Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight

Surprisingly souls-like

Why

Why Not

Impressions

My expectations for this were right around Shantae given the similarities; retro pixel metroidvanias which at least from their store page look like they were drawn with one hand. In reality Momodora was more or less the exact opposite of Shantae; rather than being bright & cheery but clunky and frustrating Momodora sets a distinctly Dark Souls-like mood and plays with surprising fluidity.

My journey was off to a rough start as I accidentally selected 'Hard' on the difficulty screen and discovered you can't change it in game, leading to more or less everything one-shotting me for a significant chunk of the game. Fortunately that wasn't too much of an issue since you have ranged attack and double jump right from the start to avoid engaging in melee if you want, plus once you get up close and personal every hit staggers regular enemies.

Bosses were a bit more difficult but attacks are clearly telegraphed and have pretty generous dodge windows, so it only took a few tries to learn their attacks before beating them. Overall I think I might've gotten bored with the combat on easy, but hard provided just the right level of challenge.

It's not just the vibes that're soulsy, you'll encounter plenty of 'door doesn not open from this side' and paths which loop around to open shortcuts from bells (bonfires). Cryptic NPC quests also make an appearance, including at least one leading to a secret boss which I inadvertantly stumbled my way through. The pixel art also helps with this; it's beautiful but not in the polished, hi-rez style of Sanabi where the pixels are so small as to be almost indistinguishable. Here you can definitely see the pixels, yet it's always very clear what you're looking at and the whole environment comes together to create a strong sense of atmosphere, especially in the city & gardens.

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is a short but sweet metroidvania that's well worth your time and money, and I'll definitely be picking up the newer 'Moonlit Farewell' at some point in the future. Maybe even over some newer, shinier games since I'm very keen to see what these devs do with the (presumably) bigger budget they earned by making this gem. Definitely give it a try.