The greatest threat ever known to the village of Koho comes to life in the latest game in the Momodora series, Momodora Moonlit Farewell.
When the Black Bell is stolen from a fairy village, demons invade the world seeking to bring ruin to it. It falls upon the shrine maiden priestess Momodora to find the bell and, essentially, save the world. No small task when you’re up against the hordes of hell and some angry gods. . .
Momodora Moonlit Farewell is the fifth entry in the Momodora series, even though it follows directly from Momodora III. While its timeline may be placed here, it takes its play-style from the last actual game in the series; Momodora Reverie Under The Moonlight which brought a Metroidvania twist to its traditional platforming. As such, Momodora Moonlit Farewell is also a Metroidvania. And one that brings a challenge to boot!
With Momodora Moonlit Farewell meant to bring an end to the Momodora saga, it might behove you to question whether or not you need to know the series’ history before jumping in. The answer to that is no, thankfully. The developers have specifically designed the game to be accessible to newcomers and veterans alike.
So while there are returning characters from previous games, and lore behind Koho, Momodora Moonlit Farewell doesn’t require a degree to understand. This last chapter in the story explains more than enough to get you going from the beginning with just the right amount of info and character interactions presented across Momo’s journey.
While the story may be thin on the ground, the real focus here is on the gameplay and for that developers BOMBSERVICE, have put everything they’ve learned about development since the first game into this one. That experience has resulted in a tightly crafted and challenging experience, albeit one that doesn’t shake up the Metroidvania play-box much.
If you’re expecting a relatively large world to explore, complete with different biomes, areas and secrets locked behind thorough exploration or new abilities, then you won’t be disappointed. Familiar moves such as a wall and double jump are all present, while Momo can heal herself with the use of a magic bell governed by her magic meter. There is also a stamina meter for dodging, sprinting and using your ranged bow attack, with the bow doing the most damage when your stamina meter is full.
Thankfully, the stamina meter doesn’t play as huge a role in combat because normal attacks aren’t tied to it.
Momodora Moonlit Farewell does away with levelling and skill tree systems that you find in many Metroidvanias today, replacing them with a Sigil and companion system.
The Sigil system is basically a card system that provides Momodora with a variety of buffs that significantly impact your ability to survive in the demon-infested wilds. Whether it’s a card to add a projectile attack to your melee attacks or one to increase your companion’s activity rate, every little bit increases your survival chances. You can only have a certain amount of cards active at a time though. Companions function as little sprites that float around you and are picked up in the environment.
Like Sigils, each one has its own ability to make life that much easier. Some will attack enemies for you while others will drop mana for you to pick up and recharge your magic meter with.
Health and damage upgrades are scattered around the environment for you to pick and are tied into just how tightly the game structures its progression. While you can explore freely, Momodora feels more tightly controlled in how it opens up the game areas than most Metroidvanias do. There is freedom to explore, but you will find a specific path that usually needs to be taken to continue your progression and unlock new areas.
This also ties into the game difficulty, which is much higher than most games as each enemy inflicts a ton of damage, so much so that only a couple of hits will see you to an early grave. Bosses present a significant difficulty challenge even with being designed around attack patterns. Being on an even keel to defeat them means you need to thoroughly explore an area and find all the health and attack increases that are hidden there.
Without them, you’re chances of beating the boss are much lower, though not impossible. It’s a design choice that makes certain you’re always at the right strength for a challenging fight.
The game’s mechanics are tightly implemented with a heavier focus on combat than challenging platforming. That said, moving around the environment is a joy as well since Momo is fast and responsive.
Visually, Momodora Moonlit Farewell is a beautiful work of pixel art with perfect technical performance. There are nicely implemented visual effects and a lot of character in the sprite animations, though on the Switch Lite’s screen, some elements appear a little too small to make out clearly.
Momodora Moonlit Farewell brings the Momodora Saga to a close with a fun and challenging Metroidvania that rewards exploration and good combat skills. Whether you’re new to the series or a longtime fan, Metroidvania fans will find it a charming, good time.
Momodora Moonlit Farewell Trailer
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The code was provided by the distributor.
