this game is really fun and unique, which is why you should atleast give it a chance.
I feel like if they added more storylines so that it wasnt restricted to one plot and was made to be have longer playthroughs the game would be a million times better and I would be more inclined to play it more often.

PS.
this game is on the psvita, it would be awesome if it was put on the 3ds. Just saying.

I haven't played this game in a long time, but I come here now to write this review in case there is some lone soul out there who somehow finds this game in the store. Play the game, and if you can do it with friends. I played this with a close friend of mine almost half a decade ago. Years later, unfortunately, I don't talk to them much, but they were one of the best moments in my life with them. I sit here in nostalgia with a tinge of sadness, for I will never get those times back. However, I sit here with some happiness for this game allowed me to have those moments. So if you somehow stumble upon this game, go for it. You won't regret it. This review is for you "Beaney". Godspeed wherever you are.

I picked up this game as part of a couch co-op bundle so my family could play some games together over the holiday break. So far this is the stand out game of the bunch. Couch co-op games tend to be frantic by design. And the chaos on the screen tends to scale up with the number of players. We also had fun with games like Overcooked and Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. But especailly for us older folks, those games tend to be exhausting after just a couple of levels. This game feels more like a co-op experience from the 8 or 16 bit eras of my youth. But still holds the attention of my kids. I think it helps that each playthrough is capped at 5 in-game days, which my son and I managed in about an hour and a half. Honestly I'm still not exactly clear on what is going on in this game story wise. But that seems to be by design. I think the game is a mythological cycle. The first playthrough was fun in the same way that classic NES games can be fun in spite of a relatively thin story. But I think each play through will reveal more of the world building and plot for those of us who care about such things. So while we technically "beat" the game in 90 minutes, I think it is more like we got through the first level of the game in one play through. Of all the games we played over our long weekend, this is the only game my son requested a 2nd play through for. We haven't gotten to that yet. But we will. And I'm looking forward to it.

Your first playthrough will be your worst. Once you start unlocking things and recognizing story threads it becomes interesting. It's really good for playing with friends, the average game is like 50min and you can play more than one depending on how you are feeling. Also worked really good on a corona date I had! She had no prior gaming experience beyond animal crossing, but it went well and we had fun.

I find it fun. I'm horrible at doing reviews, but the fact that I tried means I enjoyed it.

This is without a doubt one of the smartest games about storytelling that I have played. The gameplay is that of a well-crafted dungeon crawl, with your hero being one of seven distinct characters with variable play styles. They have set moves, but they can be upgraded through the game, so your play will be subtlely different each time.

The real strength of the game comes from the story, however. You start out remembering the legend of your hero, but much of the story has been forgotten. As you play through, you will uncover abilities such as speaking with the dead, or cooking with different foods, and those abilities carry into future playthroughs, allowing different reactions to events you have seen before. This is a new style of story in games for me, and is a very intelligent way of making a game replayable.

A full run-through will last between 45 minutes and one hour, but it is very easy to immediately run again, to find out how you can do something different.

I have, at time of reviewing, completed eight runs of the game and defeated the Endless Arena once, but I know there is a lot more of the game to discover. Highly recommended.

Before I get into these pros and cons, let me tell you that I have not encountered ANY problems with multiplayer. That is when I first purchased this months ago, AND recently. I don't know what these negative reviews are about truth be told. If you have above average internet you should be totally fine... Of course you will lag if you have Pygmy internet connection.

- The artstyle is simply amazing
- The soundtrack is pretty great (although it can get repetitive)
- The gameplay with all the different classes is pretty smooth
- Co-op on this game is fun
- There is some replay value

Here are some cons:
- Some classes are just overpowered and can whipe the map effortlessly
- Some animations could have been improved with more frames
- The story itself is nothing to brag home about
- The singleplayer experience isn't that fun once you play Co-op

There you have it.

Quite simply, an enchanting gem of a game, that I'm surprised so few people know about. I grabbed it on a whim during a sale and I'm so very glad that I did. I really hope the devs continue to support / expand this game, and that more people experience it.

