Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight

Genre: Metroidvania

Players: 1

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Review:

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is a Metroidvania released on PC in 2016, ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2017, and then brought to Nintendo Switch in 2019. In this game, the fourth entry in the Momodora series, players take the role of a mage trying to rid the land of a terrible curse by seeking the source of that curse in the city at the kingdom’s center.

Momodora features a beautiful presentation with some gorgeous, well-animated pixel art visuals that do a great job of bringing to life the fantasy land of the game and its cursed denizens. This game also has a nice, understated soundtrack that does a great job of highlighting the dark fantasy nature of the game’s topic matter, with subdued themes like Alabaster, Hallowed Ground, Fragmented Majesty, Gardens of Stone, Reprise, and Overture.

The gameplay here starts with some good mechanics – your character can use a melee attack as well as a bow, and players need to become adept at both, as each has their uses. The bow of course has range, and can be charged to deliver somewhat more powerful and more widely-distributed attacks. Melee attacks, meanwhile, can stun enemies, and do more damage from the start.

While this is a promising start, Momodora doesn’t take long to run into some issues. Firstly, unless you’re the sort who absolutely demands a challenge in your games, take my advice and play this game on Easy mode – every other mode is absurdly difficult, and even Easy mode has areas where it’s unforgiving (namely, some places instantly kill you if you miss your jump). Secondly, progression in this game seems to happen at a snail’s pace, with the player earning minimal upgrades even after their first three or four boss fights. I felt like I kept looking for something that would open up my exploration options or make me feel like the game expanded to be more than it started as, only to be constantly frustrated.

It’s a shame the progression and world design of Momodora is so limited, because the presentation here is absolutely beautiful, and the world being presented here seems like it would be a delight to explore, if only I felt like my exploration mattered and my character was improving through that exploration. Unfortunately, while this is a beautiful game with a lot of promise, its challenge level is a huge barrier to entry and it doesn’t quite seem to understand Metroidvania-style level design. As such I can’t give it a high recommendation except for those who want to explore every corner of the genre.

tl;dr – Momodora is a Metroidvania about a mage exploring a dark city to try to undo a curse spreading across the kingdom. This is a beautiful game that has some good ideas in its combat that have a lot of potential, but unfortunately its overly high difficulty and its poor grasp of proper Metroidvania world design and progression keep this game from fully delivering on that potential.

Grade: C+

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