Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight Reviews

This beautiful pixelated Metroidvania makes the graceful jump to the Nintendo Switch.

Regardless of my handful of complaints, the fact is that Momodora grabbed me and never let go. From start to finish, I was in love with the world, the combat, the easter eggs, and nearly everything in between. I’ve seen plenty of games praised as “the 2D Dark Souls!” that I never felt deserved that moniker, but where those get lost in the aesthetic and gruelling difficulty, this game captures the sharp level design, engaging enemy placement, and gripping boss fights. It’s the ability for a developer to create a world, and only give the player a tiny window into it, with just enough space for them to crawl through and discover the magic lying beyond it. Momodora conjures up that feeling of magic perfectly, and despite minor shortcomings, I’ll be thinking fondly about this game for a long time to come.

But for those who just want to see what that cute girl with horns is doing like I did, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is a brief, but highly enjoyable time. It can be over before it overstays its welcome and cracks start to show, but even then those flaws aren’t enough to belittle the experience.

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight borrows a lot of its elements from other game series, but does so in a manner that is still fun, effective, and sometimes quite beautiful.

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight combines the best elements of Castlevania, Dark Souls, and even Shantae to create something great. What it lacks in scale it more than makes up for in attention to detail and care.

The Momodora series, a franchise of classically-styled Metroidvania games for the PC created and independently developed by game designer Rdein of Bombservice, finally makes its debut on the PlayStation 4 with its latest installment, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight. A prequel of the original Momodora games, Reverie Under the Moonlight is set 400 years before the first Momodora game. Players take on the role of Kaho, a priestess sent to stop a curse that’s been spreading throughout the land and has reached her village. Kaho travels to the kingdom of Karst to seek an audience with the queen but she soon finds the kingdom in ruins and infested with the undead.

Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight (referred to as Momodora from here on out) is a “Metroidvania” style adventure and also a perfect example of why I should pay more attention to my PC when it comes to gaming. Released in 2016 on Steam, Momodora is actually the fourth game in a series that I had no clue even existed but am sincerely glad to have rectified. It’s a prequel to the original game to boot, making it a perfect place for new players to dive in. Releasing on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 for the first time, Momodora is about to earn some new fans and a much wider audience, deservingly so.

For hardcore gamers looking for a solid metroidvania fix, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is quite possibly worth the asking price despite its issues. Others, however, are likely to find it all too shallow and simply too difficult to truly enjoy. It’s a shame, as there are solid foundations for a great game on display, but little has been done to adequately balance its difficulty levels or provide more of a gameplay hook.

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is a 2D side-scrolling platformer that firmly plants its feet in the Metroidvania genre. Stop us if you've heard that one before. But what is a debut on consoles is actually a fourth entry in a series that dates back to 2010 on the PC, with the game in question debuting back in 2016. So a year later, does this first appearance on the PlayStation 4 manage to stand out in what is a very, very crowded genre?

With new gameplay mechanics and full of charm, the latest entry in this Metroidvania series makes its way to consoles. Follow Kaho as she explores the kingdom of Karst to find and eliminate the source of the curse affecting her village.

Although it's the fourth game in the Momodora series, Reverie Under the Moonlight is the first to grace consoles. So, how does it fare in its big screen debut?

Even when you do find power-ups, what’s missing is the satisfying feeling that you’re actually, you know, powering up. Every crest or item pick-up serves to open up the world a bit more, but is rarely gratifying as in other games in the genre. It all boils down to basically opening up the next area with a key or being able to change into Kaho’s cat form to make it through a few tight spots in the world. Otherwise, you end the game with little change to your character.

Momodora: Revere Under Moonlight is a fantastic game, wonderfully animated, rich with accurate and sharp controls, and a worthy successor to the heyday of platformer gaming. Games like this are what made console gaming great and keep PC gaming honest, and the fact titles like these are still being made is why the industry has long-standing hope. If this game interests you enough to look at it twice, save yourself the regret and pick it up- you’ll be happier for it.