Moonscars

Firstly this game isn't "brutally" difficult: it has some ropy design choices that make the first half hour inordinately difficult until you work out or google which items you need. There is only one moveset and you don't have a "build" so much as occasionally swapping spells or amulets for specific situations. I hope you like 2H sword. Within the moveset, the power-slash and parry are redundant, the ranged attack is slow, and the spells are unresponsive, take too long, and you get too little mana. Nearly all the equipment options are redundant. Most enemies are fought by jumping through their attack animations and slashing them in passing. The auto-map is zoomed out too far and only reveals a whole section at a time - so you can't see where you've explored. There is a lot of backtracking (don't bother with the earrings quest) and although the dozen enemy types seem generous at first, repeatedly clearing them becomes a chore. The bosses are gimmicky:- they bring together too many simultaneous mechanics whilst having to all be beatable with the game's single moveset. And the goth af art design outstays its welcome because all the game's zones/chapters have the same black-as-primary-colour palette. The music cycles too frequently. The dialogue is a bad translation of a teenager's first novel. So it's a bit like the first Legacy of Kain game (1996), but revolving around specifically-female angsts around motherhood and creating life. Every interaction with an NPC is a melodramatic plot-twist. But that isn't to say it's bad. The sword-combat (if you do it in the exact way intended) is fun, and there are often amusing alternative solutions to the fights if you can trick the mobs into a spike-trap or into blowing each other up. I'd say: only buy on sale and if you've finished with Sundered and Salt&Sanctuary and want something similar as a stopgap.

A metroidvania in the line of "Dark Devotion" and other pixel art game that inspire themself from dark-souls but in 2D. First thing first, the game artistic direction is a success. Animation are readable, satisfying and smooth. The background is beautiful. However, the color palette is not very varied, all turning around black/white/grey and all the shades possible except for some zone with their own identity (yellow, blue, etc) The red is also present, bringing out you need to see or to highlight a character. All in all, the colors palette serve a purpose and she is in accord with the game story and lore. The game-play have a good feeling. You can do light and heavy attack, dash, jump and parry and have a special weapon with a specific attack pattern. Here is an interesting part of the game mechanic. When you die, you re-spawn and can choose another special weapon among three. This is well thought and make the death as a part of the game, not a failure. There is also a clean/red moon system. If you die too many time, the red moon comes up and enemies are more difficult to beat. Of course you can make offering to have a clean moon again with special item you collect during your exploration. Enemies aren't that varied, but they are all different in their pattern. Therefore it can be repetitive toward the end of the game. Bosses are challenging and comes with satisfaction once you beat them. I sometimes was lost in where to go or what to do since the game have no quest log no anything to guide you. It is pleasant to see that some game let the player think by himself and don't help him to much. If you're a completionist and want to do all the quest, you will have to do the game twice since there isn't manual saves and there is one quest you can choose not to finish for another one. Overall a good game with interesting mechanics and a neat artistic direction. I recommend it if you like metroidvania and pixel art.

I really liked the art style from the beginning, but after finishing the game I can definitely say that the gameplay was well above my expectations. The witchery system has different skills to explore, the amulets are similar to rings in souls but the nice thing is you can swap them out on the fly. Which is really nice compared to some other metroidvanias where you need to rest at a checkpoint to do change your loadout. The spite bonuses and moon threat are a nice addition, and give you so much power. While moonhunger seems harsh at first, once you know the pattern of the enemies, the increased gain for bone dust is more than worth it. There are amulets that are very strong, but break on death, and despite never using such rare consumables in other games, it is very nice to do so in here. The bonuses are so worth it. For anyone who wants to play and is unsure what you get: get chain rock throw and friendly doppelganger. Max them out. For the amulets: get health on parry, greater martyress stone II for 20 glands, and the third is your preference.

Moonscars is a grim story about lost clayborn Grey Irma, who is looking for Sculptor Zoran, her mystery creator. It's not a typical dark fantasy plot about great evil, dying world and the inevitable fate. The story and lore itself are solid and twisted, but dialogues are so poor and boring. You won't remember any character after beating the game. The dialogues are artificially sophisticated so you will be bored within the first 2 hours of the game, I promise you. Magic system is broken, amulets is boring and mostly useless, temporary buffs is unbalanced, additional weapons also unbalanced. The only strong tool for beating creeps is a parry. You won't have any other way or playstyles, only parry and sometimes broken stupid witchery. No significant upgrades or improvements, no new weapon or other equipment. The main thing you should know — MOONSCARS is an action-platformer with some elements of metroidvania. This is not a souls-like. The only "souls-mechanic" here is deaths and respawns mechanic. Everything else is well-knowed old elements of typical hardcore action platformers. As a metroidvania this game also poor — only 2 extra movement abilities and there are no reasons for backtracking or exploring. The only great part of the game is a visual design (pixel art and backgrounds). Animations and the sounds are decent.