Momodora: Moonlit Farewell review

Going out with a bang, or at least a hard-hitting maple-leaf combo.

For the past fourteen years, Brazil-based Guilherme Melo Martins (aka “rdein”) has been devotedly crafting noteworthy metroidvania titles. Expectedly, there’s been progression across the developer’s Momodora series, with each succeeding entry building on the strengths of its predecessor while shifting between linear and more autonomous adventuring.

The recently released fifth entry, Momodora: Moonlit Farewell advances the franchise in several different directions. The most immediately noticeable is the game’s approach to difficulty. Before starting a new game, Farewell extends not just Light and Normal challenge settings, with the former offering an adaptive option. That’s a very welcome inclusion, as some of the franchise’s tougher boss battles flirted with frustration. With adaptive difficulty active, expect the number of failed showdowns against these superiors to decrease, compressing the length of the Farewell’s twelve-hour or so playtime.

Sigil Lady

Further flexibility is found in the game’s Sigil system. Moonlit Farewell adheres to metroidvania formula, gating off areas until you’ve obtained the right tool. So expectedly, you’ll have to find the sprinting ability before conquering mighty airstreams or enhance your weapon before being able to slice through crimson-colored barriers.

But by locating or commissioning Sigil cards, you’ll be able to harness optional but advantageous abilities. Sure, most of them are conditional stat boosts, raising your damage output when your stamina is peaked. But beingly able to freely choose each perk caters to different playstyles. Likewise, you’ll be able to select from different familiars, who follow lead character Momo around. Although these tiny allies are cute, they don’t provide much assistance. But given that the in-game automatically highlights the location of hidden items, and you can freely heal as long as you have magic points, perhaps their support is superfluous.

Little Headway for The Priestess

Getting back to the game’s predetermined capabilities- sadly, there’s little sense of progression for the game’s protagonist. Momo starts with her trusty, combo-dispensing maple leaf as well as the ability to fire arrows. While newfound abilities expand the number of zones that you’re able to venture into, they don’t make Momo feel like she’s growing stronger. The silver lining is that Moonlit Farewell evades the typical stat inflation of its peers, where your offensive power is mirrored by progressively tougher foes. That said, death usually occurs when fighting bosses rather than struggling to discover the next save point.

One thing that I’ve always enjoyed about the Momodora series is the sense of scale. Although little Momo is a diminutive sprite, adorability is squeezed into her animations- from her spirited wall scamper, nimble dodgerolls, to how she intrepidly unleashes a volley of arrows. Keeping her size small has two benefits. First, it allows for a clear view of her surroundings. But it also allows bosses to tower over the pint-sized High Priestess of Koho village.

Delightfully Downsized

Pleasing, Farewell’s exposition is just as competent as its visual delivery.  Of course, making a fifth entry that can fulfill franchise fans while still welcoming newcomers can be a tricky undertaking, but the game delivers an admirable effort.  The premise here is an accumulation of demons emerging from the dungeons underneath the quaint village of Koho threatening sacred Lun Trees. Skillfully, the plotline manages to tie up some of the loose narrative strands of previous entries while seemingly extending closure on the series. But Moonlit Farewell also functions as a standalone story, optionally extending in-game clarification if you’re interested in learning more.

Momodora’s post-game content is every bit as gratifying as the game’s enchanting visuals and melodious soundtrack. After completing the game, players can expect a rearranged new game+ mode, a boss rush, as well as permadeath option. Alternatively, masochists can turn on the single-hit sigil to see if they can execute a perfect run. But I think the masses might enjoy Moonlit Farewell’s default difficulties, which goad you into locating every stat-augmenting berry.

Momodora: Moonlit Farewell was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.