There were a ton of things that really scratched an itch for me, the way the game simply just drops you in and lets you puzzle and figure stuff out, the general tone and flavor of even just the character creator. It's all really wonderful, and even more impressive that this is the work of a solo dev, it's inspiring honestly. Especially looking into all of the endings and digging into the story further, I think it's a really fascinating art piece.

I think that being said however, I was disappointed with pretty much all of the story that wasn't meta. It was disappointing because I think there was a lot of opportunity to have the game's plot tie into what Kira was saying in the endings but I ultimately felt super unrewarded for delving into the story, aside from a few really exciting and interesting notes scattered around the game. I wrote down my findings about each character, pieced together the plot myself, but it felt like it never really connected and came full circle, which was a little disappointed with. The plot points felt generally derivative as well, taken from other similar games without adding new flavor to the storytelling, which really left me wanting.

I was pretty satisfied with a lot of the art direction. I think as you peel back the layers, a lot of the more strange design decisions aesthetically start to make more sense, and there are some really stellar sights to see. Like a lot of people, there are some hits and misses within the tracklist, but I think it actually adds to the scrappy diy feel a lot of the game has. I was sometimes taken out of the experience though due to some really strong screen tearing throughout my playthrough and one area which had middling performance on my admittedly not great laptop. The rest of the game ran like butter though!

When it comes to the gameplay, I found myself really enjoying it toward the beginning, finding new spells and leveling myself up, finding new spells, weapons and secrets and getting that oh so great feeling jump. Although that is the case, I found myself really losing the momentum I had built up about halfway through the game. My jump height started capping out, and I found that I was using the same weapon for nearly my entire playthrough. I only found three ranged weapons in my whole time playing, and I like to think I found a decent amount of secrets. For many sections I had to use melee weapons and magic, which I was not skilled into, and I felt like my build was just by chance a lot less powerful than other people's builds, which was disappointing. I feel as though I specced into a playstyle which was undercatered to, which was disappointing. Over time, as the progression slowed down to a halt, I really felt as though the combat felt apart. In order to win fights, I would run around in large circles, firing arrows at an enemy until they eventually died. I never really had to engage with the enemies much, and it hurt tension over time. I think if you're going to make me powerful enough as a player to avoid pretty much all damage, I shouldn't have to play a waiting game and fire so many arrows at my enemy. I would honestly have appreciated if I was running around at the end one shotting most enemies so I could focus on the environment and not really have to engage with the combat, which had grown rather stale for me.

In addition to this, I think there was an overabundance of settings within the game. It was to the point where I wasn't sure what experience Kira intended me to have, whether the game was too easy or too hard, whether I should have a compass or not, things like that. I really appreciate being told how I should engage with the difficulty of the game, because of course I haven't played it before. I'm not not a huge fan of difficulty sliders in general. I know the game can't be too difficult due to the sparse saving, and I think it was good to make it on the easier end for that reason, but I wish I felt like I was playing it the way Kira wanted me to.

The standout of this game, however is the map design. I found it struck an absolutely perfect balance between labyrinthine and navigable that I really clicked with, I had to chart out my own path, use the tools I had at my disposal and I was very much rewarded for that, it was a ton of fun. I do wish that illusory walls stayed open, instead of closing each time you swap maps. I found it kind of tedious and anxiety inducing.

Although I do have quite a few things that nagged me throughout my playthrough I still had a pretty great time. I really appreciated the ending and final boss fight, as well as the other endings that I ended up watching on YouTube. I also really appreciated the sheer amount of ways you can interact with the world via the spell system and ability to level up your jump. I felt really free playing Lunacid, and it was a nice way to refresh after not playing video games for a few months. This game obviously has so much heart and soul poured into it, and I'm so happy I got experience a game by this dev.