A Little Bit of Magic

This week I haven't been doing too much. As far as media goes, I kept it to a couple of games that I played and actually finished this time around.

A little sad for me, but I did get some much needed gaming in. That's pretty much my spring break in a nut shell.

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight

A game by Bombservice, Brazilian developer for the rest of the series. Each game has been better than the last, and I feel that Momodora:RUtM is easily my favorite. After giving the Momo4 a shot, I downloaded and bought the rest. Every game has it's own flavor; definitely worth giving Momo2 a shot atleast, it's one of the free ones in the series.

I'll be writing about six differe- hold on, let me check my reference- Yeah, yeah, so according to this page I just googled, I should be writing about six different aspects. Sound, Graphics, Gameplay, Replay Value(?), and Story.

Sound
This game's sound design is nectar for your ears.
But really, the sound is okay. I didn't find a song that I didn't like. The problem there is that there wasn't a particular song that stood out for me. It was all sort of just background noise. Fighting the bosses, there wasn't one sweet track that made that boss fight super memorable, or a moment in the game that wasn't aided by a satisfying sou- actually, smacking people with your maple leaf is pretty satisfying, I can't lie. Other than that, pretty average. If you haven't played a Momo game before, the maple leaf bit will make sense, I promise.

Graphics
Pixel art. I know what you're thinking. I LOVE OVERUSED PIXEL ART GAMES THAT GO FOR NOSTALGIA INSTEAD OF SOMETHING ORIGINAL. Yeah, my thoughts exactly, but it's really pretty. Animations are really smooth, grass sways, and characters are alive. All of this makes the game feel really organic. The game has strong Cave Story influence, which most of the time is a good thing, and the backgrounds portray the world in a way that makes it seem like there's more to the world than it seems; something I see in Dark Souls as well.

Gameplay
If you've played a Souls game, then you know what to expect. A button to swing weapon, jump, pop item, jump, and use ranged. At first I thought this was a drawback, but as I progressed, the gameplay really shined for me; also influencing are Metroidvania games. This helped tremendously I believe. Without the sense of progress, the two weapons given from the start and ending with them would be really boring. Multiple pickups can be found; lots of secret little nooks, too that rewarded exploration. Although that just meant I swung my maple leaf at whatever unfortunate wall comes within a block away. Something to also note are the items; some items are more notable than others, and some of these really good items are sold and given higher price tags. For myself, I would have preferred that every item to be still viable and to be better suited to my play style, as was intended by the developer. Instead, I ended up opting for the incense and poison arrows that maximized DPS. There were a few items that would make the game different: low health, higher damage, magic items, items that would give arrows pierce; though when knockback was so high from incense that it would knock all the enemies into spikes, or kills everything in 2-3 hits, I decided it was my best option. Unless I was doing some kind of unique run, I defaulted to that. Besides that, the game plays really well. 2d Platformer Souls-like gameplay, responsive controls are in and a must for this kind of game, and collecting items and fighting bosses is wacky fun. Just wacky zany fun.

Replay Value
The game's length is probably 5-6 hours long. Midlength game, but for the price and the amount of entertainment, it's definitely worth the normal pricetag. The short length makes it pretty ideal for a Let's Play, and also bolsters +NG. If you play through new game plus, you can easily get a few more runs through out of the game. There are some events that you can do differently in the game, which doesn't change the story, but does effect NPC stories. Lots of secrets in the levels, and bits of information to collect and piece together a story.


Story
The story is about a priestess from a town called Lun who has come to cleanse the land by talking to the Queen. She wields a blessed maple leaf and a bow and arrow. From the outside, that's pretty much what it seems. The inside, though.. Yeah, same thing. However, in Souls-like tradition, the items give a bit more depth. For a game of this length, however, I couldn't expect the story to be all too complex. Although a lot of the characters were pretty neat. Items won in boss fights or given by an NPC give interesting hints as to who the character is. Turns out boss was actually good guy, or sword is from royalty. I actually really liked the story. Nothing that stands out in particular, but I like the depth given to some of my favorite characters and the setting is really interesting.


Verdict
The game does good at what it tries to do. A metroidvania styled platformer with Souls influence tying it down together in a neat, challenging package. My first actual game review, so I felt that all I did was complain, but the game is really good. I wasn't too compelled to play through NG+ because I'm lazy, but the experience and trying to 100% the map is still pretty fun. Momodora RUtM is up there with my favorite platformers now, and maybe one day I'll have the motivation to do a challenge run. One day.

AND THAT'S IT. Maybe I'll do this in video format next time.
 
Goals for next week:
Finish up testing and essay
Record another video
Uhh? I finished up everything else to be honest

Also this:

And that's really it.
Thanks again guys, much love.