GetsuFumaDen Undying Moon Review (Nintendo Switch OLED)

by Jim Smale · February 14, 2022

Our GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon Review shows how a combination of intense roguelike hack-and-slash action with a stunning dark fantasy world, can be brought to life through the stroke of traditional Japanese art. As the chosen leader and guardian of the land of the living, wield the otherworldy arsenal and powers of the Getsu clan as you descend deeper into the depths of Hell to eradicate the source of the cataclysm.

GetsuFumaDen Undying Moon Review Pros:

Gorgeous graphics.
3.2GB download size.
Two difficulties – apprentice and commoner. This affects stage amounts and enemies’ strength and health.
3 save slots.
Blood can be turned off and on but the color can also be changed to red, green, pink, and black.
Controller settings are Invert axis and sensitivity sliders along with full button rebinding.
With weapons, you have one main and two sub-weapons.
Demonization is where you get to attack and speed buffs when killing enemies and not taking damage.
Opening tutorial section with pop-ups and signposts to help.
It looks absolutely fantastic with big bright colors and explosions.
The training statute allows you to change the difficulties and when you obtain an item of proof you can unlock harder enemies with greater rewards.
All play in a 2D view.
Dodge button that allows you to go through attacks and enemies if timed.
Get Clan Estate is your hub where you can rest up, view the bestiary, records, etc.
When picking up the gear you can grab it or instantly break it down for parts.
The map uncovers as you play.
Levels are huge with many routes and areas within them.
Find and activate fast travel points within levels.
You see enemy health bars.
Loot chests can be found.
Beautiful animated backdrops.
Raise equipment rank with soul memories and coins to increase stats.
Activation is the act of spending soul memories to unlock a weapon or sub weapons skills.
The game timer shows on the mini-map.
Find shops to buy items with coins.
Refinement is where you unlock new weapons with plans (diagrams) and doing this has that weapon show up randomly in future runs.
Training is what you do to permanently increase your base stats.
Can save when you quit but it’s a state save meaning you carry on from that point or lose it completely.
Massive boss fights.
Some of the best animations.
Can combo swap weapons to devastating effect.

GetsuFumaDen Undying Moon Review Cons:

Can be hard to see what’s going on at times as everything kind of blends into one.
Constant performance issues like slowdown and juddering in built-up areas.
A lot to take in.
Takes a bit of getting used to for the ledge grabbing.
The tutorial is basic and misses out many handy need-to-know mechanics like jump slamming for damage.
The map randomize every run but between each area, it’s always the same boss fights.
Still, even after many deaths and many tutorial pop-ups, I’m still not 100 percent on what most of the mechanics are.
Some boss fights happen in really tight locations.

GetsuFumaDen Undying Moon:

Official website.

Developer: GuruGuru

Publisher: KONAMI

Store Links –

Nintendo

8/10
Graphics - 8/10
7/10
Sound - 7/10
7/10
Accessibility - 7/10
8/10
Length - 8/10
8/10
Fun Factor - 8/10

7.6/10

Summary

What a good-looking game! I mean fucking hell, GetsuFumaDen is, without doubt, a visual treat going for Japanese Anime style graphics, it’s just so good and looks really smart. Get I to the game and you soon find out that it’s like Dead Cells with its structure and general Roguelike mechanics. Collect recipes to craft and unlock new weapons and gear, collect loot in the game and choose to use or break down into parts. It’s all very familiar in that respect but where it excels is in the visuals and attack animations, the background is just as good as the front but it’s actually to its detriment as it is so busy it can make it really hard to know what’s the game and what’s the background. I love this game no matter what, the combat is so good, I love just exploring the massive areas and building a really good loadout, having main and two side weapons means you have a lot of versatility. The loot list is there but it’s a slow start, as you unlock more gear it then adds them into the pool of random drops thus increasing the loot drops. Boss fights are their self-contained hell scrapes, look fantastic but the area can be really tight and unforgiving. The controls take some getting used to but you can rebind it if needed, to be honest, the game uses every button so it’s always going to require a lot of memorization techniques. I have piled hours into the game and it still amazes me that I haven’t grasped all the actual core mechanics, I mean you die you lose everything but you sometimes have some of the credits to then buy permanent upgrades or unlocks, I’m still not clear. It’s bad to say but it’s clearly a bit of me and a bit of them. The game is not as clear as it should be and I am not as smart as I should be. The thing is though, no matter the shortcomings I still come back time after time and I still have an absolute blast. GetsuFumaDen is a game all about repetition and learning, it’s also batshit mental and a ton of fun.