Walkthrough for Fantasy Opera: Mischief at the Masquerade

WARNING: Contains spoilers!

Prologo:

• Choose your skills and knowledge. You should have an equal chance at winning the game with any stats, so this is just a roleplaying decision. If you’re not sure how you’d like to play, I recommend first taking Observe and then Charm for your skills; and first taking Music and then Society for your knowledge.

A general tip: Across all character dialogues, passive checks (or previously passed skill/knowledge checks) will give you special dialogue options that get you information for “free.” These choices are indicated by italicized brackets, e.g. [Noticed tone of voice]. Choosing these options are generally your surest way of uncovering clues (or sometimes improving character attitude). Where these aren’t available, roll skill checks instead.

Atto Primo:

• Talk with Cecilia and both of the musicians in the orchestra pit. Glean as much info as you can.
• Look for the singers. Try to eavesdrop at Angelo’s door first. Then knock on Angelo’s door and talk with everyone.
• After rehearsal resumes, go to Sofia’s dressing room and read the paper.
• If you weren’t able to examine the note with the bouquet in the earlier scene, go to Angelo’s dressing room and do that now.
• Visit the costume shop and talk to Beatrice.
• Return to rehearsal, and examine all aspects of the musical score.
• Ask Cecilia every question that is available to you.
• You’ll have the option to visit one of two stores. Whichever you choose, you’ll get to do the other one at the start of the next act.
• At Filippo’s Flowers: try to find out who sent the bouquet. If you have high Charm, ask him directly. If you have high Observe, ask him about names and judge his reaction. If that fails, make sure to do the Maneuver check later in the scene. Or do all of the above, if needed!
• At Canaletto’s Cornetto’s: ask Chiara directly about the cornetto and try to persuade her to tell you as much information as she can. If you can get her to gossip about the Valfiore family, you’ll have a bonus to your final score.
• After visiting the shop, formulate your first hypothesis. Can be all blanks if you’re not sure. Or you can play around with different ideas and experiment to your heart’s content.

Atto Secondo:

• Visit the shop you didn’t visit the night before. (See above for tips on both shop visits.)
• Talk to Francesca; ask about today’s schedule.
• Wait for the Duke.
• Interview the Duke. Ask all questions that are available to you. There’s no downside to being nosy.
• Pitch your hypothesis to Francesca. You can pitch her an infinite number of times, should you choose to. Her responses can steer you, if need be. But you’ll get a bonus to your final score if you can pitch the correct hypothesis to Francesca within five or fewer attempts.
• The game will tell you when you have all the clues you need to solve the mystery. At that point you will have access to in-game hints (they will reduce your final score), which will be curated based on your current hypothesis. If you exhaust all hints that are relevant to your current hypothesis, you’ll have the option to simply be given the solution to the mystery (which will reduce your final score further).
• If you have a convincing hypothesis, Francesca will summon the City Guard. It is possible to achieve this with a few different motives (any of which are feasible), but there is only one correct motive (which you will learn later) that gives full credit in the final score.

Atto Terzo:

• Play through the opening scenes and agree to help ID the thieves.
• First, focus on identifying the suspect — either by Observe or Charm checks.
• Try the Maneuver and Observe checks against the suspect to identify the first accomplice.
• If that fails, try doing the Maneuver check to pickpocket people (may be attempted as many times as you have time for).
• If you find the first accomplice, alert the City Guard.
• If Chiara approaches you, try to persuade her to help you.
• If you run out of time before Chiara approaches you, or you fail to get Chiara’s help, use skill checks to catch the accomplice(s). If you already caught the first accomplice, you’ll get the second. If you haven’t caught the first accomplice yet, you might be able to catch them both if you’re lucky!
• Play through the next scene.
• Choose a dance partner at the masquerade ball. (You can only pick one — unless you save scum, of course!)
• To gain maximum attitude with any of the characters, make a successful dancing check and choose the right dialogue options (typically the first option in the list will give you the most points).
• If you want to, ask them out on a date! Your Charm check will automatically succeed if you have a high enough attitude rating.

Epilogo:

• If your Charm check at the end of the ball was successful… go on a date! If you gain a high attitude rating by the end of the date, your partner will ask to see you again.

Achievements:

• Sneaky: Successfully eavesdrop on Angelo, Sofia, and Beatrice.
• Surprise Me: Ask Beatrice to choose every single element of your masquerade outfit.
• Woodwind Enthusiast: Play the crumhorn at Canaletto's Cornettos.
• Snoop: Peek at the sales records for both Canaletto’s Cornettos and Filippo's Flowers.
• Brainstorm: Pitch over ten hypotheses to Francesca before summoning the City Guard.
• Quick Witted: Summon the City Guard before interviewing the Duke.
• Match at the Masquerade: Plan a romantic date with a member of the Teatro della Fantasia.