Moonscars tried the disturbing mix between soulslike and metroidvania

This is an intersection story of Moonscars: two-dimensional action platformer developed by black mermaid It emerges at the narrative level between Pinocchio and the golem of Jewish legends, and puts us in charge of a clay statue brought to life by a mysterious sculptor and awakening in a dark and violent world, tormented by doubts and awakening from one of many. feelings she’s never experienced: pain.

As for the structure and gameplay, the intersection is between the subgenre of the game. metroidvania and that like spirit: The game’s scenarios evolve in all directions and contain obstacles and mechanisms that we can only overcome after acquiring certain skills, while at each stop in a dark mirror, all enemies defeated come back to life once again ready to face.

Taking advantage of the demo presented during Steam Next Fest, I tried moonscars and here are our impressions.

History

As stated in the title, History Written by Moonscars, Moonscars is a bizarre mix of elements: during an intro sequence and some textual dialogues, we find the agonizing awareness of what has hitherto been an inanimate object and finds itself alone in an absolutely hostile, doubtful world. and fear. Will its creator, the mysterious Sculptor, be able to give him answers?

What hope is this gray river However, he clings desperately, realizing that he is not defenseless against the monstrous creatures that inhabit the game’s scenarios: his sword can smash enemies, and his body somehow learns surprising abilities.

Even death is not a fixed pointrather, it represents a potential—sometimes necessary—new beginning.

gameplay

The Moonscars demo clearly reflects us in the early stages of the campaign and grapples with a very short tutorial. battle system and generally on existing shares. The foundations are the foundations of a two-dimensional action platformer, so we will be able to jump, attack and perform a quick shot, which is useful both for reaching distant platforms and for dodging enemy shots.

Within minutes, our character is a special attack: a devastating shock wave, a typical spirit-like element, that develops horizontally and allows not only to destroy opponents, but also to destroy certain obstacles, activate switches and open ordinary passages to explore previously inaccessible areas.

Another aspect associated with this particular subtype is clearly difficulty, but it doesn’t beat too much in the context of the short demo available on Steam. Creatures that are stronger and more resistant than the norm are simply introduced, they need to be hit several times, perhaps even with a charged blow, but first of all their attacks must be avoided to avoid taking too much damage.

A second bar filled by eliminating enemies can be used by Gray Irma. recharge your health but it also determines performing certain maneuvers, such as the aforementioned special attack or a counter that throws the opponent, perhaps enough to “nail” him to a wall full of thorns.

this impact feedback It looked great to us, and there’s definitely a lot of Symphony of the Night in the system developed by the Black Mermaid guys.

Structure

Moonscars’ soul-like spirit is manifested in the restoration of enemies killed after a pause, as indicated in the difficulty level and level design. dark mirror (a kind of alternate dimension where you can eventually unlock new abilities thanks to the resources gained so far) and in the game over concept that allows us to start over from the last checkpoint with a priority objective: the previous life and the items we collected with them.

The decor, with its platforms and “elevators”, levers and destructible walls, doesn’t represent a new element at the moment compared to many other similar productions, but we had the perception for about forty minutes of the demo. a thickness is still hiddenThis will inevitably reveal itself between boss fights and upgrades, the latter tied to a skill tree that looks pretty full.

Technical realization

Formally, Moon Scars is very similar to Blasphemous, but at the level of tonality it immediately turns out to be less colorful, almost monochrome: a choice that pays in terms of atmosphere, but certainly not in terms of variety and characterization, but in terms of both the design of the scenarios and the design of the enemies, they are all quite similar.

this animations the main character is equipped with several frames, so although they are hand-drawn, they naturally refer to lively images that benefit the fluidity of movements. Overall, the game’s aesthetic looks mature and predictable, but as mentioned risk monotonous graphics in the corner.

As expected, the options are down to the bone: Moonscars lets you change the resolution and possibly enable vertical sync, but there are no quality presets to adjust and the rest of the system requirements are pretty low. this controller however, it is already perfectly supported and there is no doubt that this is the best way to enjoy the experience.

very little to say about sound, has a great atmosphere for the moment, quite necessary but effective in accompanying the music and discreet in terms of effects. There is some verbal dialogue, but the bulk of the exchanges are purely textual.