Masquerade: Hell Academy has a small cast, but because of the intensity of the plot the player gets to know them very well, very quickly. Here's a brief introduction to the main characters.
Our protagonist is Numata Hiroshi, a student being bullied by his classmate Himehara Yoritake. Numata begins the game as an anxious, timid person, but depending on the choices the player makes he may come to discover that he’s actually very brave, or very cunning… or that he has a hidden sadistic side.
Himehara is mouthy and abrasive, which intimidates Numata into anything from sexual favours to stealing exam questions, but which puts him on their captor’s bad side almost as soon as they’re taken hostage. Will Numata try to save him from himself, or revel in seeing his bully humiliated?
Hachiouji Shin is an honor student and a member of the astronomy club with Numata. Being bullied has isolated Numata from most of his classmates, but Hachiouji seems determined to maintain a bond with him. Will their friendship be able to endure the captor’s demands without breaking? Or will it, against all the odds, blossom into something deeper under the pressure?
Mr Shimeno is an absent-minded but well-meaning chemistry teacher who suffers debilitating headaches and likes candy. The students know he’s recently divorced, but is his personal life far messier than they could possibly imagine? He wants to protect them, but he’s as much at the mercy of the captor as they are.
Oizumi Shingo is desperate for fame. A local TV reporter, he sees the hostage crisis as his ticket to the journalistic big leagues, but when he tries to get his scoop he winds up becoming another captive. Shallow and selfish, he is especially offended at having his dignity degraded by the captor’s obscene commands.
Takaura Shigeru, one of the police officers sent to the unfolding hostage situation, impulsively makes the decision to offer himself up as an extra hostage. He wants to protect the civilians caught up in this terrible night, and thinks he’ll be able to do that more effectively from inside the academy. But is the nightmare unfolding within those walls more than he bargained for?
And then, of course, we have the captor, whose cruelty and perversion are seemingly limitless. Will his victims be able to survive him?