by virtue of writing the code/storylines. I do not expect answers to these questions.

Meanwhile some keen fan is already working on manual saves. I'll have another try when he's done.

[thedeafprophet]

Mask Screenshot, Not Plot Related But Still Potential Spoilers Look At Own Risk

....maybe?.... ??... ????????????

[starryeyed-seer]

Also!!!! I'd never seem this before but BAZAAR THOUGHTS.... aaaaaaaa

It sounds so tired. Sick of being a Courier. Wants a home.

he's lonely :(

I mean yeah. We been knew but. Poor sad crab

the bazaar.... (<- I think this often). Curled up under the blankets shivering... If you're cold they're cold: steal a city

I think this is the only mention of the sun being "cruel, furious, rejecting" about whatever the Bazaar's line-crossing was. I've long thought it was a confession of Love— naming feelings that can never be true, asking the sun for more than it can give. reciprocation.

the bazaar likes breaking into people's basements to steal their snacks: confirmed.

[theartsypoe]

I am in the middle of trying to fuck a space bat, baptize a rat, and help a squid do capitalism...

And Griz in a dress is what shocks me here. This game is wild

[vienna-salvatori]

enitrely predictably, I am willing to give me entire heart to Virginia. The other characters are great too (Archie!!! My boy!!!! and I’ve barely touched the rubbery storyline and I’m super excited to explore further) but virginiaaaaaaaaa I love you so much

[banrionceallach]

MotR posting again.

Have I mentioned that you can wear a rat on your head? You can wear a rat on your head.

He critiques your outfit!

[ieidolon]

trying to romance reginald and i legit cackled out loud at how he spends an entire outing talking about his old friend and when MC (intentionally) looks hurt he goes "You look a bit peaky! Your landlady should feed you more!"

this is exactly how i imagine anyone trying to seduce bertie wooster must feel