Mask of the Rose

A marvellous romance with a hint of murder, where every playthrough is different! Seek love, friendship, or more... intimate encounters. Help a murdered man find justice. And watch out for the bats.

Mask of the Rose is a visual novel, dating sim and detective game developed and published by Failbetter Games.
Released on June 08th 2023 is available in English on Windows, MacOS and Linux.

It has received 335 reviews of which 261 were positive and 74 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.3 out of 10. 😊

The game is currently priced at 9.75€ on Steam and has a 50% discount.

The Steam community has classified Mask of the Rose into these genres:

Visual Novel Dating Sim Detective Romance LGBTQ+ Choices Matter Hand-drawn Alternate History RPG Investigation Lore-Rich Lovecraftian Conversation Multiple Endings Story Rich Otome Singleplayer 2D Atmospheric Dark Fantasy

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at Mask of the Rose through various videos and screenshots.

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Requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS *: Windows 7 64 bit and Windows 10 64 bit
Processor: Intel Pentium 2GHZ or AMD equivalent
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: DX10, DX11, DX12 capable
Storage: 3 GB available space
Sound Card: DX10, DX11, DX12 compatible

MacOS

OS: High Sierra 10.13+
Processor: x64 architecture with SSE2
Memory: 3 GB RAM
Graphics: Metal capable Intel and AMD GPUs.
Storage: <8 GB available space

Linux

OS: Ubuntu 20.04+, ArchLinux
Processor: Intel Pentium 2GHZ or AMD equivalent
Memory: 3 GB RAM
Graphics: OpenGL 3.2+, Vulkan capable
Storage: <8 GB available space

Reviews

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Sept. 2024

I love Failbetter games, and I admire them for making an ambitious, highly branching, relationship-based experiment like this. Unfortunately, I find the plot, the characters and the choices to be lacklustre. This is in part due to the procedural dialogue, which at times ruins the suspension of disbelief by giving you weird or boring responses that don't really match up with the flow of the conversation. There's a lot of potential here. I wish the devs would make an expansion or add some DLC to flesh out the game. Definitely worth a try, but temper your expectations. This isn't as polished as Sunless Seas/Skies. Recommended with caveats.

June 2024

Really good. I have difficulty with it because games that give specific objectives but a large field-of-play are difficult for me to complete. In other words, there are pretty specific (though not always obvious) objectives for you to complete. But the world is big, there are lots of characters, and plenty to explore. My ADHD brain has me going around doing all the "ooh piece of candy" stuff only for me to get to the eleventh hour and go "oh fuck I have a game to play." By then, I've wasted too much time exploring and looking around and not actually planning and taking specific steps to achieve an objective. Another way of putting it: I get a lot of things done but nothing gets completed. Can't really fault the devs for that. It's very well written and the characters are cool. I had my doubts about the setting, but after a bit of narration, it sold me. The romance is black screened, so, you know, if that effects your opinion. I don't care for it as a narrative strategy (be brave enough to go all the way or don't go there), but it's hardly a breaking point.

June 2024

I've just completed my first run of the game, and I do intend on replaying it but I wanted to share my thoughts on it here. Overall, I would recommend the game because of its wonderfully unique setting, visual, and writing style, especially to those who, like me, are really into gothic horror. It's got a wonderful atmosphere, characters, and secrets for you to uncover. However, I do have to say - I have already played most other Failbetter games out there, and this one does fall significantly flatter than the other ones. It's gorgeous, it's charming but I feel it lacks the density and depth of its cousin installments. I don't want it to be longer and more tedious, I want it to be more 'meaty' for lack of a better word, like others were. I can't really point my finger onto what specifically is different but it doesn't have quite the same feeling. So, if you're coming here from other Fallen Universe games, I'd advise adjusting your expectations slightly.

Jan. 2024

It took me a couple tries to get into it, but once I did I found it extremely engaging. I've played through three times and am thinking about what I want to do in a fourth playthrough right now. Now that I understand it better and know what I'm doing, it's a fun and fascinating experience. I feel like the "dating sim" aspect of Mask of the Rose sells it a little short. Like most Failbetter games, there's a lot beneath the surface, and I was consistently surprised about the things I could get up to and the secrets I could learn if I looked in the right places. There are a lot of really interesting mysteries in this game that eclipse the romance aspect - Mr. Pages, whatever is going on with Horatia, the murder - I found focusing on those routes and pulling out their secrets to be incredibly exciting and rewarding. The mechanics can also take a bit of figuring out and there are still a few things that are unclear to me. That's not a criticism (it's even a compliment in a way), but it can definitely be a hurdle to getting engaged with it. I thought it was a great puzzle figuring out the way clothes affect your choices and trying to plot out the best outfit for a given interaction (just like in real life!). I also did like the way that the storyboarding system worked and how it allowed you to open up mysteries by asking questions - but that one definitely took more getting used to. Overall, I liked those mechanics quite a bit but I do wish they had been fleshed out a little more deeply and that there was deeper power in what you could do with them. I think they're great tools though and would love to see them iterated on in future Failbetter games. For the game overall, I think the story and mechanics are really engaging once you're comfortable with them. My biggest wish is that they had extended it a little more deeply, with more depth to the mechanics and deeper mysteries and secrets to uncover (but I understand that may not have been the goal for this project). That said I really like what's there and am excited to see what's next from this team!

Dec. 2023

I recommend this game to anyone interested in the world of Fallen London, or just looking for a visual novel to play. Unfortunately, I was expecting to like this game a lot more than I ended up. I guess most glaringly is that the game is relatively short in time and small in scope. It didn't take me long to get through it and all the events of the game felt relatively rushed. I didn't really know what I was doing, which would have been fine were it not for the small number of activities (2) per day you could perform and the rate at which the course of events progressed. If I had time to fully explore the world and take my time going about things at a more leisurely pace, I probably would have ended up enjoying it a lot more. I get the game is designed to be played multiple times and that they don't want you doing everything in one play through, but rather than making me eager to play the game again, it just kind of leaves me feeling a little cheated by the first play through. I don't really get the impression that there is a ton more for me to see, though I definitely didn't do everything that there is to do. I'll probably give it another go, and maybe update my review if it does somehow change my perspective. I didn't really understand how you were supposed to go about solving the core mystery of the game. You aren't really given any leads and you don't have the ability to directly question people regarding it, so I'm just kind of left with the impression that you just mess around until you maybe stumble upon the information you need. The writing and characters are fine, though nothing really wowed me. The romances and friendships are quick and simple without a ton of depth to explore in the characters. I just really don't have much to say about it, which is maybe the worst part. This game didn't leave me terribly disappointed. There is still some good world building in the Victorian cosmic horror setting, but it just really didn't pull me in either. You should know going in whether or not this game is for you, but if you're unsure, then it probably won't be.

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Data sources

The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.

Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.

Last Updates

Steam data	21 November 2024 19:07
SteamSpy data	22 December 2024 14:17
Steam price	23 December 2024 12:23
Steam reviews	21 December 2024 19:58

-50% 19.50€ 9.75€

7.3

261

Online players

Developer

Failbetter Games

Publisher

Failbetter Games

Release 08 Jun 2023

Platforms