A Symphony of the Night-esque game, huh? Metroidvania exploration? Check. Good combat? Check. And interesting and dark gameworld? Check. Adorable characters? Uh…? Well, whatever, I’m sure I’ll get my fix on this genre if I play this game on hard mode. With a story following a shrine maiden and a cast of adorable female characters, I’m sure playing through on hard will be pretty easy for me. Right?

Developer: Bombservice

Publisher: DANGEN Entertainment

9 hours played // Review Copy Provided // $18.89

Momodara: Reviere Under the Moonlight is a tough-as-nails Metroidvania that follows the journey of a priestess named Koho as she seeks a way to save her hometown from a growing plague. With your first glance at its pixelated graphics and cutesy characters, one might assume that Momodara is intended as a lighter experience. I made this mistake, and decided I’d start the game on the “hard” difficulty.

Beautiful serene forest, adorable protagonist… This is bound to be an easy-going, light-hearted adventure, right?

The good news is that Momodara’s movement and combat feels great. This should be a given, but it’s somehow something that many action-platformers mess up. Many games feel too floaty, or you wind up fighting the controls more often than the enemies or environments. Koho’s movements, however, have a perfect weight to them. Movement and actions are responsive and strikes feel weighty, yet you’re capable tight platforming and split-second dodges. Simply moving around the environment and striking enemies feels great, which is perhaps the best quality of this game.

From platforming to combat, moving Koho around just feels good.

It’s a good thing that the controls are so satisfying and tight, otherwise I might have found “hard” completely intolerable. With such fantastic controls, I had nothing to blame my deaths on beyond my own ability and game knowledge. And there were a lot of deaths. For reference, I did eventually test a new save on normal. Momodara creates its hard mode by spawning additional enemies and starting Koho with about half the max health of the normal difficulty. Monsters are no weaker on normal than on hard as far as I could tell, meaning even the base difficulty is something of a challenge.

Thankfully, if you’re here for the story and characters, this game does sport an easy mode.

This theme of challenging the player is reinforced through another unique mechanic. Every boss you defeat has a unique drop that you only earn if you defeat said boss without taking damage. Between its high base difficulty and the way the game rewards you for playing exceptionally well, Momodara is a game that rewards mastery. It leans on how enjoyable the action is and how satisfying it is to see your growing expertise rewarded to create replayability. I can’t stress enough that, at the end of the day, I believe this to be Momodara’s strongest selling point: it’s challenging, and the action feels good.

Combat in Momodara is equal parts intense and satisfying.

Outside of combat, Momodora offers an experience that is as dark as it is adorable. As satisfying as the action is, you quickly learn that the events of this game are not meant to leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. Every quality of this game outside of its cute take on character design reminds you of this fact.

Deaths are sudden and frequent as a trap or a newly spawned demon makes quick work of our protagonist, leaving you with nothing but a black “you died” screen and the ring of Koho’s scream in your ears. NPCs constantly remind you that the place you’re exploring is supposed to be a thriving city. Instead, you only find disease and corruption pouring out from the castle. Without spoiling anything, this game will remind you again and again that you’re only capable of so much – some people are going to suffer, and there isn’t anything you can do about that.

Stories of death and suffering will be repeated to you quite a bit over the course of Momodara.

Much like the challenge and dark setting aren’t going to be for everyone, the game takes a niche approach to music and storytelling as well. As seems to be a tradition among dark fantasy settings, most of Momodara’s story is hidden away in optional NPC dialogue and flavour text on missable items. This is either a positive or negative, depending on what kind of person you are. I think it’s only right that an exploration-based genre rewards you with story alongside power-ups as you complete your map, but that is an opinion at best.

The background music is incredibly simple and serene, with some sections of the game having ambiance, rather than music. Coming from a history of games like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, intense music is sorely missed. Yet, there’s something to be said for the way the silence, or the sound of the wind rustling trees, can make one feel alone, which again, is something this game seems to be going for.

Spooky.

But that’s Momodara: Reviere Under the Moonlight in a nutshell. It’s Castlevania without the power fantasy offered by the Belmont’s or Alucard. It’s an onslaught of monsters and traps without Bloody Tears to hype you up. It’s a world where Koho will do her best, but she can’t save everyone. And that’s not for everyone. Some of us like our power fantasies. I enjoy dying a lot, so I enjoyed my playthrough of Momodara, hard mode and all. If you’re like me and you have an appreciation for challenging and satisfying combat, or you like exploration-story games like Dark Souls and Hollow Knight, Momodara is worth the price of entry.

Thanks for reading all the way through my review. If you’re a fan of games like Momodara and you haven’t played Hollow Knight yet, what are you waiting for?! And if you have, check out Zach’s review on Rain World. Maybe you’ve had enough crawling through dark caverns and feeling down? Check out Yiik: A Postmodern RPG – at least it’ll leave you laughing on the outside, even if you want to cry on the inside. Regardless, thank you again for support Nindie Nexus. Everything we do here is a labour of love. If you would like to support our efforts, please considering checking out our Patreon or Ko-Fi.