Black Mermaid and publisher Humble Games waste no time introducing the themes tied to the crushing darkness, as one of the first things seen is the death of the main character, Grey Irma, with her body lying lifeless under a crescent moon. The story of Moonscars is given piecemeal, with the standard storytelling style of larger revelations occurring late in the game. Those paying attention to each interaction and dialogue between characters will be able to figure out where the story is headed somewhat quickly, though; it has an interesting take on immortality, and on the choices of those who seek something akin to it. There are a few twists that might be surprising but given the game’s brutality, none of it seems totally out of place. It should keep players interested and engaged just enough to want to see what the final outcome will be for Grey Irma.
The pixel art used in every aspect of the game, from cutscenes to character animation, is absolutely gorgeous. The stygian artistry is used to great effect with hints of bloody reds and pale to dark browns intersecting open fields that have become battlegrounds. Each area has a distinct flavor and color while sharing the darker aspects of the others. Bodies impaled upon spikes and various human parts lying throughout each area lets the user know, not subtly, that every inch of this world is filled with a sense of gloom that is inescapable. The choice to use a dreary, almost simplistic color palette fits naturally with its material, to the point it would be hard to imagine it working as well in any other style. The graphical glow found in games like Ori and the Will of the Wisps is noticeably absent, but that lack of shifting hues and heavy emphasis on dark colors fits the theme perfectly.
At times, Moonscars music is also just as dreary and oppressive as the rest of the game. Nothing in it stands out like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night’s memorable track list, but Moonscars background music is surprisingly heavy and unnerving at times. From the slow but soaring orchestral pieces to the deep thudding of drums and bass during some boss fights, the music weaves into the game so completely effortlessly it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why it works. It just feels right at home in the dark and grime with the rest of the game.
The dark color design also helps create a world full of terrifying monsters and creatures. Dark in their motivations and evil in their unrelenting desire for the death of the protagonist, character designs range from the standard fantasy foot soldier to towering undead knights and more. The game’s art makes sure each newly introduced enemy is quickly seen as a threat. This feeling of constant malice is shown even more in the Moonscars boss designs. Bosses can be gigantic and take up most of the screen, or very small and be half the size of Irma, but each one is designed to look devilishly evil and threatening throughout every phase while filling the screen with multiple attacks from different directions.
The hordes of weaker foes Grey Irma faces are pretty standard fantasy fare at the start. Skeletons wearing the armor they died in, ghouls arisen from the various piles of flesh, and magic-wielding robed figures are just a few of the monstrosities Moonscars throws at players near the start. There is a nice variety of enemy types too, from various flying enemies, to jumping foes, and grounded fighters sprinkled throughout the game. Most are easy to handle in a one-on-one fight, but the difficulty ramps up quickly just by adding a second adversary of any type. When a third, fifth, or even seventh enemy is thrown into the mix, users will find themselves quickly overwhelmed if they aren’t careful.
Fortunately, Moonscars gives players a lot of choices in how to deal with enemies. Grey Irma starts equipped with her sword, the weapon she will have with her the entire game and the main way users will be dispatching their enemies. Capable of two quick attacks and a third slightly delayed follow-up, it also has a charged-up attack that can knock enemies back, giving players a way to impale adversaries on the many spiked walls and floors found throughout the game. Later on, Grey Irma is also granted a special attack with a larger weapon that gives different bonuses to the attack itself as well as a boost to various abilities. The large hammer lets players stun adversaries briefly when hit, the spear slows enemies down, while others can add effects like bleed or cause more damage to be given by Irma’s regular attacks. Players will need to learn when to launch these heavy blows, as enemies can and will attack during the special attack start-up animations. Users can cancel the heavy attack with a dash, though it won’t be unheard of to dash right into a different foe’s killing blow.
The game’s dash move is integral to success in densely populated environments. No animation at the start, invulnerability frames during, and a quick recovery time after means players will find themselves constantly dashing in and out of danger. Users will also use the dash to navigate the game world to reach platforms out of reach of standard jumps. The game also features a parrying ability that avoids an attack and slashes back once, but the timing window to be successful is very small. The combat systems feel very simplistic at first and most will discover a system or order of attacks that works for them and stick with it, but there is depth to be found within the basics. Dodging through an attack, striking an enemy in the back, parrying or dashing through their turn-around attack, and then unleashing a heavy whirlwind strike into the enemy’s back both feels and looks fantastic.
All the melee skills are destructive, but the most devastating tools in Moonscars are the spells. Grey Irma starts with a small set of learnable spells, like a magic ball that shoots straight forward or the ability to coat her sword in a poison that causes damage over time to struck enemies. As players collect bone dust and use it to progress farther down the tree the choices expand into a variety of options like a giant column of light that attack upwards or the ability to explode the corpses of her enemies to damage those she is still fighting. Though just like in Elden Ring, players will quickly realize how overpowered some spells can be when used in certain situations. The one way Black Mermaid attempted to mitigate the over-powered feeling from spells is by giving them a somewhat long casting time. It’s almost impossible to cast anything while fighting in the face of multiple enemies. Players will need to plan a bit ahead to find the time, but just casting one spell can quickly turn the tide of a lopsided fight. Some can also be used to ‘cheese’ a boss fight, making the fight itself much easier than it’s supposed to be. This is where the game begins to show a small crack in its otherwise seemingly polished gameplay, but it can be viewed as either good or bad depending on how someone feels about cheesy tactics.
There are a few design choices outside actual gameplay that Black Mermaid decided on that may cause some havoc for users. At first glance, allowing instant saves is useful, and it will continue to sound good until someone finds themselves clipped into a wall, or outside the games playable area. Once outside the floor or wall boundaries, there is no way to return to the manual save points (giant silver mirrors) dotted throughout the map. There is no way to force a respawn, nor is there a teleport spell or something similar. Their character may just remain stuck outside the game’s boundaries, unable to move or return to any playable area. In the course of reviewing Moonscars, both these issues occurred a few times, forcing complete restarts each time and losing all previous progress. While the game clocks in at just under 25 hours with repeated runs cutting that time in half, it is still a severe issue that players have a chance to run into.
There were smaller issues that were noticeable as well, such as an audio bug with moving platform cues during menus, or foliage blocking some enemy attacks. These are not huge detriments though and aside from the save file issues, Black Mermaid has crafted a seemingly solid game.
Moonscars is a beautifully dark game, but those looking for a challenge akin to the genre’s most difficult entries might not find said challenge here, despite it being called a souls-like game. Once certain spells are learned and the dash and parrying timing are memorized, most of the game will be a cakewalk for advanced players. Those with minimal experience in 2D platforming games will even find that repeatedly throwing themselves at encounters will eventually lead to a breakthrough once an enemy’s attack pattern becomes more obvious. Then it’s just a balance of patience and execution to get through the majority of the enemies and bosses in the game. There will be that sense of frustration while learning each encounter, but most will probably find themselves breezing through normal foes without much thought or fear by the time they reach the end.
Despite minor bugs and a save system that could cause frustration, the core of Moonscars is a pleasurable journey through a crushingly dark world. Black Mermaid’s first title is filled with love for the platforming genre, and it shows in every aspect of the game. It will be interesting to see which direction this new developer goes in future titles, or if it will choose to continue to build on the dark and bloody world introduced in Moonscars.
Moonscars is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox |S|. Game Rant was provided a PC code for this review.
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