Pros:
- Fantastic mythology / lore.
- Great procedural generation.
- Choices impacting the world / your character. Feels immersive, like you're really a part of this world.
- Characters play differently, in a way that feels rewarding / fun.
- Really fantastic soundtrack.
- Gorgeous pixel art.
- "Roguelike" but with a cool unlocking system.
- Controller support is great.

Cons:
- Unless I'm missing something, you seem to only be able to do the Endless Waves mode if you're using one computer, rather than playing online. This isn't a huge deal, but made me think at first that it was one player only.
- The "leadership" thing in coop kind of bothers me. Your individual traits don't matter unless you have the highest charm. "Only someone foolish would do this". But my party member IS foolish, he just isn't in charge so it is ignored. If only the leader can make decisions, why still even show the options for others? Sometimes you can still get some kind of trait, but still, feels like a weird oversight.

Neutral:
- A lot of people have mentioned in their reviews that disconnecting is a problem. In ~6 hours of online play, I did have one disconnect, but because of autosaving, we lost maybe 5 minutes of progress. It was really not bad at all.

Let me explain this rating: I would recommend the experience of MH, not the game itself.

The value of MH is learning from its mistakes of trying to develop a narrative through mechanics. As someone who likes rogue-lite games yet craves for more storytelling, the idea of uncovering/shaping the story through replay-value is a novelty I can admire.

It's no masterpiece nor a new benchmark for rogue-lites; it's something of a failed experiment. That's how I'd explain my apprecation for the game.

So if you're looking for the next Binding of Isaac, FTL or a cooperative rogue-lite with lots of complexities, then this game is definitely not for you. And even if you like the idea behind MH you may not enjoy it for its flaws.


A single game of MH can last you anywhere from 20 mins to just over an hour (alone). There are several contributions to the game's length: Exploring new areas/towns for the first time, combat, the game's structure and backtracking.

Each game of MH gives you five days before the final boss. The map is procedurally generated with special events. (Some have to be unlocked beforehand.) You'll never explore the full map because you can only visit one region per day. However, exploring towns or unique locales will not take a day away. You can also go in any direction.

The strangest thing about this system is you'll wonder how much padding is there in such a short game.

Some areas may be very small with several interactions. Others will have you in these huge empty regions with one or two interactions at most, littered with enemies. Some interacted characters/objects will tell you the solution--"You need to be more PATIENT!"--while others won't give you a clue on how to access them.

Unfortunately, the result is you'll need a mental checklist. Even with almost seven hours done, I know I have not unlocked everything--such as being able to talk to animals or ghosts--and I've only played 5/6 characters. (Sargon is horrid for single-player.)

This structure may sound reminiscent to Majora's Mask fans. In that game you would have three-days to stop the end of the world, and you couldn't accomplish every side-story within that time-frame. So you would reset time and all the events. You would then have to plan out which side-story you wanted to discover by memorization.

The difference between MM's and MH's is that MH relies on RNG to shape how and when you experience these side-stories. You may not have the "Wise" rating to do a Wise action; you may not have enough money to buy something special; you may not have--you get the idea.

While it may be a unique quality, I think most would find this system tedious. If every single story/character was as interesting as another special event, then maybe this system could work. However, some interactions are only flavor text and others have zero connection to how you develop your character.


The store-page boasts that MH is a "cooperative personality test", which is outright false. Even in the core gameplay, there is very little customizable options to shape your character. This is an issue where I think the gameplay is at odds with the game's ideas of character development.

Your personalities are determined by the accumulation of your actions--but only the options you can unlock due to your history. Instead of, for example, leveling up an atrribute in an RPG to get a special result (like speech for wise-asses), the system is reversed; your actions define who you are. So you can't have a wise person do something foolish, or a fool stumble upon wisdom.

Now that sounds like a good idea on paper. However, because of how short of a time-frame you have to play and how many of those choices are binary (be a d0uche or be a good-guy), you don't really make a character. You just stumble into it.

What I think was a mistake was where the rest of the game was spent, the combat system. The rest of the game is a simplified Gauntlet. Each character has three abilities for a specific role. Upgrades give you stat boosts to those abilities, but none change how you play or is shaped by your character traits. (You don't even use all the buttons on a standard controller.)

