The new Metroidvania Soulslike gameMoonscarshas exploded onto the scene since its release in late September. Developer Black Mermaid have crafted a world, main character, and collection of enemies that aren’t eye-catching in screenshots but look absolutely stunning in motion. This has helped steadily increase the conversation surrounding the game since its release, and themajority of that conversation has been positive.
RELATED:Moonscars Review
Even though its story is almost comically obtuse(as is Soulslike tradition)and its combat takes a hot second to fully grasp,Moonscarshas enough going for it to be recognized as one of the best Metroidvanias released in 2022. Here are all the highs and lows that come with playing through this bloody, gothic adventure.
9Best: Art & World Design
As stated earlier,Moonscarsdoesn’t give the best impression through screenshots. Seeing the game in motion brings its stunning animations into view, and they make the entire aesthetic come to life.Moonscarslooks like if someone asked a vampire to draw their ideal home, and then had that inspire the entire world’s design. Blacks, grays, and whites are saturated with rich blood-reds, with only the barest use of browns and greens to denote forests and swamps.
Despite all the black and gray, details in the world come through crystal clear. Rarely does a climbable object blend into its surroundings, and enemies burst into the foreground with impressive detail.In classic Metroidvania fashion,unreachable areas make themselves known early and are designed well enough to be easily recognizable when looping back through one of the game’s many shortcuts.
8Best: Combat
For all that the animations do to elevateMoonscars’art style, they do even more for its combat. Playing as the “Clayborn” known as Gray Irma, players will use regular attacks, special attacks, parries, dodges, jumps, and magic spells. Every single one, without exception, looks amazing and feels great to use. Attacks send flashes of red blood across the background, special abilities are varied and satisfying, and it cannot be stated enough how fantastic it all looks in action.
Moonscarsalsoco-opts a mechanic fromHollow Knightwith its healing ability. Each of Gray Irma’s attacks generates the game’s equivalent of mana, called Ichor, some of which can then be used to heal. Ichor also powers Irma’s spells and special abilities, making for engaging mid-battle decisions between healing or casting magic. It’s a system that encourages players to always be the aggressor.
7Worst: Impermanent Perks
During each run throughMoonscars’various levels, players will accumulate Spite Bonuses, which are perks that increase their status effect build-up, health restoration, or mana efficiency. These upgrades start to make a difference almost immediately and only become more valuable as they accumulate. However, any time the player dies or interacts with a Mirror (the game’s version of Bonfires), all Spite Bonuses are lost.
Giventhe game’s Soulslike nature,this added death penalty can become a nuisance. Particularly during difficult boss fights, players can’t simply make the run back to the boss room after they die but must instead spend time fighting basic enemies to gather a few perks first. It’s a wrinkle that quickly becomes tedious and throws a wrench in the spokes of the game’s pacing. Not to mention that discovering a new mirror - which should be a relief after completing a tough area - also comes with the same punishment of losing those perks. The system itself is an interesting idea, but one that could have been better optimized.
6Best: Boss Fights
If a game in this subgenre is going to be successful, then epic, challenging boss fights are a must-have. FromSoftware still holds the title belt in this regard, but that shouldn’t stop other developers from rising to the challenge.Moonscarsdoes so in spades.
RELATED:Great 3D Metroidvanias
Every single boss fight in the game will push players to their limits. It’s not just about learning to exploit their attack patterns; players will need to have a firm grasp of every mechanic available to them and will need to possess the confidence to use them with split-second timing. Some of the game’s bosses are devastatingly hard, but that’s all part of the experience, and it’s what makes the rush of defeating them so satisfying.
5Best: The Ravenous Moon
While the death penalty of losing accumulated perks is a hindrance to the game’s pacing, there is another penalty that is as exciting of an addition to the Soulslike genreas any in recent memory.The Moon is a pivotal figure inMoonscars. When it is sated, enemies do less damage and have lower health, and players will find the game a bit easier. When the player dies, however, the Moon becomes ravenous, and it demands sacrifice.
When the Moon is hungry, the difficulty immediately ramps up. Enemies deal twice as much damage but also take more damage as a result. This mechanic does a phenomenal job of cranking up the game’s difficulty while simultaneously making the player feel more powerful than ever. Combat becomes frantic and constantly dangerous, and thus all the more rewarding in victory (exemplified in the increased amount of Bone Dust, the game’s EXP, that is rewarded from kills). If players want to satiate the Moon, they must use an item called a Gland, which are exceedingly rare and must be sought out in the world’s darkest corners.
4Worst: Doppelgangers
Whenever players come across and activate a mirror in the game world, they are transported back to the Mould Workshop, the game’s main hub. Upon returning to the newly-activated Mirror, they will face off against a Doppelganger. This enemy will be an exact copy of the player’s character, complete with equipped spells and special abilities.
RELATED:The Most Underrated Metroidvania Games
While at first these fights are exciting and pose a good challenge for players to test their metal against a true equal, they very quickly wear out their welcome. Much like the loss of acquired Spite Bonuses, the Doppelgangers start to feel like something included just to slow the player’s progress. The fights lose their challenge shortly after the game’s halfway mark, but they persist long afterward, throwing up an overly-tedious obstacle along the path to progress with every new Mirror that’s unlocked.
3Best: Dodging And Parrying
A lot was said earlier aboutMoonscars’combat, but that focused mainly onthe offensive abilities available to the player.Rounding out the combat is the fantastic implementation of a dodge and parry ability. The dodging comes first, mostly because of how powerful it is. Gray Irma can weave around attacks with ease, and a well-timed dodge will almost always guarantee an opening to attack resulting from it. Not only that, but any attack in the game can be dodged, making it a go-to ability on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, the parry is far more situational. Enemy attacks that can be parried will flash red ahead of time, informing the player of the opportunity. The parry window is very generous, but that’s always better than it being too restrictive, and in a game whose difficulty will spike asMoonscarsdoes, the reliable parry doesn’t move the needle all that much.
2Best: Learning Curve
It should be clear by now thatMoonscarsis a difficult game, even by the standards of its own genre. “Difficult” does not always translate to “good,” though, but what this game does with its difficulty balance is worthy of recognition.
While the game’s pacing can sometimes be thrown off by an over-abundance of mechanics, the rate at which it gradually increases or spikes its difficulty is fine-tuned. The difficulty spike right at the beginning of the game sets a baseline for what players can expect from going forward, and every major encounter that follows builds off that baseline incrementally. Players may not even notice how good they’ve gotten until they backtrack to those earlier levels and realize how easy they’ve become, which is a deeply satisfying feeling.
1Worst: Unfocused Story
Soulslikes oftendon’t have an in-depth narrative,and that typically requires them to stay away from cutscenes or dramatic moments. WhileMoonscarshas very little in the way of dialog and sticks to this principle of the genre, for the most part, there are some moments where it leans into its narrative to ill effect.
On multiple occasions throughout the campaign, the gameplay will stop in favor of a cutscene. Gray Irma will have a conversation with one or two characters, and the implication will be that a major story element has been revealed. What that element is, and what it means to Irma, is lost in the otherwise obtuse narrative structure. It makes those cutscenes feel unfocused and distracting in the context of the rest of the game.
Moonscarswas released on September 27th, 2022, and is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
