Utawarerumono

Much of Utawarerumono's gameplay is spent simply reading the text that appears on the game screen, which represents either dialogue or narration from the protagonist's point of view. At times, the player will come to a "decision point" and may choose from a single or multiple options. Unlike many other visual novels, these choices do not affect the outcome of the story, but influence the order in which scenes play out.

Utawarerumono also features a turn-based tactical role-playing battle system that centers on the player moving characters through a square-based grid to achieve objectives, which consist of either defeating a set number of enemies or moving one or all characters to a specific location. During each character's turn, the player may choose to have the character move, attack, or cast magic, of which only moving and attacking can be performed in succession, in that order. When a character attacks an enemy character, the player is given a chance to add additional attacks by clicking in the brief interval before a yellow circle on screen disappears. The number of attacks that the player can add to a character's attack is based on that character's current "technique" skill, and the maximum varies based on the character.

Utawarerumono is a story centering around the masked protagonist, Hakuowlo, who one day is found by a family of two girls and their grandmother in a nearby forest close to their village. He is badly injured and is soon found to have amnesia, so they take him to their home and treat him until he is well again. Hakuowlo is soon accepted into their village where he stays and lives with them, but before long Hakuowlo finds that life in this village is being oppressed by the greedy ruler of the land their village resides in. When these actions escalate into disaster, Hakuowlo leads a rebellion that culminates in his assumption of the throne of a new country, born from the ashes of the old, and named Tuskur after the grandmother of the two girls who helped save his life.

After taking and consolidating power, Hakuowlo soon learns that peace is difficult to maintain, and finds himself fighting a series of bloody battles to protect the peace of his country and his people. Along the way, Hakuowlo meets strong warriors from other countries and tribes and welcomes them into his growing family. The passage of time brings both laughter and hardship, but with Hakuowlo leading the way, all others are confident in their future.

Washimi Tsutomu directed the Utawarerumono Windows game, Naoya Shimokawa was the producer, and Suga Munemitsu planned the scenario. Ama Tsuyuki provided the original character designs, and Matsuoka Junya, Takahiro Yonemura, and Shinya Ishikawa handled the music. Neko Iwashiro, Yokoo Kenichi, and Okawa Masato programmed the game. Lastly, AIC managed the production of the opening animation. Flight Plan helped in the development for the PlayStation 2 version.

The Utawarerumono series began as a Japanese video game for Windows on April 26, 2002, by Leaf and Aquaplus. A DVD-ROM edition was later released on December 12, 2003. The story was linear and contained no voice acting, and the original version of the game was never released outside Japan, although a fan translation patch for it exists. A PlayStation 2 port, titled Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen (うたわれるもの 散りゆく者への子守唄, Utawarerumono: Chiriyuku Mono e no Komoriuta) and featuring a new battle system by Flight Plan (of the Summon Night series), was developed by Sting and released on October 26, 2006, in Japan.

Across the semi-monthly chart of top 50 best-selling bishōjo games sold nationally in Japan, the Windows version of Utawarerumono ranked first in the last two weeks of April 2004. It ranked second in the first two weeks and 27th in the last two weeks of May. It then ranked 16th and 29th in June before dropping out of the chart. The PlayStation version of the game sold over 82,000 units in four days. In an August 2007 survey conducted by Dengeki G's Magazine, Utawarerumono was voted the 15th most interesting bishōjo game by readers, tying with Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.

com, the six volumes of the DVD set for the anime adaptation of Utawarerumono were reviewed and rated by Chris Beveridge. He gave volume one a 'B+' rating, and praised the anime saying, "Over the course of the five episodes, the series drew me in more and more until I became completely engaged in it and wished I had not only the next volume but all of the volumes on hand. These episodes turn into "page turners" pretty quickly and do a very solid and entertaining job as the first chapter of a larger story." He also gave volumes two and three a 'B+' rating, volume four an 'A−' rating, and volume five and six an 'A' rating.