A while back, I saw a trailer for a game called Momodora: Moonlit Farewell. It looked interesting, seeming a bit more intimate and less empowering than many Castleroids. I would later see this game while browsing the Nintendo eShop and it was on sale, so I bought it.
It's a pretty good game, but it's also lacking in a few key areas. I like the combat well enough. It's very simple at the end of the day, but it's deliberate and can be pretty fun. The bosses seem intentionally designed to be less of an endurance test and more of a short burst of a challenge, as your character can often die in two to three hits. There aren't many items, but the ones here are pretty well-designed and implemented.
The game in general is fairly difficult, and it has the old-fashioned system of 'if you die you lose all progress since save, no and ifs or buts'. I'm fine with that, honestly. There are a few times where save rooms were a distance away from bosses though, and getting back to the boss was usually a cakewalk, so this choice was just tedious.
In terms of ability progression, this game has very little. You earn a midair dash and a cat transformation, and... That's about it. There's a fairly good sense of exploration here but backtracking is very rare, so I feel that there was a missed opportunity with the structure. It lacks the best parts of both linear and non-linear games to me. The level design is good enough but not great and you rarely feel like you're truly exploring because most detours are very accessible and short. Maybe I would've been more accepting of this if it felt in service of story and worldbuilding, but both of those felt pretty underwhelming to me.
An IRL friend of mine read my Tears of the Kingdom review and said, "You talked all about how bad it was and then said it was a great game." I feel like this review would probably illicit a similar reaction, but I still enjoy the game well enough because it was very brisk in pace and had pretty good audiovisuals. If this game was a lot longer, I'd probably dislike it because of a lack of interesting level design or abilities. Ironically though, I think a few of the problems also come from it being underdeveloped and missing a lot of opportunities, opportunities that would probably make the game longer. Oh well. Maybe with the sequel they'll make a true banger.
Overall, a fairly good game. Might play the other ones. 6/10.
It's a pretty good game, but it's also lacking in a few key areas. I like the combat well enough. It's very simple at the end of the day, but it's deliberate and can be pretty fun. The bosses seem intentionally designed to be less of an endurance test and more of a short burst of a challenge, as your character can often die in two to three hits. There aren't many items, but the ones here are pretty well-designed and implemented.
The game in general is fairly difficult, and it has the old-fashioned system of 'if you die you lose all progress since save, no and ifs or buts'. I'm fine with that, honestly. There are a few times where save rooms were a distance away from bosses though, and getting back to the boss was usually a cakewalk, so this choice was just tedious.
In terms of ability progression, this game has very little. You earn a midair dash and a cat transformation, and... That's about it. There's a fairly good sense of exploration here but backtracking is very rare, so I feel that there was a missed opportunity with the structure. It lacks the best parts of both linear and non-linear games to me. The level design is good enough but not great and you rarely feel like you're truly exploring because most detours are very accessible and short. Maybe I would've been more accepting of this if it felt in service of story and worldbuilding, but both of those felt pretty underwhelming to me.
An IRL friend of mine read my Tears of the Kingdom review and said, "You talked all about how bad it was and then said it was a great game." I feel like this review would probably illicit a similar reaction, but I still enjoy the game well enough because it was very brisk in pace and had pretty good audiovisuals. If this game was a lot longer, I'd probably dislike it because of a lack of interesting level design or abilities. Ironically though, I think a few of the problems also come from it being underdeveloped and missing a lot of opportunities, opportunities that would probably make the game longer. Oh well. Maybe with the sequel they'll make a true banger.
Overall, a fairly good game. Might play the other ones. 6/10.