Enemies all basically charge at you in masse, and boses spam basic attacks or use the same tactic with large HP bars. They aren't interesting to fight nor rewarding to win against when the combat can feel broken for some characters. And with six characters total and with so short of a game, I don't think the combat will keep your interested more than it needs to. In fact, after a while, you'll often run to the nearest exit to avoid the combat system.

I would say that this system is harmless but because it's the main focus of the gameplay outside of your choices I can't help but think how much better the game would be if it the combat was taken away, The gameplay needed something to shape around the choices you made to make the characterization of your choices matter.


If I had to point to an example for Moon Hunters to learn on how to make its RNG Storytelling better, I would point to the Civilization games. Or for something more simplier (for a game around 60 to 90 mins), Armello.

Both of these games utilized the player's choices as well as limitations on each playable character to create the stories from the gameplay itself. Stat-increases or debuffs would push the player to tailor their playstyle one way while the other gameplay systems would offer the freedom to define the player through their actions.

(Ex. You could make a communist America or a Democratic China in Civ. You could succumb to the Plague as Zorro or find some other means for victory in Armello.)

The most important part about these games is that the gameplay does not interfere with shaping the narrative. In fact, it makes it feel like the player's actions are the result of their story rather than being told who they are.

In contrast to these ideas are Moon Hunter's epilogues/constellations, They have almost zero bearing on the characters you create or they are outright false. (Unless they're supposed to be outright lies told as myths.)

For example, if you die at the final boss, the epilogue says you lived to be much older. Or a single-action you made at the end of the game redefined your character into something completely different. Or some actions will have no bearing on your legacy.

As mentioned before, nothing of the combat system develops or shapes your character in the epilogue. You would think learning a buff called Blood Magic might be a tabooish-thing that would influence your character. (Consequences are something that is absent in MH besides denying you content to access on your run. Even praying as sacrilege at the Sun altar gives you something good.)

That is just one idea for how to make the gameplay matter more to the player's created story. The point is the entirety of MH's gameplay should be ultized in shaping the characters if it wants to strives for better RNG storytelling, and I think that is MH's biggest untapped potential.


I realize I've been solely pointing out flaws and missed opportunities with this game. All of it is said with fondness for the devs trying something different while I don't think it has succeeded with any one of its ideas.

While I may not find anything superb in its writing or narrative, there is a lot of dedication put into the art-style, the music and the overall world of Moon Hunters. I would be lying if I did not say I enjoyed the discovery aspect of the game.

Sometimes it's games with the most flaws that we have the most love toward, which speaks highly of what was created when we desire something greater.

At first it just seemed like a short little indie game without much on its bones.

Then you realize that the game is meant to be played several times over using different characters, while exploring the world to unlock more of the world to explore on your next playthrough.

After realizing this I was able to get into the game much more, knowing that I could explore the things I missed or failed to encounter on my next playthrough. This dynamic way of playing is new and fresh in my opinion. It allows the player to be flexible in terms of their time investment, whether that be a large investment or small.

I want to compliment the art direction of this game. I have seen a lot of harsh comments in other places that the game is ugly looking. However my opinion is that the game is the complete opposite of ugly. It is in fact quite beautiful, especially when you factor in all the different settings, towns, enemies etc. are all quite unique as well as make use of a wonderful range of pastel colours throughout the world. Scenes look like pixelated watercolour paintings.

Gameplay wise it actually is like a diablo/zelda style. Its not nearly as deep as diablo though so don't expect that. Its a very light rpg. Unfortunately the game is really easy. This in my opinion is the game biggest flaw and they really need to improve the AI of enemies because once you understand the mix of your abilities and start gaining modifiers and skill ups, you become super OP. The reason to keep coming back to to discover the world and all the unlockables (places to see, things to do, new classes, new pathways) however if the game was more challenging that those things wouldn't be such a cake walk to find.

Definitely buy this, once you indulge deeper into the games systems they grab a hold of you and make you want more. The world of Moon Hunters is compelling and definitely draws interest, but the level of challenge is fairly low. Nothing a few AI and balancing tweaks wouldnt fix.